Hoopers don’t usually have to care about a bit of rain — unless the roof of the gym has a leak in it. It’s why the basketball season has always been in the winter. That said, if there was a good time to get everyone out at an organized outdoor tournament, it would definitely be in the height of summer.
After all, it wouldn’t rain here the first week in August, right?
Right?
“We’re in the Pacific Northwest,” Centralia College men’s basketball coach Joe Chirhart said with a laugh. “If you can’t be flexible with a bit of rain, you don’t belong out here.”
Saturday, Chirhart, his CC crew, and the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce dealt with the drops and a wet morning, but came away happy with the first-ever Streetball 3-on-3 Festival, held on Northwest Pacific Avenue in Chehalis.
“For what we had, we made it happen really, really well,” Chirhart said.
The final honors for the day, fittingly, went to a squad dubbed the Rainmakers — Toledo brothers Fano and Carlo Arceo-Hansen, along with Chehalis’ own Cody Pedersen and Tim Kelly — which went a perfect 3-0 in pool play before running through the seven-team double-elimination bracket in the adult division.
The Rainmakers led from the first possession in the championship matchup against the C-Town Ballas — a squad made up of Centralia players and alumni. The Ballas hit three straight 2-pointers — playing street rules, a shot inside the arc counts for one point, and outside counts for two — to cut an 11-3 lead down to one point, but Carlo Arceo-Hansen blocked what could have been the game-tying shot, Fano Arceo-Hansen drilled a two, and after a stop, Pedersen cruised for an easy layup to cap a 15-11 win.
By way of prizes, the squad came home with commemorative plates courtesy of Keiper’s Cards, certificates, and a pass to get into next year’s tournament for free.
Just before that, Winlock’s Landon Cline and Carter Svenson teamed up with Hudson Chambers (Napavine) and Adam Kruger (Toledo) to take the youth title, downing a team simply called Unknown — Matthew Martinez-Jenkins, Kadin Yeung, Jonah Lowe, and Charlie Stratton — which had gone winless in pool play and lost its first bracket matchup before ripping off three straight loser-out games to make the title tilt.
Chirhart and the Chamber originally planned for the event to be spread across Saturday and Sunday. Due to lower-than-expected turnout, that turned into one very full day Saturday, with pool play games beginning at 9 a.m. After two hours of pool play in the rain, the seven adult squads and five youth teams took an hour off for lunch, before coming back for bracket play.
By the time everything wrapped up just after 3 p.m., the skies had dried, and many of the players and fans of eliminated teams stuck around to watch the two championships.
“For the most part, I think it went off without a hitch,” Chirhart said. “We had zero injuries. We had a lot of people playing, having fun. I’m really thankful for everyone that was able to be here.”
As Chirhart and his CC players — who had been out at Pacific Avenue until 2 a.m. the night before setting things up — got to work tearing down the courts and giving Chehalis its street back, the focus was already shifting toward next year. After all, the Chamber of Commerce now has six portable basketball hoops to use as it will.
Chirhart talked about the possibilities of moving the event to Centralia next year and alternating back and forth between the Twin Cities, of trying to set up a younger division for elementary and middle schoolers, of trying to set up a partnership with the Capital City 3on3 tournament in Olympia.
There are a lot of ways to grow, and a year to figure it all out. But Saturday, as everyone who braved the rain in the Mint City to get some hooping in could tell you, was a good start.
“It’s kind of nostalgic back for the times where there weren’t cell phones and video games, and you always saw kids filling the courts, walking down the sidewalk, dribbling basketballs,” Chirhart said. “I think that’s what I kind of envision — getting people out and into the community, lots of support.”
