This weekend is going to be psycho.
My dad runs a competitive summer basketball program for high school boys called Minnesota Pump N Run. MN Pump N Run is a newly-formed youth basketball program, created in partnership with Double Pump, Inc. based in Northridge, California and Adidas Grassroots Basketball, based in Portland, Oregon. The MN Pump N Run program intends to identify and pursue the top youth basketball players in the State of Minnesota. The goal is to field extremely competitive teams to help increase the visibility of Minnesota basketball at the national level.
Double Pump, Inc. founded in 1994 is one of the leading organizations in conducting youth tournaments and camps. Double Pump, Inc. also operates a college scouting service and a professional placement service for college coaches and athletic directors. Founders Dana and David Pump are widely viewed as two of the most powerful and influential people in youth and college basketball. The Pump brothers have been recognized on several occasions by “The Sporting News” as two of the “Top 100 Most Powerful in Sports”. Check out this article, http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13657, where they are listed as the #36 most influential in sports!
My dad hosts two tournaments each year; one is the “Pump N Run Spring Classic” which is this weekend. My dad works really hard for months getting competitive teams from around the country to come play in this tournament, then it all comes down to three days of insanity. I have been helping with my dad’s tournaments for quite some time and now Jason has the joy of adding tournament worker to his resume as well. My dad puts in all the work ahead of time but when tournament time comes his job is to schmooze and network, my job is to make sure the tournament is running smoothly; I have to make sure the concession stand is stocked and staffed, that all courts have a scorekeeper and a clock runner, that all game results are correctly added to the bracket, prevent college coaches from being anywhere near parents or players because of the no contact rule and anything else that may pop in the course of the three days.
This year should be interesting because now my responsibility lies with Coffee Buzz, so Jason and I are going to be running around crazy making sure one of us is helping at the tournament and one of us is here running Coffee Buzz. It will be fun but it will be exhausting. I am very excited though because Coffee Buzz is providing coffee and muffins to be sold at the concession stand on Saturday and Sunday morning, so hopefully that will get us some good exposure. Maybe this year I’ll be the one networking and schmoozing!