Young basketball players who attend Sudbury Five games and dream of hitting the hardwood at Sudbury Community Arena will soon get their chance.

Representatives from Sudbury’s entry in the National Basketball League of Canada, along with coaches and players from local secondary schools, gathered at College Notre Dame on Tuesday to announce the inaugural Sudbury Five Invitational, a senior boys tournament featuring eight squads from across the Northeast, to be held at the downtown arena Jan. 17-18.

“I remember going to these big tournaments back in the States,” recalled Logan Stutz, Five head coach and general manager, shortly after the press conference at CND. “You travel, you spend the night, you get excited, parents come out and support you, and you’re on a stage where yes, maybe you have seen the same team, maybe you have seen the player, but it’s a bigger stage. It’s exciting and it’s a chance to see what you can do, see what your team can do.”

The tournament features local teams Notre Dame, Lasalle, Lockerby and Lo-Ellen, as well as Algonquin from North Bay, White Pines from Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins High and O’Gorman, both from Timmins.

The event coincides with a pair of Five home games — Friday against the KW Titans, at 7:05 p.m., and Sunday against the Island Storm, at 2 p.m.

“We’re going to have four games on the same court on Friday, then our game, so it’s a lot of basketball and it’s something to get excited about,” said Stutz, who can be spotted often at high school games in the city, during both the girls season in fall and the boys season during the winter.

“It’s growing, it’s getting better, there’s no doubt about that,” said Stutz, assessing the local talent pool. “And for us to put this platform out there, hopefully it gets kids even more excited, to practice more. Anything we can do to help the game, that’s what we want to do, and making this tournament gives us another opportunity to give back.”

Action tips off Jan. 17 at 11 a.m., with Lasalle facing Algonquin. Lockerby takes on Timmins at 12:30 p.m., White Pines faces Notre Dame at 2 p.m. and Lo-Ellen goes up against O’Gorman at 3:30 p.m.

Play continues throughout the day on Jan. 18, leading to a consolation final at 5 p.m. and championship final at 6:30 p.m.

“I’m pumped,” said Damien Schoengen, a player for the Lockerby Vikings. “I think it’s going to be a really awesome thing to showcase for the community all the talent that is in the high school basketball game. I want to get more people to show up to high school basketball games, because we really put in a lot of work, we go toe to toe pretty often, and we fight hard, every inch. We’re going to play Lasalle tomorrow night in regular season and we plan on taking it to them. They’re undefeated right now in regular season, but all the teams are really good.”

“As soon as we heard about this from our coach and teacher rep, we have just been off-the-walls excited, about all the activities, all the things we’re going to be doing and how many games we’re playing” said Ethan Noche, another Lockerby representative. “I go to watch the Sudbury Five play pretty often and it looks like an amazing court to play on, so I’m really excited, visualizing it in my head.”

Aside from being a participating team, College Notre Dame has a personal connection to the Five — second-year forward Georges Serresse starred for the Alouettes before starting a successful career with Laurentian University, then turning pro in Europe.

“Just growing up in Sudbury, knowing what the talent level for basketball is like in the North, I think having this tournament is really going to expose it, so people can see what kind of talent we do have up here,” said Serresse, who also spoke at Tuesday’s presser. “It’s good for the local players, the local high schools, local teams that are trying to get better at the game of basketball.”

Community involvement has been a staple for the local NBLC franchise, even before it began play in fall of 2018, and Serresse believes the Sudbury Five Invitational fits well with that mandate.

“I find Sudbury did fall in love with the game of basketball,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the team, for the organization, to give back and that’s really important to everyone inside the organization.”

Admission will be $10 for the weekend, or free with a valid ticket to either of the Jan. 17 or Jan. 19 Five games. Weekend passes will go on sale at the Sudbury Community Arena Box office on the opening day of the tournament, at 10 a.m.

Participants will be recognized during halftime of the game against KW and each team will have one player represent them in a skills competition.

“I’m excited for my boys,” said Martin Nadeau, coach of the Notre Dame senior boys team. “They were like, ‘We’re playing in the Five arena, on their floor?’ and I said yes. I’m excited, too, be considered one of the top elite teams here in the North, to have the invite and to compete against the other seven teams. It’s going to be a grind, it’s going to be tough, because there are eight really good teams in this tournament, and the atmosphere is going to be different. It’s not just a regular high school gym. We’re going to be playing in the arena, where who knows how many people come out and watch and support this. Eventually, I hope this tournament grows.”

Stutz does hope to bring in more teams in the future. Organizers also plan to add a girls division.

“I’d love to see it expand to more teams, maybe from farther away, so we could bring some new teams for Sudbury teams to play and people to see,” Stutz said. “There’s some great talent out there and maybe you’ll go to a game and watch a kid, then see him play four years later in NCAA Division I and you could say, ‘Oh yeah, I saw that kid back in Sudbury in 2020,’ or something like that. I remember having those moments and there’s always good stories like that and now, we’re building the same kind of culture here in Sudbury.”

bleeson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ben_leeson