After the most attended Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions this past season, SPS is looking to top that next year by having one of the deepest fields in tournament history that includes a local and national powerhouse from the Ozarks.
When searching for the right teams to be in the Tournament of Champions, there are certain criteria SPS Athletic Director Josh Scott is looking for.
“We try to highlight who are the best juniors and sophomores in the country, who can we identify, and try to find a team with two or three of them on there,” Scott said.
Six teams travel to Springfield from out of the area, and two enter the bracket from the Ozarks.
Representing Springfield in 2023 will be the Kickapoo Chiefs.
“I think Kickapoo is going to be the best team in the area, if not the state next year,” Scott said.
“I think we got a lot of talent and kids that play a lot of basketball and play hard and play together, so those are all things that are key at our level to be successful,” Kickapoo coach Mitch McHenry said.
“It’s pretty cool, we have a great opportunity to just show our athleticism and how good we are to other teams,” said Kickapoo junior Zaide Lowery.
Kickapoo will be joined by Link Academy, an elite level prep team based on the Link Year campus in Branson.
“We’re excited with Link, that’s a team that everybody wanted. After Sierra Canyon last year the name that I’ve been getting all the time is ‘What about Link? What about Link?’ Coach Perry’s done an outstanding job I think they’re ranked fourth in the nation right now. They’re becoming a hotbed of basketball in the country,” added Scott.
Link Academy is relatively new, having just completed its first basketball season and making it to the national championship game.
Scott says Link’s addition is part of the yearly goal to make the next tournament better than the last.
“This just solidifies that we’re never done trying to make this event better. We had the opportunity this year to bring in Link and have two academies and then have six national powers and that’s what we did,” said Scott.
Now that the field is set we wait for the bracket to come out which comes just weeks before the tournament. Tournament weekend is set for January 12th-14th 2023.
