Jackson County Central boys basketball coach Alex Hein was trying to think of a unique way to end the summer season for his team before heading in different directions for the fall season until he gets them back in the gym in November.
He landed on an idea: a 3-on-3 tournament.
The inaugural JCC 3-on-3 tournament is scheduled for Tuesday at Dumont Park in Jackson. Play is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.
However, Hein will be monitoring the weather.
A heat advisory is in effect Tuesday with heat index values as high as 100 anticipated. That could cause a delay, postponement or cancellation. A decision will be made on Tuesday and announced on the team's Twitter and Facebook accounts.
If and when the tournament is held, it should be a great celebration for the program.
"It came out of some different things I wanted to do," Hein commented. "I wanted to try to find a good way to end summer for the team. In the past we've ended at a tournament, but I wanted to have a get-together off the court and I also wanted to bring some of the alumni back and even have the community involved. The 3-on-3 tournament was one idea I kicked around and asked a few people about and some people were interested so I said 'let's do it.'
"It's going to be pretty informal. There's no registration or fee. I'm not even going to have a bracket set up until I get there. We'll just get it started and see how it goes and then get some feedback."
Hein said the response has been positive.
"There's a good buzz from our players and alumni," he said. "Some wanted to do it on a weekend so they could have an easier time getting there. I put it on a Tuesday night because that's when our basketball league night is, so I knew our players would be free on a Tuesday night since we're done with our league. I hope it's something we can grow and do some more with it next year."
Hein said his current players put in some three-of-three work last week to get ready.
"Our last summer workout was on Thursday and our guys wanted to play three-on-three so they could prepare for the tournament," Hein said. "So that was cool to see and have them ask around and see who's available and get their own teams ready. It's also cool to see the alumni get back in touch with each other and get their teams going. It sounds like there will be at least eight teams. It should be a good mix of current players, alumni and even a couple of parents."
And Jordan Hutzler and his mohawk apparently will return, thanks to Twitter:
"It sounds like Jordan will have a mohawk. I was telling people to retweet it because I would love to see the return of the mohawk," Hein said.
It's pretty short notice, so Hutzler probably won't have a 2016 state tournament level mohawk, but maybe if the 3-on-3 tourney becomes an annual event it can return in the future.
Look for details on how the summer went for the JCC boys basketball team in a future newsletter.