Waubonsie opts to end tournament
Brooks College Prep's 73-66 victory over the host Warriors on Thursday night capped a 27-year run of the Waubonsie Valley Matt Laurich Memorial Warrior Christmas Classic.
Declining attendance and rising costs to operate the tournament made it less “cost-effective,” Waubonsie Valley athletic director Mike Rogowski said on Thursday, as he watched the third-place game between Aurora Central Catholic and Plainfield Central.
“During the last couple years we've been following the attendance real closely and the numbers have been going down,” he said.
“I haven't crunched the final numbers, but we used to draw really well, especially for Waubonsie. The third-place game here tonight we got about 150 people. We used to get close to 1,000. That really helped make it a top-flight tournament.”
The main expense was basketball officials, three apiece for the four-day tournament's 16 games. That ran about $3,400, Rogowski said. Add tournament workers, security, T-shirts for the players, and food and drink from a hospitality room regarded as one of the best on the holiday circuit, and expenses had outpaced receipts.
Participating teams, on annual contracts, were informed of the tournament's closing Wednesday and Thursday.
Thus ends a tourney that in 1984 presented its first all-tournament team featuring players from West Chicago, Marmion, Kaneland and Richards.
Over the years — 11 under former Waubonsie athletic director Dick Kerner, the last 16 under Rogowski — most valuable players have been Waubonsie-heavy, reflecting the Warriors' strength. On the list is two-time winner R.J. Luke and Sean Edmondson, uncle of 2010 all-tourney pick Tyler Edmondson.
The tournament was named after Waubonsie's first football coach. Laurich also was the school's math department chairperson and a basketball official who assigned referees to the tournament.
Rogowski thanked the family of the late Matt Laurich for their support.
“He was a great guy,” Rogowski said. “I knew him for a long time. Good worker, good family man, great dad, and he deserved having a tournament named after him.”