By Taylor Lee
On a Sunday afternoon, excitement buzzed through the Ferryway School Gymnasium as the four-seeded Sixers squeaked out a victory against the three-seeded Kings. The nets lay witness to the thrilling 52-50 score that helped the Sixers take home the bling. Led by players Dante Hector, Nashon Melvin, Jose Juarbe, and first-year head coach Glen Noble, the Sixers secured the championship.
“[There’s] no secret, just getting lucky with the returning players,” said Noble about winning in his first season as head coach, adding, “Drafting a couple pieces that we needed and then the commitment that these kids put in. Along with a little coaching between me and Sean.”
This is the 40th year of the Malden Neighborhood Basketball League (MNBL), but the 39th season due to COVID-19. It began as the Protestant Church Athletic Association Church Basketball League (PCAA), or the church league for short. The PCAA traditionally had two divisions — a junior division for 7th, 8th, and 9th graders and a senior division for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. However, in the winter of 1985, the PCAA removed the senior division. This left kids who didn’t make their high school basketball teams devoid of a way to play organized basketball.
Malden high schoolers Mark Ruelle and Mark Keenan wanted to sign up to play in the PCAA, but as sophomores they were unable to register. When they approached Kenny Mazonson, one of the coaches for the Centre Methodist church team alongside Ken Patraglia, a renewed sense of hope was born.
“I’ll tell you what, if you think you can get 40 kids together, I’ll see if I can find enough coaches that would be willing to take this on and I’ll organize it,” Mazonson had told them.
“I had no idea what to expect,” he later confessed to Neighborhood View.
Mazonson rounded up whatever coaches he could find from his early years as a baseball coach. However, he was not optimistic about the number of participants and told some coaches that he might have to pair some of them up. Thus, the MNBL was born, severing ties with its church origins.
After the first night of tryouts, 44 kids joined. It was perfect, he said, with four teams of 11 kids each. After the second night of tryouts, another 33 kids joined, bringing the total number of players up to 77.
The league had a rocky start. Mazonson did not have referees lined up for their upcoming games, let alone money to pay them. He reached out to recent high school graduates he knew from coaching baseball. He promised to pay them retroactively with whatever concession stand money he could muster. He sent out sponsor letters and was finally able to rent out gyms, buy uniforms, and get insurance.
“This is no lie, if a game went into overtime, I would be the most nervous person in the gym because that meant we were gonna have to stay longer and I’m gonna have to pay the custodians an extra fee,” joked Mazonson. “I said, ‘How are we gonna pay for this stuff at the end?’”
Forty years later, the same league costs $30,000 a season. The money comes from registration fees, concession stand profits, and sponsor donations. The league also received grants from the city of Malden to help keep things running.
“I think it’s a fun league for kids who didn’t make the basketball team,” said Nashon Melvin, a current player for the newly-minted champion Sixers. “You [get] a lot of friends in the league that you can play with. [You] can have new bonds with your teammates.”
Steve Wright has been a part of the league since its inception. Mazonson knew Steve Wright through youth baseball and asked him to coach in the league. Wright has been coaching the Bullets ever since. Wright has been a fixture in Malden youth sports, being a board member for over 20 years in the Malden High Golden Tornadoes club. His years of coaching experience have allowed him to see the way the game has changed as well as the requirements of being a good coach.
“I used to be a lot tougher,” said Wright. “Back in the 80s, you could be tough on these kids coaching-wise, but now you’ve got to let up because there’s a lot of mental health issues.”
Kids in the league now deal with many more problems than they had in the past. It can be hard to pinpoint whether those problems are novel or merely because everyone has become more cognizant of these issues. What started as a league meant to give kids a place to play basketball has evolved into much more.
If a player starts failing classes or stops attending school, they are not allowed to play in the league. Multiple players have come back to tell either Mazonson or Wright that the only reason they finished high school is because of the MNBL. They also spend a fair amount of time trying to convince kids not to quit the league.
“It’s just like when kids quit, they don’t finish out their thing,” said Wright. “Not now but five years from now, I’m going to see you in a bar somewhere. … This is just from experience – you’re gonna regret it.”
Over the years, the league has seen players through multiple cycles of their lives.
Ari Cohen played in the league with the Celtics for three seasons, including two championship games.
“I started going down in fourth or fifth grade to watch the games and help them keep score,” said Cohen. “That’s how I started in the league.”
Years later, Cohen would come back in 2021 and help mentor kids as an assistant coach.
Today, generations of players later, the league continues into its 40th year of existence. Even the aforementioned championship coach, Noble, was a former player in the league.
Mazonson has seen the landscape shift considerably, with freshmen now being part of the league.
“I look forward to every year,” he beamed. “…A lot of their parents are coming to the games again. There was a time when parents didn’t come, the kids didn’t want them there.”
Mazonson has helped form a pillar of the community, building a place for at-risk youth to spend their free time, without academic restrictions.
“I think that this is unique, there are no cities around here that have [this],” said Mazonson. “I always have kids that want to join it from other cities because they don’t have the opportunity. … It’s filled the void for kids who were looking for a place to play that, for whatever reason, they’re not playing for their high school team.”
For more information about the league, check out these links: MNBL website, MNBL Playoffs, All-Star Game & Championship Game playlist, “Around the Rim” (TV/video program featuring the MNBL, hosted by Nester Dudley.)
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