Basketball: Youth hoops tournament this weekend

The Carson Valley Basketball Association, the offseason Amateur Athletic Union branch of youth and high school basketball in the area, will be taking a big step forward this weekend.

After a full decade of existence, the associaton will be hosting its first tournament at three sites in the Valley starting Saturday morning.

The Madness in the Mountains tournament will be Saturday and Sunday at Douglas High School, Carson Valley Middle School and Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School. Teams from around Northern Nevada, including four squads from the Carson Valley club, are scheduled to compete in fourth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade divisions.

"This will help us to grow our program," said association president Mike Downs. "It kind of solidifies us to be able to host tournaments and not have to travel as much as we have in the past. Instead, we can bring other teams from Nevada in, instead of everyone having to drive out to Sacramento to find competitive games.

"To be able to bring these teams in and host a competitive tournament solidifies the point that we are growing. This is our first big fundraiser. We're situating ourselves so that hopefully we'll be able to expand this in the future. Ideally, what we wanted to have this year was a tournament for fourth-grade through varsity level, but we didn't have a lot of response from the high school ranks. Still, we're getting some quality younger teams this year and it will be something to build on. We're very excited."

Douglas High coach Corey Thacker is organzing another tournament in the Valley in June, which will draw teams from fourth-grade through high school divisions.

Aside from hosting its first tournaments, the association has brought in its biggest-yet participating class this year.

"We sitting right around 80 kids total," Downs said. "We've never had this kind of turnout for all of our divisions. It is by far the best year of participation. Our coaching staffs are really good and they have done a good job of getting the kids ready."

The association opened its tournament season last weekend in Sacramento. The varsity team, which includes the upper-level high school players from Douglas High, took third in its division while the fourth-grade team picked up its first win in its first game.

"It was the first time our fourth-grade team has won a game in its first weekend of the season, so that was great," Downs said. "Overall, for our first weekend and being in the highly-competitive Sacramento area, all of our teams played extremely well."

This weekend, teams from the Reno Ballers club, Incline, Winnemucca, Elko, Carson City and Coleville are scheduled to come to the Valley for the tournament.

"It's not an AAU tournament, but our basketball association is a part of AAU so the proceeds from this will go toward our costs, like funding scholarships for kids that want to play for us," Downs said. "We want as many kids out playing with us as possible, so this fundraiser will go toward that."

Cost for admission to tournament games will by $3 for adults, $2 for children and free for children 5 and under. Round-robin play will begin at 8 a.m and end around 6 p.m. both days. Each team will have a three- to four-game guarantee.

Downs said he is still in need of more volunteers for the weekend to help run the gates, snack bars, clock, scoreboard and any number of other things.

"We're asking for anyone that can help in any way or shape, even just sweeping the floors or picking up trash," Downs said.

Anyone interested in volunteering to help at the tournament can call Downs at 267-3306. For more information on the teams, or the tournament schedule, visit www.cvbahoops.net.