Bi-county tournament will be groundbreaking
LAKEVILLE - The 56th annual TCU Bi- County basketball tournament will be unlike any before it. But why not? It is 2020 after all.
Normally pairings are drawn at an official luncheon at Christo’s Banquet Hall in Plymouth. This year the draw was held Wednesday afternoon during a ZOOM meeting.
“It stinks because we couldn’t eat,” said Laville AD Will Hostrawser, the host school of the annual tournament. “I was stuck with a peanut butter jelly sandwich instead of a good meal from Christo’s. It was different having everybody all spread out and doing it virtually.”
The TCU Bi- County Basketball Tournament will begin Monday, Jan. 18 and conclude with championship games on Saturday, January 23.
This year the tournament will be varsity girls and boys only. Opening round games, as well as semi- final/ consolation games, will be played at four sites with the finals to be played at Laville Jr/sr High School.
“There are a lot of different concessions we had to make this year,” said Hostrawser. “There is no JV tournament. Our thought process was twofold: to give us a little extra time in case weather hits that week, which it always does, and it gives us the opportunity that if you practice your JV separate from your varsity and you happen to get an infection (COVID-19), you can stay in the tournament using the younger kids so you can have games anyway. That’s a different approach.
“When it came down to it, logistically, our whole tournament moving the opening games from Tuesday to Monday gave us that flexibility and seemed to make a lot of sense. A lot of the girls teams in the area are having trouble fielding a JV team because of numbers being down. Overall we felt to try to get something in that’s kind of normal would be a good thing.”
Ticket sales and attendance allowances are something that will be different and is slightly undecided at the moment due to the uncertainty in the battle against the coronavirus.
“As of right now in our (Laville) facility it is parents only and I don’t see that changing before the New Year because of the infection rate and the direction that we’ve had from the St. Joseph County Health Department,” said Hostrawser. “I think that will be a little bit different at each venue based on the health department in that county. You could have different things at each different venue.
“We will publish that information most likely the week before the tournament and we will put tickets on sale. We aren’t offering a full tournament ticket this year because of that. All tickets will be digital and sold through Laville’s athletic website and scanned at the door so that we can have a listing of all people that were
there in case an outbreak should occur.”
The schools are all planning to offer some sort of alternative to those who may want to see the games despite limited live attendance.
“I think we will all be able to have some sort of livestream,” said Hostrawser. “Each school is doing something a little different, but at least that option is there in case we have to restrict attendance or, heaven forbid, we can’t have any fans. They will at least be able to watch that way.
“We are going to have digital programs this year instead of hard copy programs just because we have no idea how many people will be allowed at events at that time if any.”
Tickets will be on sale at www.lavilleathletics.com the week of Jan. 11, 2021.