The Great Lakes Islands Basketball Tournament.
Thanks to the help of a generous Island donor, our girls and boys basketball teams made a four-day trip by plane to Beaver Island for the Great Lakes Islands Basketball tournament. This is the fourth year of the tournament, and this is the third time our school has participated. This year we competed against Beaver Island, and Put-in-Bay (located on Ohio’s South Bass Island). Mackinac Island was unable to make the trip this year due to weather conditions. Tournament games took place on Friday, and after the boys won both of their games, they were crowned tournament champions on the boys side. The young Island girls team was able to gain some valuable in game experience, and made great strides in just a few games. They took home third place overall.
Friday night, student-athletes were invited to the Beaver Island Community Center for a dinner, and group activities. These activities entailed all athletes being split up into mixed teams and competing in a variety of competitions. Our Island students made many new friends who live in similar island communities.
The fun continued on Saturday when four girls teams and four boys teams were made from combinations of players from all three islands. All of the games over the weekend were live streamed, and the live streams can be re-watched at the WPIB Youtube page.
Overall this trip would not have been possible without the support of our Washington Island community. We would like to thank the many generous donors who made it possible for us to fly to Beaver Island. This is an experience we will never forget, and underclassmen are already looking forward to traveling to Mackinac Island next year! Go Bucks!
Author: Aidan Purinton
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