TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – One of the most anticipated annual high school basketball tournaments in the Wabash Valley has tipped off.
This year marks the 25th annual Wabash Valley Classic. Roughly 700 games have been played in the tournament during that time, and some fans like Erik Smith have seen every single one since it began in 2000.
“It brings a lot of people together,” Smith said. “There’s people that I see here once a year, and for those four days we catch up, we talk about life, we watch some basketball. The back is a little sore at the end of the fourth day the older I get, but it’s cool to reach out and see the local community come out and continue to support the schools regardless of who comes in and who comes out.”
First Financial has sponsored the last ten tournaments, and the eight teams that made it to day three last year received checks of over $4,100 dollars. The other eight that made it to the final day received a check of over $4,500 dollars. Additionally, each school has the opportunity to sell ads to local businesses prior to the tournament.
“The basketball part of it is great and everybody knows that, but we also are pretty proud of the fact that financially we’re helping these 16 schools and their programs get funding that they need,” Wright said. “Everybody talks about funding cuts nowadays, so this is money that the schools can raise that 100 percent goes to their programs.”
The classic is a prime example of why the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame uses the motto, “In 49 states it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana.”
“It’s Indiana, and in Indiana obviously high school basketball kind of reigns supreme,” Smith said. “There’s really never a shortage of talent, and the competition, the atmosphere. Now that I’ve got a son, it gives us time to bond and hang out and watch good Indiana basketball.”
The classic wraps up on December 30, and both the third place and championship games will be broadcast live on WTWO.
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