Culbertson Basketball Tournament, June 13-16, Still Time To Register

June 13 -16, the 2nd annual Culbertson Basketball Tournament will be challenging elementary through high schoolers to show off their basketball skills, entertain and compete for prizes.

Last year the parents of students in Culbertson, MT decided they wanted to get their kids into off season basketball tournaments and they wanted to raise a little money for a couple of nonprofit organizations. High school tournaments, especially, seemed hard to come by. As a result at the beginning of the summer of 2018, the Culbertson Group created the 1st Annual Culbertson Basketball Tournament. Over $8,000 was raised. Funds were donated to the Culbertson Booster Club and the Culbertson BPA for their National trip. Three different seniors were also awarded $500 scholarships from the money raised.

The tournament consists of teams of ten basketball players in one of eight divisions playing against each other. Boys and girls who are going into the 3rd through 12th grade in the fall are eligible to play. Regular Montana high school rules will be used with a few exceptions for the kids younger than 7th grade. Each team is guaranteed three different games. Each game has two twenty minute quarters and a three-minute halftime. The clock will stop for timeouts and the last two minutes of the game if the score is within ten points. The first game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Thursday night but this is subject to change depending on the number of teams involved. The entry fee is $150 per team and the last day to register is May 15, 2019. Last year there were twenty-eight teams while this year there will be room for forty. The games will be held in the Culbertson high school gym and in the new elementary school gym. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and coaches get in for free. A meal and full concessions will be available. Also, for the first time, program books will be available for purchase.

Last year, twenty-one sponsors and several volunteers pooled together to make this event work. Culbertson high school kids, parents, teachers, and community members volunteered their time to referee, work the clock, handle admissions and run the concessions stand. Club President Sabrina Labatte said, "We could not have pulled this off without our great volunteers. We also had several sponsors last year and we would not have had a tournament without them." So far, the 1st place team will receive sweatshirts and the 2nd place team will receive t-shirts with this year's sponsors on them. Culbertson Group is still looking for sponsors and volunteers for the event.

Culbertson school is located at 423 1st Ave West in Culbertson Montana. All grade facilities are located in the same building. For more information on sponsoring, volunteering, rules, general questions or the team entry form please contact Valli Hauge at [email protected] or Sabrina Labatte at [email protected].