FORT SMITH -- The inaugural River Valley Fellowship of Christian Athletes 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament highlights the return of events for area athletes after the Arkansas Activities Association's mandatory two-week dead period ended last Sunday.
The tournament will be held at Fort Smith Southside on Saturday.
The tournament was the brainchild of Tyson Simon, the River Valley Multi-Area FCA Director, along with Chad Tidwell and Bernie Simon.
The tournament is for high school girls and boys only this year and is school based. Teams are guaranteed four games with three in pool play, which will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday across three gymnasiums at Southside. Single-elimination bracket play will begin at approximately 1 p.m. after seedings are finalized based on pool play.
Games will be played to 21 points with two- and three-point baskets and no free throws, and are 10-minute in length with a continuously running clock.
Currently, 24 boys teams and 8 girls teams have registered to play.
Bernie Simon, an ambassador for the River Valley FCA and Tyson's dad, spent all day on Monday visiting area high school coaches and logging 412 miles across four counties.
Plans are to make the tournament a qualifying event for a state tournament among other statewide FCA groups next year.
The tournament is patterned after the Little Rock 3-on-3 Hoopfest, which was held in downtown Little Rock each summer and peaked with 1,300 four-player teams during the mid-1990s.
The tournament is also just one of many events the River Valley FCA organizes throughout the year.
Earlier this week, 120 students ages 6-14 participated in a 3-day soccer camp at Northside. Bill Fink was the camp director and Northside boys soccer coach Mauricio Maciel was the camp coordinator. Former Flyweight and Super Flyweight NABF champion boxer Oscar Cantu spoke to the campers on Tuesday night.
FCA will host a Ninja Warrior Camp August 1-4 at East Side Baptist Church for ages 6-17. Heather Tidwell is the Camp Director with Suzanne and Jaleesa Himka, and Nate Burkhalter serving as camp coordinators.
"We will have 60 or 70 kids in the community each morning for four days," Tyson Simon said. "In the evening, we're doing team building for high school kids. We'll see about 300 athletes at the team building. We're also doing a family night in the evening."
In September, FCA will host the Toney McMurray Disc Golf Tournament at Eagle's Nest Golf Course in Alma.
In November, FCA will also host the 16th Annual Jim Rowland Run, including 5K, 10K and 13.1 runs.
FCA also has its annual Fields of Faith, which will be held in Fort Smith and Van Buren in October.
"We have other partnership things that we do for different tournaments and other ministries that we do during football season," Simon said.
In June, FCA hosted the 1st Serve Tennis Camp for ages 4-13 at Ben Geren Park coordinated by Judy Saxton and Morgan Staton. A total of 321 campers participated over three weeks including five different camps.
Also, in June, FCA hosted the statewide Leadership Camp with 110 of the 631 campers being from the River Valley FCA in both junior high and high school who were involved with FCA at their schools.
"This will be a record number of campers that the River Valley FCA has hosted this year," Simon said. "We will reach about 900 campers from high school to grade school that will hear the gospel, many for the first time, and each camper gets a Bible."
Also in the works, FCA will also coordinate the first Oklahoma vs Arkansas River Valley FCA All-Star Games right after the next school year for girls and boys basketball, baseball and softball. Players and coaches will be selected from the five-county area in Arkansas and locally from Oklahoma. Plans are for football to be added in the future.
AT A GLANCE
River Valley FCA 3-on-3 Tournament
WHERE Fort Smith Southside
WHEN Saturday
NOTABLE High school 3-on-3 boys and girls teams will compete in a basketball tournament with four-game guarantee. … Games are to 21 points with two- and three-point baskets. … Teams are organized through their high schools. … Bracket play will begin at approximately 1 p.m. after seedings are determined based on pool play, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday.