It takes people back to 1946, when little old Reedsville—smaller than Hickory of “Hoosiers” fame--knocked off Eau Claire, becoming the smallest school ever to win the Wisconsin state high school boys basketball championship. And then there was Dodgeville, which became the last small school to take home the trophy, upsetting heavily favored Milwaukee North in 1964.
Those kinds of memories and that type of atmosphere will be re-created this weekend during the fifth annual Summer Shootout varsity boys basketball tournament, affiliated with the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association for a second year.
Eighty teams, big and small, from around the Badger State are scheduled to compete at Arrowhead, Waukesha South and Catholic Memorial high schools and Carroll College to see how they stack up and claim mythical state titles.
In that spirit, teams such as Laconia, Cuba City and Walworth Big Foot will match up against the likes of Madison Memorial, West De Pere and Wauwatosa West to see if David can truly defeat Goliath.
Shootout organizer Mark Ritter, who coached at Kettle Moraine for three seasons, said the event’s format is what makes it so exciting and is what appeals to many of the players and fans.
“It’s like Manitowoc Roncalli and Joe Rux,” Ritter said. “He loves competition, so he brings his kids down to play against the big boys. (La Crosse) Aquinas was in it and went on to win the D-3 title last year. If schools think they have good, up-and-coming teams they like to see where they are and where the bar is set and how they fit in their own divisions.
“That’s a big part of the appeal for the smaller schools, is going up against the marquee programs such as Milwaukee King or Milwaukee Vincent,” Ritter added about an event that has grown from 28 to as many as 88 teams last year.
This year’s field is 80 teams, which are divided into pools of four for round-robin competition. Then they’re split up into four single-elimination tourneys depending on how they fared in pool play: all first-place teams in one bracket, second-place in another and so on. Each school is guaranteed four games and the finalists can play up to seven or eight contests.
Games consist of two 18-minute halves with a continuous clock until the final two minutes of each half. Each team receives two timeouts per half and additional ones for overtimes.
Ritter said that picking an overall champion—Ashwaubenon isn’t entered to defend its crown--is nearly impossible because some top players are competing in major Amateur Athletic Union tournaments and won’t be participating. Still, he says the wide open chase helps make it exciting.
“This year, maybe more than any so far, illustrates that there are so many quality teams clustered at the top,” Ritter said. “Madison Memorial might be the favorite to win D-1 this next year, but they might not have guys like Vander Blue and Jeronne Maymon. A lot of times it’s simply a matter of a team hitting its stride at the right time. It should be a great tournament.”