BEIRUT: While the birth of the Lebanese basketball league in the early ’90s has markedly improved the quality of the game in Lebanon, as well as raised basketball’s profile, the professional league has had one casualty: the college game.

While almost every country outside of the United States pays little attention to its college sports, Lebanon did – primarily during the Civil War – have a thriving college basketball circuit.

Sport in Lebanon can trace its roots to its universities, especially the American universities, but now, as in most countries, it is merely an afterthought, nothing more than a place for keen students to get their sporting fix.

The U.S. system for team sports of developing young players through its educational bodies before the best are handpicked by professional teams is unique to America, but in a bid to revitalize the college game, Lebanon may soon follow.

Currently Lebanese teams develop young players through their individual youth systems before allowing their best students to graduate to the first team with no restriction on age or experience. While the best teams can pump money into their youth team and consistently help promising players grow, smaller clubs often have an extremely amateur attitude to youth development, allowing young players to slip through their fingers as their potential goes unfulfilled thanks to low-level facilities, coaching and practice time.

If – like in the U.S. – Lebanon’s best young players were given scholarships to the country’s universities and were allowed time to develop in a competitive environment where highly paid stars don’t block their entrance in the league, the general standard of Lebanese basketball could rapidly improve.

Simply putting the framework into action, however, is a very different thing.

The College Athletic Federation was founded in 1956 by chairman Nasri Lahoud. The federation is responsible for 52 sports, a considerable challenge when running just one sport is problematic.

Having said that, there have been trials to enroll every sports federation in the country to look after their specific college game, so the basketball federation (FLB) would be responsible for organizing competitions for colleges. While this method is the first step toward organizing the matter, these trials are facing major obstacles in the amateurish sport system.

Considering the inability of the young players to gain time on the court with their current clubs, and in case the idea of merging the basketball college competitions with the FLB succeed, the latter could establish a competitive league which provides the premiere clubs with players through a draft.

The players will initially be between 18 and 22 years old, and if, for example, a 19-year-old player is already of Division One material, he can skip the college league and move directly into the men’s league.

It’s true that these ideas require a certain revolution in the current system but the signs of its beginnings are starting to appear with most colleges keen to build modern athletic campuses. The American University of Beirut is yet to finish their campus, which will cost around $25 million, with top facilities and services to student athletes. Meanwhile, the Lebanese American University has set a similar plan at a cost of $8.5 million. The University of Saint Joseph has also launched their campus in Mar Roukoz, while Balamand University has one of the best athletic campuses in Lebanon.

While setting up a professional league is still far from implementation, the current college basketball league is divided into two sections that are related to the academics level.

“We have started a new competition [UniLeague] in nine different sports over the past years,” said Joe Moujaes, head of the athletics department at LAU Jbeil and the basketball team coach.

The UniLeague features eight of the major universities in Lebanon: AUB, LAU Beirut, LAU Jbeil, Holy Spirit of Kaslik (USEK), Haigazian, USJ, Balamand and Antonine (UPA).

“The separation happened because of the transfer conflict between those colleges and the others, so we have decided to launch our own league,” said Moujaes.

“The basketball competition is really wide and at a high level. It starts in the middle of August every year. We play first a regular season of away and home matches, before the final stages,” added Moujaes, who led LAU to a league title last year.

“There are a lot of obstacles. Not all the universities have a sports campus. But the good news is that most of them are seeking in the near future to have one and this is going to make it a lot more exciting for the college atmosphere.”

Elie Rustom, 24, is a professional basketball player who plays at Mouttahed Tripoli Division A league and a player who represented the Lebanese national team at the World Championships in 2010. Rustom is a product of the college system. While his success might not be because of the current system, it is indicative of the importance of college competition. Rustom was unable to find a club that would take him on throughout his youth until he started playing on USEK’s basketball team where the head coach was ironically Mouttahed’s coach at that time, Georges Kelzi.

“I didn’t have the real chance to play with clubs when I was young. I played for Blue Stars club, yet I couldn’t prove myself,” said Rustom. “But then when I went to college, I was selected for the basketball team and coach Kelzi was impressed with my level and told me I have to come with him to Mouttahed.

“My case is an exception. It’s more like a coincidence, meaning it’s not a result of a certain structure but it remains important because it shows the importance of the college phase.

“To be honest, there is no such thing as athletic programs in most of the universities. Professional athletes have to create time to be able to play sports and to take his degree. I only had a 15-percent scholarship that covered my annual premiums,” explained Rustom.

Samer Mechref, another Mouttahed player, was also discovered by Champville’s head coach, Ghassan Sarkis, while he was playing for LAU Jbeil and he was recruited for the team.

Scholarships encourage student athletes to aim high in their career, although the colleges are not giving full scholarships, and they are often selective and don’t cover every athlete. “The budget for sports [in LAU Jbeil] is around $300,000, including $80,000 allocated for scholarships per year,” said Moujaes.

Nevertheless, many Lebanese universities have links with foreign universities, which could also be utilized to exchange ideas, or to compete together.

The universities of LAU, AUB and Haigazian from Lebanon and a few other universities from Egypt, the UAE and Turkey are affiliated with the University of State in New York which competes in the NCAA Division III. There was the plan of launching a league together, but the only problem was the difficulty of transportation, so instead there might be one-week tournaments.

In the meantime, supporters still attend games and an opportunity lies in wait. AUB head coach Ahmad al-Farran said that AUB prioritize academics over sports, which is why many student athletes are not awarded scholarships.

“AUB is the only university to have a high-class sport campus, which delivers high facilities to the athletes. We have a rugby team, lacrosse, American football. The budget of the athletic program is almost half-a-million dollars per year.

“It’s a circle; when you have a good upbringing starting from school, things will be different. National coaches such as Ghassan Sarkis, Fouad Abou Chacra and Rizkallah Zalaoum used to manage school teams, while now it’s a mess; many of the coaches are incompetent and this is main problem,” said Farran.

While the rest of the world chooses not to catch onto college sport, Lebanon is beginning to realize its benefits.