McDonald County is getting back in the saddle and honoring its basketball tradition with the return of two tournaments.
The school will host the Mustang Classic and the Lady Mustang Classic for the first time in about 20 years. The girls' event is scheduled for Dec. 11 and 13-15. The boys' tourney runs from Dec. 16-18.
"I just felt like we need to host more things. That was the beginning of it," McDonald County athletic director Bo Bergen said. "But also, there was such a rich tradition of basketball in McDonald County for years and years."
The original tournament was first played in 1981 and continued until around 2000, Bergen said.
This year, there are two eight-team tourneys. The girls' field is Alma, Bentonville West, Carl Junction, Fort Smith Southside, Frontenac, Springdale, Webb City and the Lady Mustangs.
On the boys' side, it's Alma, Carl Junction, Frontenac, Gateway City, Glendale, Richmond, Springdale and the Mustangs.
"My goal was to have one team from each of the four states: Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri," Bergen said. "I wasn't able to secure an Oklahoma school this year, but I've definitely got interest from Oklahoma for next year. I wanted to get a few local teams, just to get some local interest. I also wanted some out-of-state teams, to just kind of change it up. I feel like we have a really good field of teams in both tournaments."
Alma, Bentonville West, Southside and Springdale are from Arkansas. Frontenac is in Kansas. Richmond is from the Kansas City area, and Gateway City is in the St. Louis area. Carl Junction, Glendale and Webb City aren't too far from McDonald County.
Bergen wants to make this a yearly tradition again.
"We're in a really good location to host a tournament like this," Bergen said. "We're not very far from all four states. So as long as we do a good job of putting on a good tournament, taking care of the teams that come, as long as we do a good job of that, I think we'll definitely be able to make this an annual deal."
He'd like to see McDonald County's players enjoy the benefits of hosting a tournament.
"We go to so many other tournaments," Bergen said. "I kind of wanted our kids to be able to host one and play on their home court for three straight nights and have a chance to compete for their own trophy in front of their home crowd. Just have some pride in hosting this tournament and playing in it -- that's definitely a huge part of the reason we brought it back."
Mustangs coach Brandon Joines is looking forward to the opportunity.
"Our tournament has a solid field with quality competition throughout," Joines said. "As we move through the season, we are always looking to challenge and prepare our team for postseason competition, and this will be a three-day opportunity to test ourselves against solid opponents. From a community perspective, it's just nice to bring a solid tournament and tradition back to our area."
The community is providing key assists, Bergen said.
"We've already had a bunch of people reach out about sponsoring some meals," Bergen said. "I've even got sponsors that have paid for the awards. We're going to do an all-tournament team, so that takes time and effort and money to put together. We've had generous donors from all over the community that are excited about this tournament, and they've been able to help us financially. The goal is to get as much of this paid for as possible, and our community has really stepped up to help make that happen."
Ticket information will be released soon. Check the McDonald County athletics Facebook and Twitter feeds for updates.
