By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

In the case of the Hoops Mania basketball tournament, the leader, Jim Hruby, refuses to take all the credit.

"I do a lot, but I have a lot of help," he said.

The help comes from the Grand Island Senior High School Athletic Booster Club and numerous volunteers.

"Without all the volunteers, without all the sites, without my fiancee's patience, we couldn't do this," he said. "The booster club has a committee. We divide and conquer."

This weekend marked Hruby's fifth year as the tournament director, but he spent the two years prior as a site director. His history with Hoops Mania goes back to when his son, who's now in college, played on a team and to Hruby's days leading the GISH booster club.

Now his job duties include handling the registrations, making the brackets and ordering the tournament T-shirts. Committee members recruit the 200 volunteers needed to sell those shirts, run the game clocks and keep the scores at the 15 gyms around Grand Island. About 50 referees are also hired for the games. Hruby said the tournament organizers seek out sanctioned referees to keep standards high.

"It's critical to us to have quality officials," he said.

This year, 236 teams from Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and Iowa were registered for the event. Another 30 teams were on a waiting list. The numbers have changed dramatically since Hruby took the helm. In 2002, there were 112 teams. That number jumped to 175 in 2004 and has continued to grow steadily over the last five years, he said.

"We must be doing something right," he said.

The tournament is open to boys' and girls' teams and is for players in the fourth through ninth grades, he said. This year, 138 boys' teams and 98 girls' teams registered, and the largest division was for seventh-grade boys. Each team averages eight to nine players, he said.

"That's kind of our niche," he said. "We're able to bring a diverse group of teams because of our central location. Kids get to see teams they haven't played before."

A team from Wyoming has requested information for next year and a group from Missouri has already registered for Hoops Mania 2009, he said.

"I've kinda created my own monster," he said of the growth. "This is the second largest tournament in the state. It is fulfilling to see it all come together. I've put a lot of pride, sweat, time and effort (into it)."

He takes the time to research the registered teams and look at their records to bracket competitive pairings. He also takes into consideration the times of the day he plans each game for the tournament runs from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday and each team is guaranteed three games, he said.

Lorri Fossler and her husband John appreciate Hruby's willingness to work with them. The couple, who live in Beatrice, registered nine girls' teams for this year's tournament.

"He's extremely helpful and accommodating," she said. "He's a great guy."

Fossler said Hruby has set up brackets so the Beatrice teams don't play too early on Saturday, which eliminates the need for getting hotel rooms the Friday before the tournament starts.

Finding enough space for playing and resting is the biggest challenge for Hruby and others involved in the event.

As Hoops Mania grows, it is getting harder to find enough gyms for the games and overnight lodging for everyone. Some groups bring enough teams to take up an entire hotel and many of them book their rooms a year in advance, he said.

During the tournament, Hruby is on call to handle complaints from anyone who's "really unhappy" and to meet with the coaches of the various teams. Meeting with people face-to-face helps build rapport with the clubs, he said.

"It has helped cement some of the relationships over the years," he said.

Joe Kutlas, GISH activities director, also describes Hruby as a "great guy."

"Jim got into this through the booster club," Kutlas said. "He just kinda took the bull by the horns and just became the guy. He's the go-to guy. He took something that was already successful and just made it phenomenal. Jim's just taken it to another level."

Kutlas said Hruby is easy to work with and is very giving, which makes recruiting volunteers easier. He also has the mental energy necessary to run the ever-growing event, Kutlas said.

To reward his hard work, the booster club decided to give Hruby a small salary for being the tournament director, a decision Kutlas said Hruby "really fought."

"That's not why he's doing it," Kutlas said. "He's doing it for all the right reasons."