National Sports Center will create new basketball event: Native American Basketball Games

The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC) and the National Sports Center (NSC) are pleased to the creation of a new basketball tournament that will bring together basketball teams from Native American tribes to play the game they love.

The first annual Native American Basketball Games will be held October 19-22, 2017 at Cass Lake-Bena High School, 15308 State Highway 371, Cass Lake, Minnesota, 56633.

The tournament will be open to 12U, 14U and 18U boys’ and girls’ teams. Players must be Native American, with proof of tribal membership to be eligible to play.

Tournament director George Ellis is expecting 25-30 teams to play in this inaugural edition. He’s expecting most of the teams will come from Minnesota and the Dakotas, although Ellis is attending the North American Indigenous Games this June in Toronto, and hopes to attract teams from a wider circle after recruiting at that event.

The event welcomes teams from all over the US and Canada. “We will be offering off-court activities to make the Native American Basketball Games a complete basketball and cultural experience,” Ellis said.

“Plans call for a free youth basketball clinic and we’ll have a pow wow. And we hope to add some other activities.”

For more information: http://www.nscsports.org/nativebasketballgames