At least not the kind that wears uniforms and plays against other high schools.

That all changed with the January birth of the Utah School Sports Alliance - a new athletic league for schools that are not members of the Utah High School Athletics Association.

In the pre-USSA era, alternative schools like Independence offered kids few opportunities to play competitive sports.

Now, students from a variety of backgrounds have a chance to compete even if their schools lack the proper facilities, funding or other requirements necessary for inclusion in the UHSAA, which does not allow its members to compete against non-member schools.

To date, the fledgling USSA is comprised of one small religious school, one residential treatment high school, three alternative high schools and five charter schools.

The USSA wrapped up its first boys' basketball season in April. The league plans to add other sports for the next school year, including girls' basketball.

"Without the budget capabilities to enter [the UHSAA], our Independence High team had nowhere to go," said USSA founder Richard Dewey, who is also a parent of an Independence student. "All we wanted was for our kids to have somebody to play."

Independence basketball coach Josh Hall was on board from the start. The 29-year-old knew what it was like to be written off. He said he grew up dirt poor and was raised by a single mother. Adults told Hall he'd never amount to anything.

His life took a 180 degree turn when he discovered sports. Thanks to an understanding and devoted baseball coach named Arnold Richardson, Hall's life finally had direction.

"Meeting him changed my life completely," Hall said. "If he wasn't there, I could've easily gone a different route."

Fifteen years later, the poor kid went on to play basketball at Ricks College and recently sold a successful start-up company. Hall gave back by becoming an inspiring Junior Jazz coach and by coaching at Independence, helping grow the USSA.

For the past five years, Independence has fielded a Junior Jazz team but it never got much support from students. The kids didn't take a lot of pride in a recreation-league team. Dewey wanted to start a team that players could be proud of.

At first the Independence administration was skeptical when Dewey pitched the idea of starting a real team and a new league, Hall said.

School officials weren't sure if students would stick with it but opted to give it a try anyway. Getting the ball rolling became like a part-time job for Dewey and his two adult children.

"We called high schools in a similar situation and found the same yearning within them to play high school sports as well, so presto - we formed a league," said Dewey who estimated that the trio made about a thousand calls to 100 schools in December 2007.

Ten schools signed up for the USSA's first season, including Price's Pinnacle High, Sandy's Paradigm High and Provo's Walden Academy of Liberal Arts. At least 10 more schools are set to join this year.

"It was kind of like a YouTube video going online and spreading really fast," Hall said.

But not everyone appreciates the value sports can have on a kid's life. Hall was appalled when he learned that a student at a different alternative school was denied the chance to play by his parole officer, who told him he needed to work on improving his life - not playing basketball. Sports had been the very thing that helped Hall get his life on track.

In Independence's first basketball campaign, it went 29-2 and won the end-of-season tournament. Two players quit along the way but 10 remained dedicated.

Hall is most proud of the fact that the kids finally had a real coach and real teammates. None of Independence's players - including league star Alex Fuentes - had ever played on an organized team.

Fuentes scored 47 points in the championship game against Liahona of Pleasant Grove and missed only three shots. Fuentes - a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who can dunk and drain threes - has the talent to play college basketball, Hall said.

"To be on a team that actually plays organized basketball was a really big learning experience for me," Fuentes said.

Before the USSA got started, being sent to an alternative school was like being pushed "off onto an island," Hall said.

Here's how Fuentes assessed his high school experience prior to joining the basketball team: "It wasn't too exciting because we didn't have anything to do to support our school."

Now, Hall said he hopes that Independence will lead to college for kids like Fuentes.

In the upcoming months, Dewey and Hall hope to continue to legitimize the league. Hall recently took three months off from his entrepreneurial work and will spend much of that time raising money.

"What I want to do is prove that, hey, sports can help kids get discipline," Hall said. "It can help them get courage. That's what I got."