Coming soon to a gym near you–June!

We’re basically one-third of the way through “summer ball,” with our state champions already crowned and the actual season of summer almost but not quite ready for your enjoyment. Such is the topsy-turvy world of “summer ball,” sometimes alternatively known as AAU or “grassroots” or club ball or “rugby,” as some have described it.

But, OK, enough with the editorial opinions. Just the facts, ma’am. Well, the fact is that the second one-third of summer ball, now beginning and consisting for all intents and purposes of the month of June, is the “local exhibition” phase. For the most part, teams will be staying home, playing in tournaments hosted by local clubs such as Crossfire, the Heat, North Tartan, the Stars, the Suns and OMG, have I forgotten anyone?

As best as we can determine, that means 7 tournaments though, OMG, I’m pretty sure I probably have forgotten something here. My apologies. Of course, there are also a half dozen out-of-town tournaments and, again, that’s not counting the ones that we should have mentioned but haven’t heard about yet. But, in total, Minnesota teams will have approximately twice as games on Minnesota soil as elsewhere.

All of the numbers here are based on a search of published club schedules. The ones I could find are Comets, Crossfire, Fury (including So Minn Fury), Metro Stars, Stars and Tartan. For the Heat and the Suns, I only know their schedules for tournaments they are sponsoring themselves.

Anyway, here’s the lay of the land for June as best as I can determine.

June 2-4

We start the month with dueling tournaments, exhibit A in the rivalries among the local clubs. Some say the dueling tournaments reflect the desire of certain clubs to avoid games against other certain clubs. Others say, no, it’s about the clubs needing to host a tournament or three in order to raise funds to support their mission. Either way, in this case we’re talking about:

• The Battle on the Hardwood, sponsored by the Crossfire and North Tartan and taking place in Lakeville. Crossfire will be there, but even Tartan is only sending 4 teams.

• Meanwhile the Stars will be at their own tournament, the Summer Kickoff in Bloomington, along with 7 Comets teams and 3 Fury. Fury does not appear to be participating in Tartan’s tournament.

Based on a look at as many club schedules as we could find, it appears that the Stars Summer Kickoff will have about twice as many Minnesota teams as the Battle on the Hardwood, but both will have out-town-teams as well. I won’t know which is the bigger to-do until the brackets are published sometime next week.

June 9-11

The Suns 5th annual Xplosion is the only known local tournament, and it too is held in Bloomington. It “sold out” the previous 4 years. In addition to the Suns, the Fury and Stars at least will send a few teams.

Meanwhile, Tartan, Metro Stars and Comets will send a total of just 5 teams to the Midwest Girls Classic in Ames, IA.

June 16-18

Things heat up the 3rd weekend of the month with North Tartan’s Summer Jam. Surprisingly it is by far the biggest tournament (other than the AAU Prelim and Tournament) of the summer as measured by the number of Minnesota teams participating. (Overall, the Meltdown in July seems like a bigger deal, but not apparently in terms of local participation.)

Surprisingly, the Summer Jam will have more Stars teams (15) than Tartan (9), and Fury also has 13 (including 5 So Minn Fury). Crossfire is sending 7 teams and Comets 4.

The Heat will also host the Summer Showcase this same weekend in Coon Rapids. Apparently they had 128 teams last year, but no major MN club not named the Heat is known to be participating.

June 23-25

The following weekend features the Great Lakes Shootout in Menomonie which typically gets pretty good Minnesota participation, though 5 Stars teams are the only ones identified so far. Then there’s the Cheesehead Challenge in Waukesha. 4 Tartan and a Fury team are scheduled to be there.

Finally there’s the Heat Check at Anoka-Ramsey CC. I cannot see where the Heat is involved, and only Tartan among all the major clubs is known to be sending any teams.

June 29-July 1

The Great Plains Alliance is one of the few tournaments to have a weekend all to itself, if you consider it’s being on the weekend closest to the 4th of July to be “to itself.” 11 Fury teams, 8 Comets, 2 Stars and a Tartan (8th Coley) are known to be participating.

And Then There’s July

We will preview July at a later date, but suffice it to say that it is the month when teams that are more elite, more serious, better funded, etc., etc., will be traveling around the country to locales such as Ames, IA (again); Atlanta; Frisco, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City; Las Vegas, NV; Louisville, KY; and more. The Tartan Meltdown is the only really major tournament hosted locally.

But, returning to June: What is there left to prove?

There are questions still unsettled by play in May. Yes, we know who the state champions are, and they won’t change. That’s settled. But, who’s the better or best team, really. There are a bunch of evenly matched teams that can still shake up the rankings.

The 2018s. Tartan is #1 and is unlikely to land anywhere else. But Fury Elite, Metro Stars Wiese and Stars Hersch have all had their moments and any one of them could end up #2 by the end of the season. “We’re #2” may not be much of a rallying cry, but teams will go tooth and nail for a chance to, well, whisper, at least, “We’re #2.” All 3 will play in the Summer Jam, and that is the only place where they will cross paths in June.

The 2019s. I’m thinking that Crossfire Theisen, Fury Blue, Stars Nelson and very likely even Stars Amundson are thinking they could take state champion North Tartan 10th EYBL if given the chance. Is anybody going to get a chance? With 5 teams still in the conversation, you’d think there would beopportunities for a little showdown action. But, there’s only these two:

• First and foremost, there’s the Summer Jam—all 5 will be there

• Summer Kickoff—Stars Amundson, Stars Nelson

The 2020s. Fury Blue has now lost a couple of close ones to Tartan 9th, previously thought by us media types as unbeatable. In fact, after a 3 point loss in the Prelims, Fury had the state championship game won until an improbable Tartan bucket sent it into OT. Once again, both will be in the same building once this month, and it will be at the Summer Jam.

The 2021s. If you want to, you can declare Tayler Hill 8th Elite to be unbeatable. Or, you can wait and see. If you do the latter, there’s lots of opportunities for the top 7 teams to match up in June.

• Stars Hersch and Tayler Hill are scheduled for the Kickoff

• All 7 teams are scheduled for the Summer Jam

• Fury, Stars Hersch and Tartan 8 Coley are schedule for the Great Plains

So much for June. What could possibly go wrong?