Eight girls’ basketball teams will be descending on Newhall Church of the Nazarene on Thursday for the start of Trinity Classical Academy’s inaugural “Reason for the Season” tournament.
Santa Clarita Christian is scheduled to take part in the slate of games, along with Palmdale Academy Charter, Agoura, Royal, Viewpoint, Simi Valley and Maranatha.
Trinity head coach James De Monbrun said he wanted to try hosting his own tournament after taking his teams to quite a few over his 20 years as a coach.
“I’ve never hosted a tournament,” De Monbrun said in a phone interview. “I’ve been to a million of them, and I thought, ‘You know what, let’s host one. Let’s see if we can bring some eyes and some exposure to our school, our program where we play, but also give some other teams a chance to play some like opponents.’”
Though only eight teams are in this year’s bracket, De Monbrun said he’s starting small but hopes to have the tournament grow in the future. He’s also learning how much work goes into these big events, and how with Trinity being a smaller school, even his players will be helping out when not playing themselves.
“We talk a lot about selfless service as a team,” De Monbrun said. “We talk about selfless service and serving others. And so our girls are going to be working the event. They’re going to be helping out all over the gym, whether it be concessions or tickets up front, you know, going through and straightening up bathrooms or checking the bleachers for trash. We just want to put on a really nice event for schools.”
The action is set to kick off Thursday at 3 p.m. when Palmdale Academy and Agoura face off, followed by Royal and Viewpoint at 4:30 p.m., SCCS and Simi Valley at 6 p.m., and Trinity in the nightcap against Maranatha at 7:30 p.m.
Semifinal games are scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The championship game is slated for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Consolation games are also on the docket.
