Worland teams win 3 out of 6 trophies during 'Playing for Hope' youth basketball tournament
Share
Tweet
Tesia Galvan
Worland's Kade Webber; No. 10; and Rawlins' Elliah Longog; No. 5; take a break during Sunday's youth basketball tournament at the Worland Community Center Complex. Worland's fifth-grade team won 48-33.
WORLAND – The second annual Playing for Hope Youth Basketball Tournament was held last weekend at the Worland Community Center Complex and the Worland Middle School Gym, with Worland teams winning trophies in three categories.
The tournament was started last year to help raise awareness for people who are fighting breast cancer. "We never imagined the kind of support we would receive from our community," Hope Youth Basketball Tournament co-organizer Jayde Gonsalez said.
Thirty-five teams from around Wyoming participated in the tournament. "This year's tournament was a huge success, we had 10 more teams this year," Jayden Gonsalez said.
Players ranged from third to eighth grade in both boys and girls divisions with the exception of seventh and eighth grade girls. "It's hard to have seventh-and eighth-grade girls because all of the girls that would play are currently in season (school sports), so it's hard to get the girls to play. We didn't have enough interest so we didn't have seventh-and eighth-grade teams," Hope Youth Basketball Tournament co-coordinator Rosa Gonsalez said.
The tournament began Friday evening at the Worland Community Center Complex with the third-and fourth-grade boys and girls teams. Play continued Saturday and Sunday at both the Worland Middle School Gym and the Worland Community Center Complex.
Winning teams took home a trophy donated by Prodigy Customz of Worland and both first-and second-place teams took home a medal.
The Buffalo team took home the trophies for both the boys and girls teams in the third/fourth grade bracket.
The Sheridan team took home the trophy for the fifth/sixth-grade girls bracket.
Worland fifth-grade team took home the trophy for the fifth/sixth-grade boys. Worland fifth-grade team players were: Kade Webber, Court Gonsalez, Carter Clark, Landon Gilmore, Jerry Leyva, Isaiah Leyva, Brock Douzenis and Jackson Dunham.
Worland took home the trophies for the seventh-and eighth-grade boys brackets.
Seventh-grade Worland team players were: Patrick Kidgell, Jeff Wambeke, Dawson Rogers, J.T. Klinghagen, Taylor Winland, Marcus Wiley and Mack Page.
Eighth-grade Worland team players were: Rudy Sanford, Luke Mortimer, Marcus Araiza, Wyatt Wyman, Brandon Haun, Devon Mercado and Konnor Macy.
"The Gonsalez and Ruskowsky families would like to give a huge thank you to all of the volunteers, the refs, our sponsors and everyone who came out to show their love," Jayden Gonsalez said.
Proceeds from this year's tournament and last year's tournament are to be distributed to those who need it throughout northern Wyoming. "We should have our tax identification number in the next few weeks," Rosa Gonsalez said.
The amount of proceeds from the tournament was unavailable.
