Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The village of Pemberville celebrated the dedication of the Harold “Hal” Moore Memorial Basketball Court on Monday, June 2.
“It's pretty cool,” Pemberville mayor Carol Bailey said. “I'm really, really happy that we were able to throw it together after it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. We found out in February about the grant and then it just snowballed from there. It's wonderful. There's a lot of kids. This place is always busy. And since we put these hoops up last week, there have been kids out here all the time. What more can you ask for?”
The night was a celebration of several things coming together, which started with the growth of the Monday Night Lights 3-on-3 playground basketball league. Founded in May 2024 by Drew Kachmarik, Quinten Farmer, Drew Luidhardt and Brayden Luidhardt, the league quickly came together and expanded, generating a lot of interest in the court.
Farmer was on hand at the ceremony, which was held at the Memorial Park location on College Avenue in Pemberville.
“We were basically standing right there at I don't know, probably 10 o'clock on a Monday night, and Drew Kachmarik had the idea to do a basketball league,” Farmer told the crowd. “I was like, ‘That's a great idea.’
“It's always something you talk about with your friends, but you never fully go through with it. I figured if we're going to do this, we have to go right now. We have to get it done.”
In the first two weeks, the group of four had eight teams in the league. The Luidhardt brothers assisted with scheduling, while Kachmarik and Farmer served as co-commissioners. Ian Sibbersen and Andrew Badenhop handled game day prep.
“We thought we were going to get to the end of June and be done,” Farmer said. “It turned out that we get to week three, and we were looking at sponsors, a live streaming network and a whole community surrounding us just waiting week after week to see game after game.”
The league quickly grew to 12 teams and lasted until July 22 with a postseason tournament that crowned Luckey Hills as champion, a team that consisted of Lake Boos, Cade Boos, Case Boos and Jake Plantz.
With that success and interest in the court, the village realized the surface needed work, but finding the funding was an issue.
“We were very pleased to have them, but there were problems with the court, which was aging and showing new cracks and issues with every passing year,” Bailey said. “The court had languished for a long time as a trip and fall hazard for far too many years, but even with that knowledge that it wasn't up to par, there was no parks and rec funding to support the repair or the replacement of the court.”
The first financial step came with the help of Bailey, who worked to secure a grant from Nature Works, which is a division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. That covered 39 percent of the cost of total replacement, and it provided just enough interest to get the ball rolling, she said.
“We had some donations from local citizens, a few of which I see are here tonight,” Bailey said to the crowd on June 2. “That moved the ball further in the right direction. But imagine my surprise to open an envelope from Peggy Moore with a generous donation.
“And then yet another several weeks later, another envelope (arrived) stating that she knew, and this is a quote from her card, ‘Hal would want to send another gift for the basketball court.’ It was this last gift that enabled the village to move forward with our plans to re-pour the court, widening it enough for a three-point line and even to change the direction.”
Peggy Moore, who sadly passed away on May 19 of this year, was the widow of Harold James “Hal” Moore, who passed away on Jan. 29, 2024.
Hal grew up in Webster Township and was a three-year starter for the Eastwood High School varsity basketball team before graduating in 1963. He continued his education, receiving a bachelor's degree in accounting from BGSU in 1969. He was an avid sports fan, specifically the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“On behalf of the village of Pemberville, I dedicate this court as the Hal Moore Memorial Basketball Court,” Bailey said. “Hal's compassion for people and love for sports will be carried on in the village through this basketball court for years to come.
“His legacy lives on in this basketball court. I didn't even know who he was. Now I do, And I'm so grateful for their generosity and their philanthropy because without them this wouldn't be possible.”
Future of Monday Night Lights
Looking forward, this summer’s version of Monday Night Lights starts June 9 and will feature 16 teams. Farmer said they had around 22 teams show interest, but they just couldn’t sustain that number with one court.
“I wish we could,” he said. “Maybe if we had two basketball courts, that would always be a possibility. I think we'll definitely get more sponsors to kind of help us with t-shirts and other amenities we may need such as scoreboards or pads for the posts so people don't run into them.”
Farmer reiterated how impressed he has been with the community.
“It's truly surreal,” he said. “Obviously, we can't do this without the people and the community that's backing us right now. I think if you don't have this kind of support, you only do it for about a month. We thought this was just going to be one of those things that we do with our friends for four weeks and that's it.
“But I'm kind of at a loss of words because of the support that we've had and the people that have stepped up and helped us develop this league. Just to get it to where it is now, I mean, the sky's the limit at this point.”
Farmer said he’s had this vision of maybe one day playing the league at the Stroh Center and just completely packing the stands.
“I don't know if that's even possible,” he said. “We need a lot more people to come out to make that decision. I've talked to Eastwood's head coach and maybe we’ll do some games at the high school. I've always loved that horseshoe kind of stands and there's people surrounding and you get a nice crowd.”
With Farmer and his crew underestimating the support so far, who truly knows what the future holds.
“I mean, we've underestimated just about everything, so I'm sure we'll underestimate a lot more things,” he said. “There's just plenty of room for growth, though. That's for sure.”
