FORT MORGAN, Colo. – On Sunday afternoons at Fort Morgan Middle School, the sound of whistles and bouncing basketballs fills the gym as girls from across northeast Colorado gather to compete, learn and stay active, weeks before their school basketball seasons even begin.
For many of them, this league is the only opportunity they have to keep improving their skills between seasons.
“We get together and we have competitive basketball. We teach the fundamentals. We teach good sportsmanship,” said Russell Jones, a Brush Middle School girls’ basketball coach.
The league is part of Northeast Colorado (NECO) League Sports, a youth athletics program created 12 years ago to give rural communities a place to play. In small towns like Brush, Akron and Yuma, school gyms can be limited, and youth programs often struggle with numbers. NECO helps bring those teams together under one roof.
“For a lot of these small towns, we try to play town leagues, but it’s hard to do with the numbers,” said Merle Grauer, an assistant girls basketball coach in Akron. “When we have opportunities like this, we can bring all these small communities together.”
Behind all the scheduling, officiating, communication and gym coordination is volunteer Damon Mussman.
Mussman is the founder of NECO League Sports and the organizer behind every season. When he’s not refereeing games on Sundays, he’s lining up gym space, making brackets, coordinating coaches and ensuring every game has referees and scorekeepers.
And he does all of it after his full-time job as the general manager at Wickham Tractor Company in Fort Morgan.
“This is not my full-time job,” Mussman said. “I do this as a side gig. It honestly started all those years ago with my kids growing up and wanting to give them a better option when it came to basketball and volleyball.”
Today, that “side gig” has grown into a regional program serving nearly 2,000 student athletes through fall volleyball, fall girls’ basketball, and winter basketball leagues for boys and girls.
“If this didn’t exist, a lot of these girls would be doing absolutely nothing until after Christmas,” Mussman said. “This gives them something to participate in and still be a part of something.”
Lainey Jones, a 12-year-old from Brush Middle School, said the league helps her stay sharp between school seasons.
“NECO is like an offseason. You can still practice your skills,” she said.
Coaches say Mussman’s impact extends far beyond scheduling games.
“They’re learning teamwork, they’re learning to work hard… They’re learning life lessons whether they know it or not,” Jones said. “It’s such a blessing to have something like this in your backyard. A lot of kids don’t. Some families have to get up at three or four in the morning to travel to compete.”
“It’s been an amazing impact for Northeast Colorado,” Grauer said. “The amount of work that goes into making it successful, it’s extreme.”
Mussman said he never expected the league to become as large as it has, but seeing families fill the gym each week reminds him why he continues.
“I did this for the kids. Still do it for the kids,” Mussman said. “I love every second of what I do.”
As the league continues to grow, Mussman says he hopes NECO’s impact keeps spreading to new communities across the Eastern Plains.
“I love doing it, and as long as I can do it, I’m going to keep going,” he said.
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