palm springs 622

What: Palm Springs Boys HS Tournament
When: June 25-27
Where: Palm Springs High School
Who: 16 teams, including Cathedral City, Dos Pueblos, Buckley, Banning, Calvary Chapel, S.D. Lincoln, Palm Desert, South Torrance, La Sierra, Montebello, La Habra, Claremont and Righetti

The first installment of the annual Palm Springs boys high school team tournament will be played this weekend at Palm Springs High School's newly remodeled gym, and we understand that part of that remodel included some really nice air-conditioning. And if this past weekend's Desert City Classic played at five sites throughout the Palm Springs-Palm Desert-Cathedral City area was any indication (and it's supposed to have been) this weekend will be a scorcher too, with temperatures well over 100 degrees. So air-conditioning is something that's not just a luxury, it's a necessity.

This year the PS Tournament organizers have made the first tournament much more competitive than it was last year when it went head-to-head with the Desert City Classic. This year instead of running at the same time, the organizers decided to do a girls' tournament the same weekend as the Desert City Classic, and to run the boys' tournament a week later, and of course it makes a lot of sense, especially since the Desert City event is a much bigger tournament, and by rescheduling, Palm Springs now gets to draw a couple of teams who probably would be in the other tournament, including host Cathedral City.

This is not a pool play tournament, but there is a three-game guarantee, just keep in mind that some of those three games (in the event of two losses) might be played by the end of Saturday, which means that about half the teams will be long gone by the time the Championship is played at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

In any event, here's the schedule. Just remember that the winners go to the Championship bracket, and the losters drop to the Consolation side of the bracket. Games 1-8 will be played Friday; Games 9-24 will be played Saturday, and the remainder of the games will be played on Sunday, June 27. Here's the first round:

Game 1	12:00 p.m.	Palm Desert v. So. Torrance
Game 2	1:00 p.m.	Palm Springs v. Calvary Chapel
Game 3	2:00 p.m.	La Sierra v. TBA
Game 4	3:00 p.m.	Cathedral City v. Montebello
Game 5	4:00 p.m.	Dos Pueblos v. Montebello 2
Gme 6	5:00 p.m.	La Habra v. Banning
Gmae 7	6:00 p.m.	Claremont v. Righetti
Gmae 8	7:00 p.m.	Lincoln v. Buckley

We'll be out in Palm Springs this weekend checking out at least some of the action, and we can't wait to see how teams like Cathedral City fare, with some great young players like Thomas Shewmake and Gerald DeVance, Dos Pueblos with Damon Jenkins and Steven Graybill, Buckley with David Gale, Adam Pastor and Colin Ward-Henninger, and a few other teams we haven't seen in a few years, like Righetti and San Diego Lincoln. More on these other teams as we get information.