The Basketball Team With a Winning Spirit

New Investor 

The Basketball Team With a Winning Spirit

On Aug. 4, 2021, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting for Coastal Elite Pirates, Myrtle Beach’s new East Coast Basketball League (ECBL) team led by owner and coach Jah’zavier Anderson. The team consists of 12 local and regional players as well as team officials, and is currently training during their off-season and recruiting new players.

ECBL is a men's semi-professional basketball minor league that began in 2015. The league is centered in the Carolinas with teams also in Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The ECBL broadcast games live and delayed online.

The Coastal Elite Pirates is part of the league’s Southern Conference, which also consists of the Carolina Crusaders of Columbia, South Carolina; the Carolina Thunder of Hartsville, South Carolina; the Charlotte (North Carolina) Tribe; the Florence (South Carolina) Wildcats; the Garden City Magic of Augusta, Georgia; the Gastonia (North Carolina) Snipers; the Georgia Fire of Forest Park, Georgia.; the PrimeTime Players of Fort Mill, South Carolina; and the South Carolina Upstate Redhawks of Greenville.

This year was the Pirates inaugural season, playing their home games at the Carolina Forest Recreation Center. On Aug. 14, the team will hold tryouts at the recreation center from 3-5:30 p.m. for the 2022 season, which starts in February.

While the team is focused on winning on the court. Off the court, they want to make a different kind of impact. “We’re also focused on supporting our community and working to end gun violence,” Anderson says.

To do this, team members have been hosting and attending local community events to play a bit of basketball as well as engage with the local youth. In particular, Anderson says, to speak to them about their opportunities once high school is over. As he explains, it’s important to show talk to them about the positive activities they can get involved with after they graduate.

Anderson shares his story to encourage others. “As a role model, I’ve been in the same shoes that you’ve been in. I graduated high school and went to prep school to play basketball and then came back home and had nothing to do. My fiancé pushed me toward playing professional basketball so I started playing for the Florence Wildcats. It changed my life. Now I own my own team in the ECBL. If I can do it, I know you can do it.”

The 2022 ECBL season will pick back up with competition in February. More information about the team can be found at eastcoastbasketballleague.org or you can follow the Coastal Elite Pirates on Facebook at facebook.com/CoastalEliteBasketball.