UPDATED: Youth Hoop Programs Set To Mend Fences, Merge

UPDATED at 10:30 a.m.

Politics can make strange bedfellow. In this case, so can youth sports.

Potential election rivals have set aside differences for the time being and helped to broker a deal that will re-unify two Tewksbury-based travel basketball programs.

The Lowell Sun reported this week that The Tewksbury Boys Basketball League and the Wamesit Warriors are set to re-unify and form one travel league program.

According to the report, representatives from the programs, including TBBL President Ken Miano and members of his board of directors and a Wamesit contingent, including Dean Graffeo and Scott Wilson got together last week to nail down the final details of reunification. The meeting was the culmination of weeks of negotiations, Miano told the Sun.

"The first thing we needed to figure out was if we could pick the players ... put the right players on the right team," said Wilson, reached by phone. "Then the next thing is picking the coaches."

Wilson said he is confident the programs are on the same page now.

Earlier this year, Miano has taken out nomination papers to challenge Wilson and David Gay for a seat on the Board of Selectmen. Another potential challenger, Ed Sullivan, also took out nomination papers and is also very active in the TBBL. Though as of Monday, neither Sullivan nor Miano had returned their nomination papers.

The Wamesit Warriors were formed in 2010, after a rift developed over the direction of the TBBL. The Warriors, TBBL and Tewksbury Girls Basketball League later squabbled that fall over gym availability for practice time.

According to the Sun report, the agreement hammered out is pending final approval from the TBBL and Wamesit boards.