MAYB Begins 15th Summer

Fifteen years ago, Greg Raleigh held a 69-team youth basketball tournament in Newton. On Friday, around 700 teams will begin play at the same tournament, held at approximately 50 different sites in the greater Wichita area, including the birthplace of it all, Newton. The organization which has grown from the single tournament held in 1993 is called MAYB. Raleigh, who started the youth basketball organization and is currently the president, has extended MAYB's reach into 27 different states. While 700 teams from grades 3-12 will compete in the Summer Kickoff tournament this weekend June 6-8, MAYB now hosts teams from 27 states and Mexico at tournaments year-round held in 22 different states. Brian Huxman, who works in marketing for MAYB, says the organization will field 5,000 teams in their tournaments this year, with about 1,500 of those teams hailing from Kansas. The year's basketball tournaments culminate on July 31 with national tournaments for both boys and girls. Boys nationals will be held in Wichita and El Dorado this summer, and girls nationals in Oklahoma City and Stillwater. "The Summer Kickoff tournament is our biggest single event, although nationals is catching it," says Huxman. "We'll have close to 700 teams this year (at the Summer KIckoff). Teams are guaratneeted at least five games in a weekend. There will be basketball all over the Wichita area at about 50 sites and 70 gyms." So, basically, unless you're playing in Koch Arena, if you're in a gymnasium in the Wichita area from June 6-8, you'll be watching MAYB ball.