Local hoops March Madness comes to Carver Center with age-group tournament featuring 70 future stars

February 28, 2024 at 11:30 p.m.

Derek Vincent works with young basketball players who will participate in March Madness at Carver Center starting Saturday, Mar. 2 and running every Saturday through Mar. 23. (Courtesy photo of Derek Vincent)

The Port Chester basketball Rams failed to make the Section 1 hoops championship playoffs currently underway, the Lady Rams were one and done, and both teams are coming off another losing season, but there's still a local tournament about to get underway stocked with a galaxy of future stars.

Port Chester's version of college basketball's March Madness national tournament Big Dance comes to the Carver Center Saturday (3/2) starting at 10 a.m. and will run every Saturday thereafter through Mar. 23.

More than 70 youngsters will compete in various age group games featuring teams of boys and girls from the Port Chester School District's third grade through Middle School.

It is the fifth annual March Madness Tournament sponsored by the Beyond the Game Corporation (BTGC).

"Our goal is to help provide a training ground as well as a showcase for local youngsters to become future Port Chester basketball players on the modified, junior varsity and varsity level," according to Derek Vincent, an ex-Ram basketball great as well as a BTGC spokesperson and guiding spirit.

The organization will provide participants with free BTGC jerseys, socks and sneakers.

Carver Center is donating the court time so March Madness players can learn the basic ABCs of the game, according to Vincent.

Local businesses, corporate executives and Port Chester basketball aficionados have underwritten the costs of the tournament, he said.

And there will be an awards ceremony for the winners after the final game.

It is just one step towards turning around the losing high school basketball culture.

It is a far cry from the Port Chester basketball glory days back in the day when Vincent played on his way to a college and pro career overseas.

But you have to start somewhere. And BTGC thinks the March Madness Tournament is an important first step. Of which many more are needed. But that takes time, money, planning and community hard work and interest in reviving a dying and losing high school hoops program. Because without that interest, motivation and dedication, nothing will change. And the ball is in Port Chester's court. But March Madness at the Carver Center helps because the tournament gives impressionable youth a glimpse of what post-season play is like.