Dust Bowl getting teams together for late July event
Jul. 8—Byron Owen is looking for good basketball crowds each of the five nights that the 49th annual Dust Bowl will be going on later in July at Kendall-Perkins Park.
Owen is the president and tournament director of the Dust Bowl.
"Last year we went four days, and to me it wasn't so much the basketball, but the people were glad and excited to get out," Owen said. "The crowds were great ever night. We played on both courts, had games going on at the same time. We had seven or eight games each night. We had 20 sets of bleachers around the court, it just felt like people were glad to get back out."
COVID-19 caused the 2020 Dust Bowl to be cancelled.
The five nights of outdoor summer basketball will be July 19-23, with Saturday being championship night. Games will get started at 7 p.m. because of the recent heat. There will be a Kid's Day on July 20 from 6-8 p.m.
The registration deadline for teams has been extended through Friday, July 8. Owen can be reached at (270) 302-6310 and Othello "Big O" Milan is at (270) 302-5174. Registration can also be done at www.owensborodustbowl.org.
"We added a night to the tournament because last year we played games indoors at Owensboro Catholic Saturday morning, then went back outdoors for the finals," Owen said.
There will be 3-on-3 games in each age group.
"We've talked about the popularity of 3-on-3," Owen said. "This year we eliminated the 35-over division, and I wanted to bring back the 6-foot-under division, but we won't be doing that this year. We've had a lot of teams in the 6-foot-under before."
The Dust Bowl committee will meet Saturday night to do the draw for the Dust Bowl. "We will put everything together for the tournament that night," Owen said.
