Youth tourney draws teams from across state

PALMER — DJ DesJardin is nuts about his hoops.

The general manager of the AT&T Sports Center takes in all the basketball he can handle, and then some.

That love for the sport is one reason he decided to create the AT&T Sports Center Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Tournament, which starts today at the AT&T Sports Center.

“I’m a basketball junkie,” DesJardin said. “I want as much basketball in our facility as possible.”

The two-day event will feature 32 teams from across the state, spread out into six different divisions. The brackets are separated into fifth/sixth, seventh/eighth and open classes for both boys and girls. Comp programs from Juneau, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Chugiak, Eagle River and the Mat-Su Valley are slated to participate. After word of the inaugural event spread, DesJardin said the teams interested in competing began to pile up.

“I had to cut it off at 32,” DesJardin said. “There are only so many hours in the day, so many courts.”

The tourney continues Monday, and the timing of the event is perfect, DesJardin said, considering school is not in session as districts recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It gives kids something to do on their day off,” DesJardin said.

DesJardin said he’s only been working on the preperations for the tourney for about two months, but everything came together fast. He hopes to make the tournament an annual event at the AT&T Sports Center.

It will also be one of the biggest events that the complex, that sits along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, has hosted.

For more information about events hosted by the AT&T Sports Center, see www.attsportscenter.com.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.