Submitted Photo Pictured is the Forestville girls travel basketball team in attendance at a Fredonia State women’s basketball game this past fall.

FORESTVILLE — Ralph Jackson’s return to Forestville as a basketball coach has been a successful one in his first year back at the helm of the varsity boys basketball program.

But it isn’t just the varsity boys who have benefited from Jackson’s presence back in the gyms of the District he teaches at.

Jackson helped launch a youth travel basketball program at Forestville this year for elementary students. The program consists of boys and girls teams, with the girls season wrapping up this past fall and the boys season concluding this winter.

The girls program had a total of 22 players, including 20 from Forestville. They fostered two teams that continued playing into the boys season because, as Jackson said, “They kept wanting to play.”

The boys program had a total of 24 players, including 20 from Forestville. The program had two older-aged teams in upper elementary ages and one younger team. Each team played approximately 10 games.

As a Forestville alum, Jackson did not want to charge for the program if possible. Thanks to generous donations throughout the community, Forestville let the kids play for free.

As the parent of a daughter at Forestville Elementary School, Jackson wanted to find a local alternative to taking his daughter out of town to play youth basketball.

He spoke with Superintendent Dr. John O’Connor, who pledged to help support Jackson in forming a new league. Business Administrator Kerrie Pelletter later helped Jackson secure the necessary insurance to form the league.

The league began reaching out to the community for support last spring, and Jackson was blown away by the response. “The support that we got was amazing,” Jackson said. “There was a lot of alumni that helped out and stepped up to make this happen for us.”

The Hanover Youth Recreation Program has a youth basketball league and the Forestville Central School District has its own intramural program, but Jackson’s new league is a travel program that is not directly affiliated with the school, but does utilize Forestville facilities.

Jackson called a field trip to Fredonia State for a women’s basketball game one of the highlights of the girls basketball season. He thanked Angela Pucciarelli Rice, Co-Director of Athletics at Fredonia State for making the trip happen. The youth basketball teams also got to play during halftime of several varsity basketball games this season.

Jackson thanked O’Connor for his support of the program, along with former District Clerk Kristin Irwin for sparking the idea. He also thanked Pelletter for her help with insurance; Kyle Barthel and the buildings and grounds crew for having the facilities ready for play; Michele Sprague for providing photographs of the teams; and all of the coaches who volunteered their time to support the program.

“I’m very proud of the kids for what they did this year. They put in a lot of hard work and played a lot of games,” Jackson said. “I’m hoping next year we’ll have even more participation. … Hopefully, down the line, this will increase the numbers in the middle school and high school programs.”