Whitefish hosts big hoops tourney
Isn't Whitefish supposed to be the place to be in the winter?
That's not the case this weekend.
Not only is the town hosting the Sapa-Johnsrud 22nd Annual Memorial baseball tournament, which started Tuesday and runs through Sunday, it is also hosting the 11th Annual Athlete's Foot/Coca-Cola Invitational high school basketball tournament.
The hoops tourney starts Friday evening in the Whitefish High School gym and runs through Sunday.
Most of the Flathead Valley's high schools - both boys and girls programs - will be competing with their own head coaches calling the shots. As if that wasn't enough for prep hoops fans to get a summer fix, tournament director Dean McFadden was able to get non-local teams that played in state championship games into the mix.
The boys' side of the tournament features 12 teams divided into two pools. The girls division has six teams. The boys will play round-robin games Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the top four teams from each division advancing to a single-elimination tourney Sunday afternoon. The girls will play only round-robin games with a champion decided by overall record.
"In the event of a tie, we will have a championship game for the girls," McFadden said.
The girls divisions comprises Whitefish, Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Flathead, Stevensville and Florence. Pool A for the boys has Whitefish, Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Cut Bank, Valier and Florence. Pool B has Troy, Polson, Frenchtown, Libby, Flathead and Browning.
McFadden, who resigned as the Whitefish High School girls basketball coach after last season, took over the reins of the tourney from former director Julio Delgado two years ago and said the event has seen a lot of success with how Delgado built it.
This will be the first year Delgado has coached in his creation. The longtime WHS boys coach who retired a few years ago and ended his retirement to get back into the hoopla about a month ago never coached in the event while he was the tournament director. He always called on his assistant coaches to lead his team for the event.
"This is a big thing - him (Delgado) coming back," McFadden said. "He turned all the tournaments and camps over to me a couple of years ago but now he has a team and is back in the saddle."
As a testament to how good the tournament is, the Columbia Falls boys beat Frenchtown by one point in the chipper last summer. Then in February, the Wildcats beat the Broncs again by one point - but that one was the Class A state championship game. The Great Falls High girls beat Whitefish in the tourney chipper last summer then went on to win the State AA championship. The Bison girls are not returning to defend their invitational title. But both the Wildcat and Broncs boys are back, as are the State B champion Cut Bank boys.
The tournament will also serve as an introduction for new Flathead High School girls coach Tim Elliot.
"There will be some new faces with some old," McFadden said. "But Friday night should be really exciting with all the valley teams playing with all the coaches at the helms. It will definitely make for some interesting basketball."
There will be a $3 admission fee for adults and $2 fee for students. Two games will be played at a time with both in full view of fans on Saturday and Sunday.