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Picking Up (Basketball) Where He Left Off

Hamill Jones, a 2004 Washington and Lee alumnus and former captain of the Generals’ basketball team, will soon be starting his second season as head varsity basketball coach of his prep school alma mater, St. Christopher’s School, in Richmond, Va. His first team finished 9-9. Hamill is also teaching history there. But his St. Christopher’s job is not the only thing on Hamill’s plate these days.

An article in Richmond BizSense this week described the new business that Hamill has started. And — no big surprise — it’s based on basketball.

Hamill has developed a pick-up basketball league. It consists of eight teams of Richmonders who still love to play the game. He rented the upstairs gym, hired officials and got T-shirts made. According to the BizSense story, it’s a varied group of young professionals — lawyers, bankers, teachers, etc. — aged 22 through 45.

As Hamill explained in the article, “I received a lot of calls from young professionals asking for a pick-up league and alumni who wanted to get back into  the gym. It started with me reaching out to guys that I knew who I wanted to be captains, and they talked to people they knew, and it just came together through networking.”

The league’s first season runs through mid-October, but a winter season is apparently in the offing, if anybody in the Richmond area is interested. But you might want Hamill on your team. He still holds W&L’s school record for shooting percentage in a game. He made 15 out of 16 from the field in a loss to Emory & Henry in 2002.

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