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Frankfort The National Alliance Basketball League (NABL) returns to conference play after a hiatus of 22 years when the Kentucky Coyotes play the Frankfort Cattle Barons Friday night at the Farnham Dudgeon Civic Center.
Teams located in Owensboro, Charleston, Evansville, Steubenville, Canton and Dayton follow shortly in their openers.
The Coyotes, located in Lexington, and the Cattle Barons hope to rekindle the epic NABL battles of the 40's, 50's and 60's of Kentucky NABL teams such as Jerry's Restaurant and the Marathon Oilers.
Both Kentucky and Lexington sport local and regional star players as the core of their units. Kentucky boasts Jeff Brassow (Kentucky), Collier Mills (Transylvania), Kyle Green (Transylvania), and Will Carlton (Georgetown) among their group. Frankfort counters with Greg Laws (Bera), Sylvester Grinnell (Kentucky St.) and Eric Johnson (Louisville) as local college stars.
Frankfort is coached by the legendary Ron Abegglin, who caped off his career at Weber St. with an upset of North Carolina in the 1999 NCAA Tournament to make the Sweet 16. Abegglin was 152-83 in 8 years at Weber St., with 3 conference championships and 3 runner-ups.
Kentucky is coached by Jerome Hoosier, the former Transylvania star player who is a budding young coach star in the making.
NABL teams are AAU based and are sponsored teams. Kentucky is sponsored by the Kentucky Basketball Academy in Lexington, headed by Terry Hatton. Frankfort is sponsored by Boardwalk Records, headed by Tom Ficara.
NABL teams play against college teams in November and December before embarking on NABL conference play. Kentucky defeated Kentucky State in their lone college game and Frankfort beat North Alabama but was defeated by Florida International and Armstrong Atlantic.
In the Riverside conference which consists of the Evansville Orbits, Owensboro Showboats, Frankfort and Kentucky play a 20 game schedule. The Central Conference, which consists of the Charleston Bombers, Ohio Valley Bulldogs, Akron Wingfoots, and Dayton Aeros, will play a more limited schedule in year one.
Both Conferences will have Post Season Tournaments on March 22-24. Winners of the regular season and post season travel to Sacramento on April 10-14 for the 97th Annual AAU National Championship.
nablbasketball.com
www.evansvilleorbits.com
www.owensboroshowboats.com
www.frankfortcattlebarons.com
www.kentuckycoyotes.com
www.charlestonbombers.com
www.ohiovalleybulldogs.com
www.akronwingfoots.com
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