Some of the best boys youth basketball talent in the nation will be coming to Hilo town this week.
The Grind Session, a prestigious winter prep basketball league that takes place in the United States, Canada and Jamaica, is organizing the first-ever Grind Session Hawai‘i — a five-day tournament with elementary and high school teams from the Big Island, outer Hawaiian islands and the mainland. The event will be held from Thursday through Monday, primarily at the Hilo Civic.
Notable boys high school squads flying into Hilo for the week are Prolific Prep from Napa, Calif., and Utah Prep in Hurricane, Uta. — both ranked No.3 and No. 5 nationally, respectively. Utah Prep has the No. 1-ranked player in the country in small forward A.J. Dybantsa, while Prolific has the No. 2 recruit in shooting guard Darryn Peterson, who recently signed with Kansas.
Current NBA players that recently graduated from Prolific Prep are Josh Jackson, Jalen Green and Gary Trent Jr.
The high school portion of the event (Dec. 26-28) will be split into two brackets — a Grind Session bracket with the top prep teams and the regular bracket. Besides Prolific and Utah Prep, Elite Prep (Wash.) and Albuquerque Prep (N.M.) are expected to join the Grind Session bracket. In the regular prep bracket, five Hawai‘i high schools — Kohala, Hilo, Seabury Hall, Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama and Iolani — along with Salesian College Prep from Richmond, Calif., are expected to compete.
In the elementary field, local clubs such as Hokulele, Stingrays, DNA and Hilo will compete in the one-day slate on Dec. 30.
Admission and schedule information can be found below.
Admission
• Dec. 26 – $5 – General admission
• Dec. 27-28 – $10 – General admission
• Dec. 30 – Free
• All days free for eighth grade and under, high schoolers $1 with student I.D.
Schedule
Dec. 26
• 8 a.m. Free youth clinic at Panaewa Gym
• 3 p.m. Opening ceremony – Kihei Nahalea
• 3:30 p.m. Hilo vs. Seabury Hall
• 5:15 p.m. KS-Kapalama vs. Salesian College Prep
• 6:45 p.m. Hilo High Alumni Night/Honoring of HHS state championship teams
• 7:30 Kohala vs. Iolani
Dec. 27
• 12:30 p.m. Hilo vs. KS-Kapalama
• 2:15 p.m. Iolani vs. Seabury Hall
• 4 p.m. Salesian College Prep vs. Kohala
• 6 p.m. Utah Prep vs. TBD
• 8 p.m. Prolific Prep vs. TBD
Dec. 28
• 10 a.m. Family Fun Day in Civic parking lot
• 10 a.m. Hilo vs. Iolani
• 11:45 a.m. Salesian College Prep vs. Seabury Hall
• 1:30 p.m. Kohala vs. KS-Kapalama (awards to follow)
• Winners will advance to games later that day; awards to follow
Dec. 29
• 5 p.m. event dinner at Aunt Sally’s
Dec. 30
• 12:30 p.m. Hokulele vs. Hilo (sixth grade)
• 1:30 p.m. Hokulele vs. DNA (eigth grade)
• 2:30 p.m. Hilo vs. Stingrays (eigth grade)
• 4 p.m. Hilo vs. Utah Prep (exhibition)