Local kids compete in annual basketball tournament

Almost every week between Thanksgiving and the end of February basketball fans get an opportunity to watch area high school players compete. Many of these outstanding athletes, like Lori Nichols, Greg Campbell, Hillary Adams, Jordan Webb, Jordan Kerbs and Lacy Leonard honed their basic basketball skills on traveling youth basketball teams.

During the coming week the basketball court at the Nevada Middle School will be busy every night and all day Saturday with 12 boys and 12 girls teams ranging from fourth grade to junior high competing in the Dog Athletics Third Annual Basketball Tournament.

The week-long, round-robin tournament is a fund raising event for the Dirt Dogs Softball team, which is a 14 and under competitive softball team coached and sponsored by Jim and Jayne Novak.

The tournament this year has teams from Nevada, El Dorado Springs, Galena, Kan., Stockton, Carthage, Butler, Jasper, Fort Scott, Kan., Girard, Kan., Lamar and Liberal.

Jayne Novak said that they are expecting around 240 basketball players to take part.

"The great thing about kids this age is that they bring their grandparents as well as their parents to watch them play," Novak said.

There will be a lot of people in town during the week, she said.

There will be a lot of familiar names on the court this week. Some are younger brothers and sisters of current high school players, others are the sons or daughters of former high school players and a few have active high school basketball coaches as parents.

The tournament starts Monday evening and runs through Saturday night at the Nevada Middle School.

For a complete tournament schedule, see the Tuesday edition of the Nevada Daily Mail.