BUCKHANNON – Stockert Youth and Community Center will begin basketball signups on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

SYCC director Debora Brockleman said the signups will run through Oct. 27.

“We plan to start practices after Thanksgiving and games in January,” Brockleman said at the Oct. 4 SYCC board meeting. “We will be following the CDC guidelines as well as the Board of Education guidelines for their gyms, practices and games. I’ve already spoken with the high school and we’re going to figure out how we’re going to do this, because they don’t even know how they’re going to do their basketball program this year.”

Brockleman said they still have a few details to work out, but everyone hopes basketball will be able to take place this year.

“We talked about controlling the number of people that come in, per child, or just have it spaced out enough that there’s enough time between games that people aren’t coming in when people are still there,” Brockleman said. “We’re going to work out all those details … People will definitely have to be masked unless we don’t have cases anymore, and if it gets to the point that there’s a big uptick in cases, we just won’t have it. That’s not off the table either, but we want to at least try to plan to have it.”

Brockleman also said they have hired their new custodian/bus driver at the youth center.

“He’s our maintenance man for the city and he’s also our full-time bus driver, so he’s a busy, busy man,” Brockleman said. “He’s doing well. He started last Wednesday and he’s picking up on everything really quickly.”

SYCC is accepting applications for a new activities coordinator.

“This is the position that coordinates the after-school program,” Brockleman said. “You have to have experience — you just can’t be a random person, you have to have experience working with kids. We’re taking applications right now, but the job description is pretty detailed, so hopefully we can get someone good. We are advertising that position until Oct. 15.”

Interested parties may request an application and complete job description at City Hall, 70 East Main Street, or by calling 304-472-1651.

“We did have our Children’s Festival on [Sept.] 18 at Jawbone, and it was a drive-thru event,” Brockleman said. “It went very well. There were approximately 150 kids, which made me miss the real event. The kids kept asking what we are doing next year because they were so excited to go to Children’s Festival, but we had to do it this way. Hopefully next year we’ll get to do it the right way.”