Chengdu Tianfu Middle School Affiliated Primary School opened its third campus basketball class league on Nov. 2, throwing the school into what it calls “basketball time” for the entire month of November, Sichuan Education Online reported. Chen Dongyong tipped off the opening ceremony after the flag-raising, sending the ball into play and setting off three exhibition games that ran from older student squads to a teachers-versus-parents finale.
The league is the November half of a rotation the school has run since 2024 — April for football, November for basketball — designed so that the “three big ball” sports are not reserved for school teams but become part of everyday campus life, the outlet reported.
Three friendlies set the tone after the opening ceremony
The exhibition lineup was adjusted slightly from previous years, Sichuan Education Online reported, and built in three escalating matchups with three-point shootouts between grade-level school teams and between teacher and parent squads woven in between. The school cheerleading squad also performed at the ceremony.
The opener matched the fifth- and sixth-grade school teams, whose clean transitions, passing and fast-break layups kept the score trading back and forth — a display of the school’s pipeline of developing players, according to the report. The third- and fourth-grade squads followed, playing without hesitation, battling on every possession and sparking repeated offensive runs that showed off the program’s younger talent. The finale pitted a teachers’ team against a parents’ team, with the fathers’ drives into the lane against the teachers’ off-ball movement, drawing steady applause and laughter from the sideline.
Students, teachers and parents watched side by side, the report noted, with the court and the stands blending into one scene.
Four-quarter format gives every child court time
The league’s format is built around participation rather than a handful of starters, Sichuan Education Online reported. Each game runs four 10-minute quarters. The first three quarters are played in turn by the “Today team” (boys), the “Mulan team” (girls) and the “Future team” (mixed), with each quarter’s points added to the total. The fourth quarter is left entirely to players who have not yet appeared, so children of different genders, levels and strengths all get on the floor.
The school frames the league as part of its push to deepen the integration of sports and education — one hand on sport-specific skill, the other on campus sports culture — and as a carrier of its “five educations” approach, using competition as a standing mechanism to train and to teach. Basketball, in that framing, carries lessons in teamwork, rules and collective spirit that settle in during the give-and-take of offense and defense, the outlet reported.
Class matchups continue through November
With the exhibition games done, class-versus-class league play across the grades continues over the coming weeks, and the school expects the excitement to spread through every corner of campus — for the players on the court and the cheerleaders on the sideline alike, Sichuan Education Online reported.
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