Granite City Classic to Be the Biggest In Its History [PODCAST]

The Granite City Classic boys and girls basketball tournaments December 29-30, 2021 will consist of the largest field of varsity teams in the tournament's history. Justin Hegna from Breakdown Sports USA joined me on WJON this week. Breakdown Sports organizes and schedules teams and venues for this event. Hegna says 78 varsity teams will play in the 2-day classic. Each team will play 2 games at predetermined times against predetermined opponents. The boys games will be played at St. Cloud State, St. John's and Apollo High school with the girls games to be played at Technical and Sartell-St. Stephen High Schools. Listen to my conversation with Justin below.

Local schools participating include Sauk Rapids-Rice, Sartell-St. Stephen, Rocori, Apollo, Tech, Albany and Foley. Hegna and his team have also set teams but not the dates and times for their Tip-Off Classic at Minnetonka High School.

Hegna says it's great to be back to normal with a busy summer schedule of boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball leagues. He says in 2020 they were able to play a portion of their fall basketball league before it was cut short due to the spread of COVID-19.

The University of Minnesota has a new head men's basketball coach in Ben Johnson. Hegna says Johnson's staff right after being hired reached out to him at Breakdown Sports to establish a relationship for their materials and tournament to help with recruiting in the state. Hegna says the Pitino coaching staff didn't work with them much. Hegna says Johnson will have success recruiting Minnesota kids based on his commitment to recruiting and connections with athletes in the state.