When the Dalton School athletic director and boys’ hoops varsity coach Teddy Frischling started his Dribbl Basketball program in 1995, he wanted to give kids a different avenue to learn and improve outside of the travel teams — which some aspiring hoopsters may not yet have the skills to join.
“The idea was that no one at the age of 9 should be told they shouldn’t be able to play,” Frischling said.
Dribbl, which is beginning its second year in Brooklyn, provides a chance for kids to play from as early as 3-years-old until the eighth grade, with instruction and coaches geared to their age groups. The sessions take place on the weekends with winter, spring and fall versions at Brooklyn Friends and Berkeley Carroll.
There are separate leagues from fourth grade and up for boys and girls. The younger groups take part in instruction modeled more like a physical education class. The older kids, starting in the third grade, can play in a league format.
“The idea is to play as much basketball as you could, learning skills,” Frischling said.
His commitment to teaching has led Frischling to structure Dribbl to maximize instruction. The ratio of players to coaches averages 4 to 1. He jokes that each kid gets to take a coach home with him.
The coaches, who are geared to the age level, are not always true basketball people. Frischling prefers individuals who teach for a living, especially for the younger kids. An enthusiastic preschool teacher who is a hoops fan is ideal. Barry Baum, who has two sons ages 9 and 7 in the program, believes it creates a beneficial environment for players of all skill levels.
“I recommend it to anyone who has children who love basketball — or are not sure they love basketball, but just want to have a great time,” said Baum, the chief communications officer for the Barclays Center.
Frischling said he had long wanted to expand Dribbl to Brooklyn from the Upper East Side. The timing was right after being able to secure quality sites, and seeing the excitement of the Nets moving to Brooklyn.
Dribbl’s success and longevity has helped it establish generational loyalty from those who have taken part in it.
For Dribbl alum Will Bressman, 31, it means that in a few years his 2-year-old son will have a chance to be a part of a program he enjoyed so much as a grammar school kid in the late ’90s. Bressman said that Dribble gave him some of the best basketball instruction growing up.
“We know people who want to participate in it as well with their kids,” Bressman said. “Personally, I am very excited it’s in Brooklyn.”
In fact, though Dribbl was originally intended to give struggling players a leg up to the travel teams, the supportive environment fostered by Frischling has turned the program into a competing draw.
“There have been kids who at a very young age moved from Dribbl and gone to so called more competitive [programs],” Frischling said. “But then they come back to Dribbl because they think it is a nice place.”
