Sprague’s Teagan Quitoriano (right) is among the players who will play in the Capitol City Classic.
There are typically two kinds of high school boys basketball tournaments in the winter in Oregon.
There’s the Les Schwab Invitational, a tournament that draws in the best teams from the Portland area with a few of the best teams from around the nation.
Then there are tournaments high schools host.
The Capitol City Classic will be a third type.
From Monday through Wednesday, Willamette University’s gym will host 16 boys basketball teams from Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Utah and Nevada in the kind of big tournament environment few teams experience.
“It showcases our Willamette Valley kids and all the effort they put in and brings in some great teams from the nation,” said Sprague coach B.J. Dobrkosvky, who played at Willamette in college.
“Salem has had a run of so many good teams that have come through and great players, it’s deserving of a great tournament like this.”
There are two brackets of competition in the tournament.
The Capital Auto Group Division is for larger teams such as Silverton, Sprague and West Salem – along with Timpview of Utah and Centennial of Nevada.
The Oregon Air National Guard Division is for smaller teams such as Dayton and Gervais, along with Yakima Nation of Washington and Kailua of Hawaii.
The championship game for the Oregon Air National Guard Division is at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday and the championship of the Capital Auto Group Division is at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Dayton’s Zach Bernards plays in the small school division of the Capitol City Classic.
A dunk contest, 3-point contest and hotshot contest will take place at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The tournament is being organized by Wilsonville coach Chris Roche. Roche played his high school basketball at McKay and played in college at Willamette.
“Salem-Keizer doesn’t have anything like this,” Roche said.
The teams coming from out of state have some of the top players in the nation.
Timpview’s 6-foot-8 senior forward Gavin Baxter signed to play at BYU.
Centennial’s 6-5 junior point guard Troy Brown Jr. has offers from Division I programs including Duke, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisville, UCKA, UNLV, Arizona State, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas and Texas Tech.
“It’s going to be a good challenge for us because we play a lot in Vegas here locally,” Centennial coach Todd Allen said. “I think the kids like the challenge. We got a good group of kids, too.”
The OSAA Class 3A state tournament was held at Willamette from 2007-10 and state tournaments were also held there from 1951-55 and 1922-46.
The crowds were huge for the most recent run of the state tournament – to the point where fans were turned away because the gym was beyond capacity.
“I like the facility itself, the basketball venue at Willamette, and I think since school’s closed, maybe it will be a great tournament because we’ll get to park there and we won’t have to worry about all the student body going in and out,” said Dayton coach Ron Hop, whose team played at the state tournament in 2007, 09 and 10. “It should be fun. I think there are some good teams that are there.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
Capitol City Classic
When: Dec. 21 through Dec. 23.
Where: Willamette University.
Teams: South Eugene, Silverton, Sprague, Timpview (Utah), Corvallis, Wilsonville, West Salem, Centennial (Nevada), Gervais, North Bend, Kailua (Hawaii), Horizon Christian, Bandon, Philomath, Yakima Nation (Washington), Dayton.
Tickets: $9 general admission, $25 all-tournament pass; $50 any day courtside; $125 all-tournament courtside. Available at the door or at http://www.capitolcityclassic.com.
Kids clinic
Cascade Sports Camp will run free kids clinics as part of the Capitol City Classic for boys and girls ages 8 to 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Willamette. Participants must fill out a registration form, which is available at http://www.capitolcityclassic.com. For more information email camps@campcascade.net.