As many as 200 youth basketball teams are expected to converge on the Twin Cities April 21-22 as part of the inaugural George Washington Founder's Day Classic basketball tournament.
That tournament will take place at numerous gymnasiums around the Mint and Hub cities, including a sprawling multiple-court layout at the Northwest Sports Hub. Appropriately, the ambitious first-year tournament will coincide with a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of Centralia’s African-American founder, George Washington.
“It was like all the stars aligned,” said Elijah White, administrative assistant for the Twin Cities Sports Commission. “As far I know it will be the biggest basketball tournament ever held in Lewis County.”
The George Washington Classic was the brainchild of TP Brown from Elite Sports Performance out of Portland. Brown has helped organize baseball and softball tournaments at the Sports Hub through Baseball Northwest in the past.
“For every event, the tournament director is going to come up with the name and that’s no different in this case,” explained White. “These are African-American men from Portland and they were really excited about the fact that Centralia was founded by a black man a long time ago.”
Brown confirmed that after doing some research his interest was piqued by the prospect of hosting a large-scale basketball tournament in a community founded by an African-American pioneer.
“Obviously, George Washington being a black man and after initially trying to settle in Oregon, and then getting ousted from Oregon and eventually settling in what was then Centerville… That was very fascinating to me,” said Brown.
He noted that there are plans in the works in order to use the tournament as a platform to educate the visiting youths about the racially diverse origins of Centralia and the leadership through resilience exhibited by Washington.
“I’m working with the Sports Commission and putting together a couple different things to involve the teams as far as, like, a scavenger hunt with some historical value, and then go from there,” said Brown.
According to Brown, the combination of location and available facilities makes the Twin Cities an ideal location to host a such a large tournament that will depend on teams trekking in from Seattle, Portland and other metropolitan areas. He says he even expects teams to travel in from Northern California, Texas and Canada to fill out the brackets for both the boys and girls tournaments that will run simultaneously.
“I call it the best kept secret in the Northwest,” said Brown of the Sports Hub. “We want all the local teams to participate. We’re going to make sure that there is a high level of competition but we do want the local teams to participate and represent their hometowns the right way.”
Brown says he plans to make the George Washington Founder’s Day Classic an annual happening on local hardwood courts.
“We’re not just trying to come in and run and tournament and get in and get out. We’re trying to be invested in the community,” explained Brown. “To me it’s just the historical value of Centralia and trying to infuse some economic value into the area.”
The George Washington Classic will be an official AAU tournament open to players in grades 3-8. The cost is $360 per team.
White noted that last week tournament organizers toured a lineup of local gyms with the Twin Cities Sports Commission in order to determine the best courts to utilize during the tournaments.
”Nothing other than the Sports Hub has been set in stone but we went and toured the rest of the available facilities last Friday,” said White. “The ones that they were most excited about were Chehalis High School and Middle School, Olympic and R.E. Bennett Elementary Schools, the Pacific Athletic Center, the Centralia High School and Middle School, and of course the Sports Hub.”
Additional information, including registration forms, can be found online at basketball.exposureevents.com/107028. Questions may be directed to Tournament Director Alex Loul at 971-236-151, or by email at alexloul@ESPPDX.com. Inquiries for the Sports Commission can be sent by email to Elijah@SportsCapitolNorthwest.org.
