The annual Summit Summer League is back for a fourth year, with games starting this Wednesday, August 6.
This season, the SSL will once again take place at PSM Fieldhouse, adding a new home, with the ability to run two courts at a time again this season with Summit City Sports streaming the games live. In all, 43 players will participate in the league this season, making it the most ever for the SSL.
Outside the Huddle has covered the Summit Summer League each of the past three Augusts as it has become one of the more unique leagues due to multiple of the events rules being different than many typical leagues around the area. Among those unique rules:
• A shot clock, set this year at 30 seconds.
• The Elam Ending. What is it? Popularized in the TBT and now used in NBA G League overtimes, time will not be an element at the end of the game. At the end of the second half, seven points will be added to the winning team’s score. That becomes a target score and whoever reaches it first wins the game. For example, if Team A leads Team B 70-65 with two minutes left, the score to win becomes 77 and its a race to get there.
• Switching teams. Players are assigned teams and one of the four league coaches week one and then they will play two games that week under them. The following week, rosters change and it gives all 43 players the chance to have a unique weekly experiences where they also get different coaching and can play with a variety of different types of players to make their own roles change along the way.
Admission to the Summit Summer League is listed at $10 at PSM Fieldhouse with games every Wednesday evening in the month of August at 7 and 8 pm. You can find the program with a schedule of games and this week’s rosters here, supplied by the PSM Summit Summer League
Each week, Outside the Huddle will preview the week ahead on Tuesday and then recap parts of the week following Wednesday night’s games. So take a look at some of the things that could be exciting week one:
RETURNING PLAYERS
Taking a look down the list of players in this year’s group, more than one-fourth are players who are returning to the Summit Summer League.
Jake Stoy (Prairie Heights) is a primary one to look at to see how he can grow in his third year of the SSL. Very few kids have started in the SSL as freshmen like Stoy did so he has gotten to kind of grow up with the league. His first year he had some standout hustle and defensive moments that helped put him on a bit of the radar before ever stepping on a varsity court. Now, in year 3 with the SSL, Stoy could be a big player to watch to see if he starts to take over some more leadership roles on these teams.
Caden Rice (DeKalb) and Carson Waltke (East Noble) are a couple of stretch forwards to look out for. Both can rebound, both can shoot and both can create their own offense. Mason Pearson (NorthWood) was also a standout player last fall in this league and is one that brings a look that many of these players don’t see in the regular season; his physicality could be difficult to match. Davis Cowan and Stephen Akase (Wawasee) both return as well, with Akase being one of the top players in the league last year; he will be the sole returner from OTH’s unofficial All-League team from 2024.
There are also a lot of guys in the sophomore class who played last August that will return, but you’ll learn about them below. Overall, 12 players return who played in 2024 which includes a third year each for Stoy and Carroll’s Dom Keferl, who played in 2022 and 2024’s Summit Summer Leagues previously.
CLASS OF 2028
For as much as a returning core of players make this year’s SSL interesting, there is a large contingent from the class of 2028, the incoming sophomore class. It means some new faces, a couple familiar, but a dominant class wave going into this year that is likely the future core of the Summit Summer League, much like guys like Ryker Quake, Wyatt Weaver and Michael Raudenbush were for the first three years of the league before graduating in 2025.
That includes returners like Jayden Moore, Tayvon Stidams, Landon Kralis and Cameron Schimmele who all stepped into the SSL last fall before ever playing a high school game. Moore is coming off a tremendous summer and is expected to be a potential star of the league this August. Andrew McCutcheon and Brody Bolen, both of Huntington North, bring some intrigue to the vast 2028 class that will be part of this year’s SSL, as do Malaki Christian, Judah Allen and Zen Szaferski.
Collin McAtee is one that Bounce will pin as a player to watch these next four weeks, regardless of grade, as he had a really good spring and summer. A good showing in a league like this could propel the Norwell sophomore to a higher level.
In total, Class of 2028 players make up 21 spots in the league, leading all grades. 10 players come from the senior class, 8 from the juniors and 4 in the league are freshmen this school year. And those freshmen? Homestead’s Brendon Lee (Team Prokop) and Eastside’s Quentin Dickerhoff (Team Vance) will be interesting to keep an eye on this week.
WEEK ONE PRIME MATCHUPS
Opening week will give us Team Deming vs Team Abram and Team Vance vs Team Prokop at 7 pm, followed by Team Deming vs Team Prokop and Team Abram vs Team Vance at 8 pm. While we can’t really judge how these matchups will go team wise, it does provide some fun (in theory) meetings between players.
Team Deming’s edge could be the interior play of Uriah Williams (Wayne), the long junior is a good rim protector but is far from single faceted so he can play across the court. It makes an early matchup with Team Abram’s Stephen Akase (Wawasee) and a late matchup with Team Prokop’s Mason Pearson (NorthWood) and Avery MacFarlane (Lakewood Park) pretty interesting. How can the big men battle in a year where there are quite a few less bruisers than 2024’s version. Team Deming can also come with young Collin McAtee (Norwell) to help battle inside.
Four seniors and a junior lead Team Abram, something that should benefit them in both matchups. Team Deming is pretty balanced in age for the first game against Abram, but in the second game Team Vance has six sophomores and a freshman to go against Abram. But look at this matchup for Abram/Vance as Titus Schultz (Huntington North) for Team Abram and Josh McBride (Norwell) for Team Vance may be the best two sharpshooters in the league.
COACHING DEPTH
Three coaches from the 2024 Summit Summer League will return for their second season this year. East Noble assistant Josh Deming will return, as will Hamilton Athletic Director David Prokop and longtime North Side boys assistant Marq Abram. Joining them on this year’s coaching roster is Garrett assistant Dan Vance.
Deming, a varsity assistant for the Knights, also coaches with Summit City Elite with the class of 2027. Prokop was the varsity head coach at Eastside prior to becoming Hamilton’s AD and also spent time on the boys hoops staff at Valparaiso and has coached with Summit City Elite. Abram returns after his first summer with Summit City Elite and the class of 2028, he previously was an assistant at North Side on the boys side. Vance is headed into his second season as Garrett’s varsity assistant after the Railroaders won 19 games a season ago; he also coaches with Summit City Elite and the class of 2028.
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