Fountain Hills played host to a team camp and basketball tournament for boys and girls high school teams on June 2-3.

According to coach Greg Shupe, the program had a fantastic turnout, with 20 teams representing 18 schools from across the state.

Along with the Falcon squad from Fountain Hills, teams represented included North Pointe Prep, Veritas Prep, Joy Christian, Kingman, Monument Valley, Page, Kingman Academy, Gilbert Christian, Benjamin Franklin, Scottsdale Christian, Payson, Northwest Christian, Winslow, Tuba City, Horizon Honors, Buena and Camp Verde.

Shupe was joined in organizing the tournament by high school coaches Matt Keating and Amanda Baca.

At the end of two days of competition spread across both the high school and middle school courts, the team from Kingman earned the crown for the boys tournament while the ladies’ tournament went to Scottsdale Christian. The local boys made it deep into the tournament, losing to Kingman in the championship game by a narrow difference of 45-43.

According to Shupe, this tournament has proven a nice way to provide some extra funding for the high school athletics program.

“FHHS athletics is self-funded and we hope to make this a yearly tradition to both raise funds for the Falcon basketball programs and also to bring many new visitors to Fountain Hills during the slower summer months,” Shupe said. “The tournament was sponsored by Body Armor and a number of local businesses including Senior Taco, That Guy’s Pizza, Safeway, Lexington Hotel & Suites, Starbucks and Target.

All told, the event brought 700 visitors to Fountain Hills, with Shupe adding that he was very pleased with how the whole thing shook out.

“The event was very successful for both FHHS and local businesses who enjoyed the large number of visitors,” Shupe said. “We received a lot of positive feedback from the teams on both our schools and their experience visiting Fountain Hills.”

Shupe said the plan is to go bigger and better next year, with a June 2018 tournament planned to host about 40 teams over a three-day period.