United Hoops brings families to Lincoln

[June 05, 2019] 

Maybe you noticed a few more families in town weekend before last. The Seventh Annual United Hoops Spring Championships, which normally take place in Peoria, were brought to Lincoln this year on May 25th and 26th.

Kirk Whiteman of Lincoln College aided by his wife the CATCH Lady, Angie Whiteman, amazingly pulled together the change in location for the tournament in just 12 days.

The tournament hosted 70 teams of boys and girls grades third through ninth. Each team got a couple game times on both Saturday and Sunday.

Whiteman was deeply appreciative of the last minute assistance offered by local schools - Lincoln District 27: Central, Washington Monroe and Lincoln Junior High; Chester-East Lincoln and West Lincoln-Broadwell, the Lincoln Park District and Lincoln College. Games were played on eight courts in seven locations.

Whiteman said a number of families stayed the night in local hotels and many of the visitors ate meals out. He hopes the tournament may return to Lincoln in the future.

[Jan Youngquist]

More about United Hoops: United Hoops, previously called AYBT, is a youth basketball organization hosting several basketball tournaments in Central Illinois. Other locations include, Peoria, Springfield and Bloomington. The culmination of these local tournaments is the United Hoops National Tournament held in Bloomington, IL July 19-21, 2019. For more information about these tournaments, please visit YBNetwork.NET.