NEW ULM — As they have been doing annually for decades, The New Ulm Basketball Associateion (NUBBA) will be hosting another youth basketball tournament over the coming two weekends.

The boys tournament will be held on Feb. 10 and 11, while the girls tournament will be on Feb. 17 and 18. Over 100 boys teams and 50 girls teams from Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota will attend the tournament, with grades ranging from third to eighth grade.

“We have different brackets for grades three through eight,” NUBBA Board President Jim Hanson said. “We have been doing this for I don’t know how many decades in New Ulm. It’s been one of the most highly attended ones in southern Minnesota. We get teams from a lot of the smaller communities in Minnesota that come as well as Mankato and some from the metro, so we have a really nice blend of teams that show up.”

Eight different sponsors are supporting the event, which will be held at three different sites — Martin Luther College, Vogel Recreation Center and New Ulm Middle School for the boys tournament, and Vogel, the middle school and New Ulm High School for the girls tournament.

“The players have T-Shirts for those who get first and second place,” Hanson said. “There’s medals, there’s nice things going on for the weekend for the kids.”

Hanson is one of 12 parents and other adults who serve on the NUBBA board that help organize the event every year. Those dozen people put in dozens of hours on Tournament weekends to make sure the event runs smoothly, along with help from other parents and coaches.

New Ulm will have teams in every grade group competing in the event, as well as teams from the Sleepy Eye, Springfield, Hutchinson and many other cities in the area.

“Our local communities are well represented,” Hanson said.

Some things that draw the teams from all around southern Minnesota are the chance to visit local stores, cafes and restaurants, games refereed by licensed basketball officials, and concessions that sell locally made foods.

“We have some locally made sauerkraut to go with our ambassador hot dogs,” Hanson said. “So that makes our concessions stands a little unique. We also get some pizza from Happy Joe’s, we get stuff from Jimmy Johns. A lot of these communities don’t have a Jimmy John’s or a Happy Joe’s or a very nice local woman who makes amazing sauerkraut.”

Hanson wanted to emphasize that MLC would be a new location for the boys tournament and that some games would be played there for the first time, and to expect higher traffic between the sites during those weekends.

“The fact that we’ve got 100 boys teams coming in over two days this weekend and 50 girls teams next weekend, we just wanted to let everybody know that it was going to be a busy weekend in New Ulm,” Hanson said.

Attendance will be $5 for adults, free for students and seniors.