We had boys and girls from 6 different schools arrive on Wednesday and games have been playing since noon that day. There were two games this afternoon, and the championship games are this evening.
Basketball is HUGE around here (and that's an understatement). Every day after lunch the students have free gym time where you can find nearly every student involved in some sort of pick-up game. The gym fills up quickly when Scammon Bay is playing, and things can get intense.
So how does hosting a tournament go in a small village? Well first of all, the other teams have to come from different towns (this is true not just of tournaments, but in regular season games as well), and since there aren't any hotels in Scammon Bay, all the teams and their coaches and chaperones sleep in the school. So right after school I have to clear out so the team that's staying in my room has a place to go.
The whole staff gets involved: some are helping with hospitality, others with keeping stats or making name tags or welcome signs, and almost everyone has to work at least twice during the games, taking entry fees or working crowd control (a.k.a., making sure little kids aren't running around). The city adult basketball teams got involved too, helping with stats and crowd control in the gym. Student council runs the student store, selling food and drinks and Scammon gear. And of course, we all love cheering on our students.
During the school day it's hard to get the kids to focus on work when they know there is basketball to watch, so we did some basketball-themed readings and activities, and used going to the game later as an incentive. Of course, we definitely went down to cheer when our own teams were playing. The games lasted until school ended, and then there was a two-hour-or-so break until the evening games started. The past couple days I was home for maybe an hour or two and then was back up at school until 10 or later. (You can see why blogging didn't take top priority.)
Both our girls and boys varsity teams are in the championship games tonight, so we'll head up there pretty soon to cheer them on. Hopefully they will be good games--most of the games these teams have played have been won by between ten and thirty points. Good for us, but not terribly exciting to watch. I think there's a dance tonight too, and then the teams will head home tomorrow (weather permitting).
And then life should settle down, a little. Or at least until the next basketball game.
The varsity boys tip off against Bethel Thursday night.
Scammon Bay girls varsity playing Hooper Bay on Friday.
The crowd in the commons during half time.
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