Flathead 3-on-3 goes well

Zach Urness

Leader Staff

The heat radiating off the Main Street blacktop was nearly tangible last weekend as 285 teams and well over one thousand people took to downtown Polson for the Flathead 3-on-3 basketball tournament formerly known as Hoopfest.

Temperatures in the high 90's didn't stop local and national ballers from competing in 16 different divisions, including those as young as 5-6 years old all the way up to 35 and older.

The majority of the teams came from Montana, but a few made the journey all the way from places like Texas, Nevada and California for the competition and a chance to help support local charities.

There were a few changes this year, beginning with the name. After realizing that the word "Hoopfest" had been trademarked by a man in Arkansas, tournament director Rich Forbis switched the name to "Flathead Lake 3-on-3," but that wasn't the only change. Instead of setting up the hoops on Friday night and having the 3-point and dunk contest, all three events were moved to Saturday night in an effort to scale back some of the chaos that comes from having large masses of people crowding the downtown area late at night.

"Overall, I think that the changes we made for this year's tournament worked very well," said Forbis. "It ended up limiting the number of nights people were out partying and none of our hoops ended up getting damaged this year."

Forbis added that the weekend as went well, medically speaking.

"We only had one broken ankle," he said.

Polson Police Chief Doug Chase agreed with Forbis' assessment of the weekend.

"I am not sure if it was because of the heat, but it was a pretty good weekend overall," he said. "This year we only had about 10 arrests made for fighting and disorderly conduct and things like that."

Although that might sound like a lot, it's not, especially compared to year's past, and when you consider the hundreds of people consuming alcohol. The Polson Police Department, and a couple of Sheriff's reserve deputies, kept the crowds in line Saturday night, and only minor infractions were reported that evening in downtown Polson.

Games officially began at at 9 a.m. on Saturday and continued all day until the 3-point contest finals began on the main court at 8 p.m. and was followed by the 6' 1" and under slam dunk contest and the open dunk contest.

The large concentration of people downtown also impacted business, especially those along Main Street. Shelley Quinn, the co-owner of Quinn's Wrap Shack, said that they had a great day of business on Saturday, but that better trash pick-up was her only suggestion, as a lot of cans were overflowing by mid-day.

Michaela Capps, co-owner of Mountain Waters Rec, located right in the middle of the action on Main Street said that while the tournament has its annoyances — like people only coming into the store for the air conditioning and to use the bathroom — this year was better than last year.

"I am not sure whether or not it helped or hurt business," she said. "People at the tournament did buy things, but it's hard to know how many of our normal customers stayed away because of the lack of parking and all the craziness."

Capps also expressed annoyance over the excess of garbage.

"People literally leave stuff all over the place," she said. "We had to go out an clean the front of the store every two hours. People (at the tournament) don't see the sidewalks as a being part of the business, they just see it as a sidewalk to hang out on and watch the games."

The slam dunk contests drew the largest crowds of the tournament to the Main Court in Downtown Polson Saturday night, packing every spot in the bleachers and leaving standing room only for a large throng of people who gathered in any space with a view of the court.

Games continued on Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. and finishing up at roughly 3 p.m. when the champions of each division were crowned.

"We had a great weekend and I'd just like to say 'thank you' to all the volunteers and referees who helped us out," said Forbis. "Scott Wilson and the Polson football team were a great help as were David Rensvold, Steve Woll, Tony and Buck Young, Les Rice and anyone else who I might have forgotten."