Medical Lake's 'Summer Fest' scratches that basketball itch

The sounds of basketballs bouncing will be more pronounced at this year's second annual Summer Fest tournament at Medical Lake High School.

The school's boys head basketball coach Noel Hachtel hatched the idea to revive an event that went away.

"It's similar to former head coach Arnold Brown's Cardinal Classic," Hachtel explained. That's the one-time, week-long tournament Brown took with him when left for the Yakima Valley two summers ago.

It's a small-scale version of what that event was and will attract at least a dozen teams it appears. The tournament has more than doubled in size over 2017.

"Last year we had five varsity teams, this year we have 12 and they're still reaching out," Hachtel said. The brackets include boys varsity and JV as well as girls varsity and JV. Entry is $300 per team.

"We have a lot of 1A and 2B schools coming," Hachtel said, among them Cashmere, Omak, Chewelah, plus Cusick, Inchelium, Wellpinit, Pride Prep, Reardan, White Swan, Brewster, Bridgeport, Priest River and potentially more. There is one all-star team but they will play at the junior varsity level.

Games take place July 27 – 29, Friday through Sunday with a barbecue to wrap up the festivities.

"We wanted to continue doing something for the schools in the area to raise money for our program," Hachtel said.

Medical Lake will field three teams, but will be missing a number of players due to commitments with AAU teams and other conflicts. The school will have a varsity, JV and a possibly ninth grade team where "All of our sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth graders will all play," Hachtel said.

The format will be similar to the Olympics with pool play. JV teams will end in pool play but varsity will move into a bracket with the pool winner.

Also, JV teams will go into the overall bracket in what is a double-elimination finish. "They'll at least get four games on Friday, Saturday and they keep winning they can win out on that Sunday," Hachtel said.

"It's kinda' like the state tournament," Hachtel said.

A team can lose games in their pool, finish dead-last in fact, and still come back to win on Sunday, Hachtel explained.

For further information on Summer Fest, contact Noel Hachtel at (210) 355-7680 or email nhachtel@mlsd.org.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.