As some of you know, statewide budget cuts are threatening to eliminate physical education, librarians, and high-school sports from schools statewide. Our respective district expects the eleven or so high schools in the area to raise a figure well into the tens of millions. I actively coach (volunteer) at a high-school in East San Jose, and in an effort to stray from the typical bake sale or car wash, am hosting a basketball tournament to raise funds for our basketball team and our school.

First wanted to throw big ups to Atma and the GSOM community for showing my post some love. Just to follow up on the situation, there will be one more season of fall sports, but the kids will be severely limited as they're trying to institute a "Pay to Play" which will cost kids a few hundred dollars to play sports and expect them to find their own rides or depend on parents to take on a larger role. This area that I coach in isn't exactly the best of neighborhoods. At the same time, taking sports away from these kids doesn't serve the best purpose for the children, but also not for the community.

I've run several basketball tournaments in the past in addition to basketball leagues. I'm hosting an adult open basketball tournament on June 20-21 at Overfelt High School in San Jose, CA. If you are interested in fielding a team or signing up via Free Agency, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at hooptournaments@yahoo.com.

As for details on the tourney:

Few Guidelines:

Tournament to be held June 20-21 in San Jose, CA.

- Games are held in a clean indoor gym with official referees.

- All participants must be 18 years of age or older.

- All players must meet rules of eligibility and provide proof if necessary.

- Team members must be on final roster and sign form of eligibility.

- No verbal abuse of refs, coaches, players, or other fans will be tolerated. Any abuse of these rules will result in a forfeit of the game, and perhaps the tournament.

- Tournament Fee of $350- Minimum of 7 players with a maximum of 13 players on any roster.

- Tournament will run with anywhere from 6-12 teams. 3 GAME GUARANTEE.

- Teams must have matching apparel, not necessarily jerseys, but at least shirts of the same color w/ different numbers. (Doesn't matter if they're written on or iron-on. Jerseys are fine as well!)

Those of you who are interested, or know anyone who would be interested, however can't field a team can fill out a request to be a FA and can be placed on a team. I do have experience placing free-agent players on a team and can say it's gone relatively well in the past. If you do plan on joining as a FA, the fee would be $35, regardless of how many players are on a roster.

We currently have 5 teams committed with a BUNCH of maybes. There are also a good number of free agents as to where we may have 2 free agent teams.

If you have any questions that others might have, feel free to leave them in this thread so I can answer them for everyone. Once again, thanks to all for taking the time out to read the post. The last thing these kids need is for us to take sports away from them. We're just doing what we can to make sure the kids stay motivated to stay in school and exemplify their talents outside of the classroom.

Previous Tournament Pics:

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http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/baldballer02/Tournaments/IMG_0567.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/baldballer02/Tournaments/IMG_0184.jpg