The gymnasiums at Mingus Union High School and Clarkdale-Jerome School were silent the first Saturday of February for the first time in almost 30 years.
The Small Schools State Basketball Championships, scheduled to conclude Saturday, Feb. 7, instead were cancelled after Big Park Community School and three Navajo Nation schools dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and lack of funding, according to tournament organizer Lynda Chavez, Clarkdale-Jerome’s athletic director.
“It primarily didn’t do well because the Navajo Nation decided to host their own [tournament] on the same weekend,” she said. “Everyone that had committed was just pulling out.”
While Big Park’s head girls coach Kirk Westervelt and his daughter Mary, the Coyotes’ star guard, both had a previous commitment Feb. 7 to the State Elks Hoop Shoot championship in Apache Junction, past tournament challengers such as Little Singer, Rock Point, Tsaile and Many Farms public schools played with 24 other teams Friday, Feb. 6, at Chinle High School, its athletic secretary confirmed, for the championship of the new Four Corners Small School Basketball Tournament.
“Another school that sent me all their paperwork said they couldn’t come because their administration decided not to send them,” Chavez said. “Then another one couldn’t have a board meeting in time. They were going to have to provide all the funding themselves. We ended up with four boys and three girls teams.”
For the full column, please see the Wednesday, Feb. 11, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
