PEMBERVILLE — Driving down College Avenue in Pemberville on Monday nights this summer, look toward Memorial Park — you might see a playground basketball scene reminiscent of something you’d see in Philadelphia, New York City, or Toledo for that matter.

You’ll see dozens of young men playing three-on-three basketball, and more than 100 onlookers checking out the basketball scene, hip hop music is booming, and there are smiles everywhere.

But these aren’t your everyday basketball players — these are some of the best present and former high school players from Bowling Green, Otsego, Eastwood, Rossford, Genoa, Gibsonburg — at least eight local schools are represented.

Some are already playing or will be playing collegiately, and some don’t even play high school basketball, but they are or were high school athletes and can create enough havoc on a basketball court to be competitive.

It’s the Monday Night Lights League from 9-10:30 p.m., started by Eastwood graduate Quinten Farmer and soon to be Eastwood senior Drew Kachmarik, son of Toledo St. Francis basketball coach Jamie Kachmarik.

Farmer and Drew Kachmarik were shooting around one evening at Memorial Park, and a light bulb went off over their heads.

“It’s kind of funny, I went out to the Pemberville park and I was actually playing pickleball with one of my buddies and Quinten was over there shooting,” Drew Kachmarik said. “I walked over there and started shooting with him and I went up to him and said, ‘We ought to start a league here.

“I’m just thinking it would be my Eastwood buddies, right? Just local high school kids maybe and it probably wouldn’t go through — just an idea. And he said, ‘That is an awesome idea.’”

Farmer added, “He just came over one night and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do a ‘3B3’. It’s just one of those things that you talk about as friends, but he said, ‘We’re taking initiative. We’re doing it right now.’ It started early June and has been great ever since.”

Farmer wasted no time posting the idea on social media, and just like that a league was organized.

“So he and I posted it on Instagram, tried to see how many people we would get, and we ended up getting 12 teams. Now it is absolutely booming,” Kachmarik said. “It’s super fun actually. It’s a blast. The community is starting to love it, too. It’s great.”

College standouts

The college players are Jacob Meyer (Eastwood/Hillsdale), Jake Morrison (Rossford/Findlay), Ahmir Ruffin (Bowling Green/Defiance), and Garrett Murphree (Rossford/Owens CC).

“I’m jealous I didn’t come up with this myself,” Meyer said. “Quinten Farmer has this to a whole another level. I never thought I’d see the day but Man, this is crazy. I love it so much. It’s awesome. I just want to see the community come together and see a bunch of people from all around come together too.

“I like seeing a lot of my buddies I know and can’t catch up with during the school year, like Jake Morrison going to Findlay — I love playing against him, so it’s been a couple years since we got to go head-to-head, so it’s a really good time.”

Ruffin and his former BG teammate Jake Amspoker, heard about it from their Eastwood friends, and it did not take long before they were all in.

“It’s super fun. Not any pressure or anything, so I can just play kind of free and enjoy the experience. It’s definitely a really good experience,” Ruffin said. “I didn’t get to play against all of them but getting to play against them now is a really good opportunity. I like to play against players who challenge me.”

Amspoker added, “I have some connections through Eastwood — some people asked me to be on their team and I thought it would be a fun idea.

“It’s really cool again seeing Ahmir out here, both of us having fun and getting better, seeing some other guys we’ve grown up with and having fun out here just playing basketball. I love it — it’s nice weather, calm, and a lot of people out here supporting, so it is really cool.”

Pemberville is loving it, too

Monday was the third week, and the number of fans cheering on the participants was approaching 200, including some high school coaches. The Pemberville pool kept concessions and restrooms open for everyone.

“The second week was better than the first,” Farmer said. “The third week, I mean this just topped it all off. I guarantee we’ll have a better fourth week and better tournament, but it’s really blown up in our faces.

“I think it’s great. You know we are just expanding beyond our community of Pemberville. It’s just great to see so many people come out and play basketball and just share something we all love. I can’t be more thankful for the amount of people who have shown up,” Farmer continued.

“It’s funny because we were originally going to start with nine (teams), and we were like, ‘Oh, it’s just going to be something small,’ and after week two we had our 12 teams and everyone has been asking, ‘Can I get a team in?’ It’s just one of those things where, ‘Sorry, we would. We want to but it’s too late now.’”

Kachmarik handles the scheduling, standings, and statistics — yes, they keep track of scoring, rebounding, assists, and so forth. Half-court games, with two games going on simultaneously, last just 10 minutes, or the first to score 21 points, with each team playing two games per night.

Farmer handles the public address system, social media aspect, and they created a board to handle the business end. They already have sponsors, like Frobose Meats, games are broadcast on the internet by Toledo Sports Network, and t-shirts have been ordered. Next year, Kachmarik says, they plan to expand to 20 teams and possibly bring in officials.

Teams are Luckey Hills (Case Boos, Lake Boos, Cade Boos), Getzy Elite (Meyer, Isaac Badenhop, Kachmarik), Backyard Ballerz (Ruffin, Cam Schumaker, Ben Cameron), Team Biggie (Tyler Henderson, Nate Lewis, Aiden Mcgough), Otsego Boyz (Karter Shank, Kolton Shank, Kaidyn Hutton), and FCA Boyz (Andrew Badenhop, Ben Buehler, Amspoker).

They also include JV Demonz (Cody Lutz, Logan Meisner, Everett Ward), Team Deep (Brock Messinger, Ethan Recker, Cooper Dierksheide), Pink Plumbers (Drew Luidhardt, Brayden Luidhardt, Carson Slates), Hoosier Daddy (Morrison, Garrett Murphree, Brady Weaver), The Masters (A.J. Thompson, Shayne O’Brien, Emmet Getz, Dylan Hoffman), The Meat Locker (Ben Frobse, Thurman Lawniczak, Matt Oestreich, Brian Oestreich, Logan Frobose, Wes Ernsthausen), and the OG’s (Khalres Mwalo, Michael Flipse, Dylan Davis).