SPIT basketball family set for 28th tourney
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
When talking about the game they love, basketball players usually utter the phrase “for the love of the game.”
In each of the past 28 years, a group of players have been meeting in Speers Park to play the game they love. But for the SPIT (Speers Park Invitational Tournament) family, it’s more than that.
It’s about tradition. It’s about friendship, camaraderie, family and basketball.
This year’s tournament tips off at 9 a.m. Saturday with the expected end around 6 p.m.
Jonathan Smith started SPIT in 1993 when he was an eighth grader at Charleroi. After learning of a similar basketball tournament in Stockdale, Smith and his friends were deemed too young to play.
“I can’t take all the credit for the idea. A lot of people weren’t asked to play in the SIT (Stockdale) because we were too young, so we started our own,” Smith said.
Smith and his boys started the tournament on the last day of school. It was six to eight teams of 3-on-3 basketball.
Fast forward and the tournament has morphed into a monster. This season’s event, which takes place at Speers Park, will see 14 teams playing 4-on-4, full-court basketball.
“It was really nice because it was always strictly a Charleroi thing,” Smith said. “We just played for bragging rights. We got older and starting charging money that covered food, drinks, shirts and prize money. Every year it got bigger and bigger to the point we made it into a day for families and friends. It’s turned into a reunion for some of us.”
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