A new youth basketball league that was born out of discussions on how to curb violence already appears to be a hit in midtown Kingston, but league organizers said more needs to be done to fully ensure the season goes on uninterrupted.

They call it the “Tay League.” Every Monday from August 16 through the end of November, Kingston’s best up-and-coming basketball players are scheduled to compete in the co-ed league, formed by Kingston basketball standout Tay Fisher and the Ulster County My Brother’s Keeper program.

Fisher and county officials used a state grant to fund the initiative, which was in response to recent shootings and survey results that overwhelmingly showed young people in midtown Kingston wanted more competitive basketball opportunities.

Kerri Trabold, a parent of two players in the first game of the evening, said the program is already working.

“I think if you have kids on a ball court, they can’t be in the street getting in trouble,” she said from the bleachers, recording device in hand. “So how could it not work?”

Trabold’s daughter Aaliyah Denson said after her game that people her age need this new league for various reasons: competitive experience, new friendships and exercise. Denson said the league is especially important, considering how many young people were robbed of opportunities during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m gonna be in the Tay League doing my thing,” she said, “even just for the experience, to branch out, [meet] different people and get better.”

The entire project and its immediate community benefit is not guaranteed to last, though.

“I’m so concerned about that, because I work with youth,” league co-organizer and Ulster County Youth Bureau Director Nina Dawson said of rising daily COVID-19 case numbers in the Hudson Valley.

Dawson is not discounting the possibility of game cancellations should COVID-19 restrictions be reinstated. Dawson is also using her new league as a way to convince families to do their part to lessen the overall spread.

“The more that are vaccinated, in my opinion, the more the community’s going to be protected,” she said. “I’m actually on a mission, besides this basketball [league], to try to protect kids and encourage them to get the vaccine.”