A league of our own: Tri-Cities gets AAU league

Kennewick’s Mark Bayless has coached youth basketball for six years in the Tri-Cities.

Almost all of that time has been spent on the road.

“We’ve done the Yakima (Three Rivers League) since the boys were in second grade,” said Bayless, who now coaches the seventh-grade boys club team called the Southridge Suns. “A lot of your time is giving up your Saturdays. It’s an all day thing. Why do that when you can go a couple of blocks to play?”

For years, Tri-City youth basketball teams playing under Amateur Athletic Union rules and guidelines had to travel to the Yakima area — sometimes a 180-mile roundtrip — to play one league game on a Saturday.

It was even worse when the team they would play also came from the Tri-Cities, and the two teams would do battle in a gymnasium in Zillah or Selah.

For parents, the time commitment and the costs were a burden.

Kennewick’s Robert Wirtzberger, who spearheaded the move for a Tri-City league, estimates that one parent taking a child up the Yakima Valley to play one game on a Saturday costs $50 in gas and food.

“If you take a family — Mom, Dad and a couple kids — it’s anywhere from $350 to $500 for a season,” Wirtzberger said.

Now, after 27 years, the Tri-Cities will have its own AAU league. Teams from Pendleton, Connell, Moses Lake, Grandview, Hermiston, Walla Walla and Sunnyside also will play in the Tri-City league.

That’s about 1,100 kids.

After an appeal process that took a month, the national body for AAU gave the Tri-Cities league, run by the 3citieshoops group, the go-ahead for the winter season that begins this weekend.

One of nation’s strongest AAUs

The Inland Empire AAU, which encompasses all of Eastern Washington, has been one of the nation’s strongest AAU organizations.

Paul Campbell, who lives in Yakima, is the region’s director.

He says there are 3,000 kids who play AAU basketball in Benton and Franklin counties and counties north. There are, he says, over 5,000 kids playing AAU basketball in Yakima and Kittitas counties alone.

Back in the late 1980s, Yakima was very strong with AAU, thanks to a healthy relationship with area schools and teams being able to use the gyms. The Tri-City region didn’t have that strong of a relationship between AAU teams and gyms.

But despite the better relationship between AAU and Tri-City area schools, gyms weren’t being used to their potential.

“Last year, I coached a fourth-grade boys team,” said Kennewick’s Joe Crowther. “I couldn’t have drawn up a worse schedule for us. Our home games were all against local teams. Any games against teams from Prosser, Sunnyside or farther were road games for us.”

A push for a league of their own

But over the years, a desire for a Tri-City league surfaced, and much of it has come from the strength of Tri-City club teams such as the Richland Gunners, Big River, the Kamiakin Basketball Club and the Southridge Club.

“I really attribute a lot of credit for the Tri-City league to these programs,” Wirtzberger said. “They wanted it, they worked together, and they’re still competitive.”

Wirtzberger, his brother Joe and Mike Conner, who run the 3citieshoops organization, asked the national AAU board if it was possible for the Tri-Cities to have its own league. They also applied for an AAU license last summer.

Campbell denied the request.

“I don’t have anything against Robert or the Tri-Cities teams,” Campbell said. “But I denied it based on that we already have an existing league.”

Campbell is a firm believer in not having teams step on each other’s toes. He said that a tournament being held at Southridge on the same day as one scheduled at Burbank does neither tournament any good.

But the new AAU national recruiting chairman overturned Campbell’s denial. That chairman also fell ill and was out for a month, so Campbell couldn’t appeal.

That meant the Tri-City fall league proceeded.

They were able to put together a fall AAU league in the Tri-Cities with 83 teams — 50 boys teams and 33 girls teams — in grades 2 to 8.

It was, Wirtzberger said, a successful fall league.

Winter league problems

The 3citieshoops group had the OK to run under the AAU banner until March of this year.

But Campbell denied the group’s move to have a winter league.

The Yakima Valley Three Rivers League, he said, had been running for 27 years with no problems.

“As you look at this,” Campbell told the Herald, “we have a league going on. All he did was pull teams out of the league. Our league has 275 teams in Yakima. It used to be 320. The real reason for denying them was we already had an established league. I’ve only denied two sanctions over the past 30 years: this one and another on a guy who was crooked.”

Wirtzberger started an online petition that was sent to the national AAU board.

It had comments from parents and coaches.

Wirtzberger had hoped to have a few hundred sign the petition. He got 1,052 instead.

If that wasn’t enough, there was precedent, 3citieshoops’ appeal said. Campbell had allowed Spokane, Moses Lake and Wenatchee to start their own AAU leagues.

The Tri-City group’s biggest concerns were the travel time, the costs associated with that travel, and safety issues based on winter road conditions.

The Tri-City group appealed Campbell’s decision in early December and finally got the good news this week from the national board.

Wirtzberger said the group was ready to go independent of AAU if necessary.

“We had things set up and could be ready in a day’s time,” he said.

The advantage of running under the AAU banner is the insurance.

“There’s liability insurance for all districts’ sports complexes,” Wirtzberger said. “Athletes also get supplemental insurance.”

Had the group gone independent, Wirtzberger said they were ready to go with another insurance carrier.

Tri-City AAU’s future

Wirtzberger said the number of teams for the new Tri-Cities league is now at 119.

“We picked up 44 teams that are brand new,” he said. “And next year, we want to have a Tri-City board.”

Campbell says there are no hard feelings.

“If they want to play, great,” Campbell said. “The biggest challenge in the Tri-Cities over the years is finding officials to work the games.”

Campbell gives Wirtzberger a lot of credit.

“Robert has done his due diligence,” said Campbell, who wants to make sure Wirtzberger is in for the long haul. “I am concerned as to how long this will last. I am concerned about the parks and rec departments. I think they’re down 150 kids this year. Is that because of this league? We’ve always had a good relationship with them.”

There will be follow up, Campbell says.

“As part of the agreement, there are a couple of things that Robert didn’t do that he’s going to follow up on,” Campbell said. “We agreed to have a conversation. I still have a right to deny (the league) next year.”

That’s next year.

This season, Wirtzberger’s got big plans. After the regular season ends March 5, the league will hold all-star games for each age division, with each team getting at least one all-star representative.

But that’s not going to be the thing that makes him happy.

“I’m already happy,” Wirtzberger said. “My happiness is not going to change, because the league is going.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 9:11 PM with the headline "A league of our own: Tri-Cities gets AAU league."