Sitch Tourney canceled

The 33rd annual Pete Sitch Memorial Basketball Tournament, which raises money for the scholarship they award to a Lincoln student each year is among the myriad events canceled due to restrictions related to the coronavirus, COVID-19

"It all came down to Governor Bullock's announcement to close all Montana schools beginning Monday, March 16," said Dave Sitch, one of the tournament organizers. "We didn't want to cancel the event but have been forced to do so. We apologize to all of the players, supporters, as well as everyone in the community who come out to support and watch the event."

"Unfortunately, we're also not able to reschedule it for this year mainly because the scheduling would be almost impossible. I do want to emphasize, though, that we've been doing this tournament since 1988 and we will definitely be back next year," he said.

The family also uses the tournament as a time to gather for their annual reunion. "We're all still planning to come up this weekend to get together," he said. State guidelines have advised cancellation of gatherings of 50 or more people and Sitch wants folks to know that even though they are still planning to get together, they are under that 50-person limit and are being cautious.

The tournament's cancellation doesn't put the annual scholarship in jeopardy, however. "I've always had one year's scholarship in the bank in case anything ever happened. I never imagined it would be anything like this, I always anticipated it in the event of a snowstorm or something." Sitch said.

They are currently going over the applications they have received. They hope to now build the back-up fund so they have that padding for the future. If anyone would like to donate to the scholarship to help with this, they can email [email protected].