Thursday, August 16, 2018

Tip-Off Classic to go international

The Rockford School District will announce the field for this year's 205 Tip-Off Classic the week of August 27 - and there will be even more firsts for the tournament that will be entering its fifth year.

The tournament will again feature some of the top teams from Illinois and Wisconsin as well as Florida. This year, for the first time, Rockford will be welcoming teams from California and Toronto, Canada.

The 205 Tip-Off Classic has had 23 play in it since it was launched in 2015. The entrants have included schools from Elgin, Chicago, Freeport, Belvidere and Rockford in Illinois, Janesville, Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin as well as teams from Indiana and Florida.

The games are played over five days at all four RPS high schools. Last year, the famed program from Chicago Whitney Young was in the tournament for the first time and the Dolphins went undefeated.

Note: The Canada team ended up not entering because it would not be sanctioned by the IHSA.