Walk in to the old Westport High School gym almost any afternoon or evening and you’ll find a lot of organized chaos, and plenty of laughter.

Dozens of kids enrolled the Westport Youth Basketball League are running around. Basketballs are flying. Dribblers are dribbling and dunkers are ... well, the kids are a little short for that yet. But they’re learning.

“There’s so many kids playing and having fun,” the league’s president, Robert DeMoura, said. “That’s what it’s all about — having fun and learning with your friends.”

This year, there are also more players. The league, which includes boys’ and girls’ instructional, junior and senior rec leagues, and a travel league made up of some of the most accomplished older players, has grown greatly over the past year — there are approximately 100 kids enrolled in the instructional league alone, up nearly 50 percent from last year — there’s also a new fourth grade girls’ team this year. All told, some 230 or more kids are now playing since the season started up earlier this month.

The league’s growth has been a long time in the making, since its old home base, the former middle school, closed about six years ago and forced the league to join a youth basketball program in Tiverton. Once the new high school was built, the league began growing again just as the COVID pandemic hit. With that mostly in the rearview mirror, DeMoura said, more kids started have started coming out.

“Word spread, and the more word spread, more kids started hearing about it and said, ‘Hey, this is fun!’”

The league is open to all, and league officials try to accommodate anyone who wants to play, regardless of their skill level or physical ability, or their ability to pay — they provide scholarships to outfit kids whose families may not be able to afford to register their children.

In the wake of COVID, DeMoura said many players suffer from social anxiety and other mental or physical issues, and players have lots of anecdotal information about kids whose participation in the league has had a positive impact.

One recent arrival to the league joined late, after his sister and brother had already joined. Though officials were able to get him outfitted, the senior league player was nervous and in his first game, almost didn’t go in.

But “one of the assistant coaches sat down and talked to him, and he ended up going in — he ended up scoring a basket,” DeMoura said.

Later, the boy’s mother reached out:

“There wasn’t a practice in between his decision (to play) and game night an honestly we thought he’d support the team and watch tonight’s game,” she wrote. “But nope he was out there. Great defense, put two points on the board,  and enjoyed every second of it!”

Running the league is a lot of work, and dozens of volunteers do everything from running the books to purchasing shirts, organizing travel schedules and making sure the operation runs smoothly. DeMoura is quick to point out that the volunteers are all essential and make the team what it is — it’s all beyond one person. A few of them:

Volunteer operations director Yvone Rego, whose daughter went through the league and is no longer involved, helps run the business end of things and is a vital part of the league.

Andrea Vieira, who has children in the league, has a busy job but donates all of her time to assistant coaching on the travel and town rec teams, and also does administrative work.

And two other volunteers, Marco Barrera and Jacob Sadeck, went out and bought specialized backboards that attach to the stock boards, lowering their height so they’re more usable by youngsters.

“Everyone is essential,” DeMoura said. “The school (department) has been very supportive and the volunteers make the league — no one person can do it all.”

Like many of the volunteers, DeMoura is a former league parent, and he said he and his wife, who has also volunteered, have stayed involved because they see how positively it impacts kids’ lives.

“I get so much more out of it than I put in,” he said. “We just want to get kids out there, develop their skills, give them socialization and feed the pipeline” for Westport High School.

“We just want to let everybody who wants to play basketball play,” he said. “It’s not about winning — the important part is that the kids are out there having fun and spending time with their friends. basketball is not only a physical sport, but it’s also a social outlet. That’s why it’s great.”