Deadline nears for Gus Macker

By John Kovach

YOUNGSTOWN — The deadline to enter the first Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament is today.

The tournament will be held next weekend in the Covelli Centre parking area.

The tournament is for male and female basketball players of all ages, said Dolph Carroll, Youngstown Christian High basketball coach and a member of the school’s committee that is organizing the event.

The original deadline was July 20, but entries have been slow to come in. That forced the committee to extend the deadline.

The tournament is being hosted by the Covelli Centre and Youngstown Christian School, and conducted by Youngstown Christian for the benefit of the school.

Carroll said that players may register on-line at www.macker.com. More information also is available by calling (330) 788-7022.

This is the third delay involving the tournament. The event originally was scheduled for June 12-14, but had to be pushed back to Aug. 1-2 with a July 20 deadline to enter because the committee got a late start organizing the meet,.

But the extensions didn’t seem to help to increase registrations very much, prompting another extension.

”The entries have been coming in slow but they should pick up,” Carroll said. “I really don’t know how many entries we have.

“We are not accepting walk-ups [the day of the event],” Carroll said. “The Macker doesn’t accept walk-ups. The reason is they have to set up the brackets and teams and do a lot of work to set up the tournament.”

Carroll said the tournament will go on no matter how many entries there are.

“We are committed to go with the tournament no matter if we have 50 teams or 100 teams. We have to get it started this year,” said Carroll, who is joined on the organizing committee by Jim Antes, Mike Pecchia, Bob Houston, Mark Pecchia, Greg Finnegan and Melissa Lias. “We will begin setting up the courts on Thursday and Friday.”

The Covelli Centre parking area will be turned into basketball courts.

“We will [arrange] about 16 outdoor courts and place them in the parking lot,” said Carrroll, noting that four players are allowed on the roster of each team. “We will use the Centre concessions and restrooms. It will be just like having an event at the Centre, except that it will be outdoors.”

There will be four divisions of competition: junior (18-and-under), adult (19-and-older), adult top (19-and-older, most experienced) and 30-and-older.

Entry fee is $32.50 per player or $130 team.

kovach@vindy.com