Hoopfest Looks For Record Entry

Entry forms for the sixth annual Hoopfest street basketball tournament will be available by Monday, tournament director Rick Steltenpohl said.

The 3-on-3 tournament June 24-25 could become the nation’s largest if organizers get the 3,500 teams and 14,000 players they expect.

It attracted 3,067 teams last year.

“The Gus Macker in Belding, Mich., had 3,210 teams last year,” Steltenpohl said. “Hoop It Up in Dallas had just over 3,000. If those numbers hold, and we get what we expect, we’d be the largest.”

To accommodate expansion, play will start an hour earlier - at 8 a.m. - and brackets will be expanded from 16 to 18 teams. But it probably won’t require additional street space.

Entry forms will be at Tidyman’s supermarkets and Subway outlets.

To make games as clean as possible, infractions are called by the player who is fouled. Both offensive and defensive sides can call fouls.

Among the rules changes:

Players in the 6-foot-and-under division will be subject to measurement. If one is “blatantly over” 6-0, he’ll be disqualified, Steltenpohl said.

Intentional and flagrant fouls - called by court monitors - have been instituted. An intentional foul results in a free throw plus possession. A player committing a flagrant foul will be asked to sit.

“For how long - a minute, a game or for the tournament - depends on the severity,” Steltenpohl said.

Court monitors will call fouls for teams through eighth grade.

Brackets through grade 12 will be by grade rather than age and there’ll be a 50-and-over division.

Deadline to guarantee an entry is

May 7. Final deadline is May 28. Team fees are the same - $100 open division; $75, adult and high school; and $60, junior high and younger.