INSTITUTE, W.Va. — One of the largest high school basketball showcases in the state is underway on the campus of West Virginia State University.
The Par Mar Shootout got started Monday morning and will continue through Thursday night. The tourney will feature 32 games over the course of four days involving girls and boys high school basketball teams. Some of the games feature teams in the Kanawha Valley, but there are also teams who have travelled from a great distance to be part of the event.
“There is no other event like this in the state of West Virginia. You’re talking about kids playing four days of basketball all through the day and through the evening. It’s a tremendous event,” said Chase Hatcher with Par Mar Stores, who is helping run the tournament.
The games are played on the campus of West Virginia State University. Hatcher, a state alum, said the school is well aware of the advantage of bringing a large number of high school student athletes to their campus.
“I’ve known some of the coaches who took their teams around the campus and showed them what all this campus has to offer,” he said.
The tournament has expanded to a four-day event this year as interest from teams to play in the event has grown. Hatcher even added they are already getting messages from teams interested in next year’s event.
The action is almost non-stop with only a 10 minute warmup period between games and then right into the next contest. Hatcher said for the avid basketball games, it’s four days of Utopia.
“For 10 dollars you can watch all of these games from 9:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. Now you can’t leave and come back, but as a basketball fan I think if I came over here, I’d just enjoy watching games just to experience it,” he said.