AUBURN - In all the years he has been at the Auburn YMCA as a racquetball instructor and in recent years as the Y's youth sports director, Jeff Hanno has worked tirelessly to promote the game of racquetball.

And Hanno has put a great deal of emphasis on making it a sport that is accessible for younger players.

“Sometimes when a kid will first come into the Y and I'll see them standing around with nothing to do I'll take them to hit a few balls,” Hanno said. “Just give them a chance to try it out and see if they like it and I think that has really been helping our youth program grow. Once they try playing they enjoy playing and they keep coming back every week to play.”

Over the years, Hanno has served as an instructor to many young players, but a couple of years ago he decided that it was time to move beyond lessons and training.

“Our youth program has been going really well,” Hanno said. “We just keep getting more kids all the time. I'd say we've easily had well over 100 kids in the program over the past couple of years. I just thought it was time to get a league going. It used to just be a seasonal kind of thing. But now we have people on the courts every night of the week playing in different leagues and this has made it a year round thing for the kids.”

The league has assembled a variety of players of all ages and all skill levels, which is one of the interesting aspects of a game like racquetball.

“The league goes for about seven weeks,” Hanno said. “And we've got kids of all ages and all levels. That is one of the fun things we can do with a league like this. I don't really pair kids by age level, I pair them by ability level and it keeps it interesting for the kids.”

Many young players, like Shane Lawrence, 10 of Auburn, have been playing for almost as long as they can remember.

“I've been playing since I was 5,” Lawrence said. “My dad got me playing. I like everything about it, especially serving. This is a lot of fun, playing against friends and some of the older guys; it makes it feel harder and tougher to play.”

Others in the league have also been playing racquetball for long periods of time and have found the league to be a new kind of challenge.

“My grandfather got me started,” Shawn Patterson, 19, said. “I've been in the junior league since I was about 10. I really like this league. It is something different, unfortunately there isn't really too much like this around for kids to play in. I think what Jeff has been trying to do has really helped.”

Hanno has seen the efforts of the league gradually begin to pay dividends for young players.

“It is something different,” Hanno said. “They can take what they are learning in lessons and apply it in a game situation and take it from hitting a ball around to actually playing in a competitive environment.”

Brothers, John, 15, and Nick, 12, Camardo, have found a great deal to learn from league competition.

“It is fun and competitive,” John said. “I'm here on Friday nights and you get to do something different, playing against different players, it helps you get better and it makes it a lot of fun.”

Nick, who followed his brother's footsteps to the game four years ago, believes that the league has a lot to offer.

“It is a fun game,” Nick said. “The competition helps you get better. I'd like to win at least my next three matches and get a few wins. But really it is a fun game and this league helps you get better and practice your skills to get to be a better player.”