For the 24th consecutive year, the Wellington Wolves travel basketball organization hosted its annual March Madness basketball tournament. Held on March 7-8, the tournament took place on 16 indoor basketball courts across Palm Beach County.
Many of the games were played in Wellington at seven venues, including Wellington High School, Palm Beach Central High School, Polo Park Middle School, Wellington Landings Middle School, the Neil S. Hirsch Family Boys & Girls Club, Emerald Cove Middle School and Village Park, which has three courts. Other facilities in Palm Beach County hosting games included Palm Springs Middle School, Okeeheelee Middle School, L.C. Swain Middle School, Woodlands Middle School, Christa McAuliffe Middle School and Keiser University, which has two courts.
According to Wellington Wolves President Mike Colin, the tournament director, this year’s March Madness basketball tournament was one of the biggest tournaments in the event’s history.
“This year, we had 104 teams that played in our March Madness basketball tournament,” Colin said. “People loved our tournament and are looking forward to coming back next year. I heard lots of praise for how we ran the tournament. It was a great weekend of competitive basketball.”
This two-day event drew teams from throughout Palm Beach County, as well as many teams from other Florida areas, such as Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Miramar, Fort Lauderdale, Port St. Lucie and Fort Myers.
Of the 104 teams in the tournament, 16 represented the Wellington Wolves — 12 boys teams and four girls teams. According to Colin, five Wellington Wolves teams won their respective age-group brackets: the third-grade boys, the ninth-grade boys, the 10th-grade boys, the 11th-grade boys and the 11th-grade girls.
According to Colin, one of the big keys to the success of the tournament was the number of volunteers and local parents who stepped forward to help sell tickets, concessions and tournament merchandise.
One of the highlights of Saturday, March 7 was a dance routine by the cheerleaders with the local Palm Beach Capos football team at Village Park in Wellington.
This year’s tournament started on Saturday, March 7 with the singing of the national anthem by Emily Shecter at Village Park.
On the first day of the tournament at Village Park, new and slightly worn shoes were collected for In Jacob’s Shoes, a South Florida-based nonprofit group that collects shoes for needy children in South Florida. This shoe collection effort was coordinated by the Council of Dads, which is led by Wellington resident John Sitomer, in cooperation with the Wellington Wolves.
“In recent years, we have collected more than 15,000 pairs of brand-new and slightly worn shoes during the last five March Madness tournaments here in Wellington,” Sitomer said. “Every year, we receive donations from a wide cross section of the entire Wellington community and beyond. This year’s donations were in the thousands of pairs of shoes, which was outstanding.”
To stage Wellington’s March Madness basketball tournament required nearly 70 referees, who came from Palm Beach County, Broward County and the Treasure Coast. The referees were assigned by Erik Benz and Leon Lipsick, the co-directors of The Ref Collective. In all, 186 games took place during the two days, and each game had two referees.
In support of the referees, volunteers and tournament organizers, a number of Wellington-area restaurants donated food and drinks for the hospitality room at Village Park. The participating restaurants included Rebel, Pasquale’s, Reggae Jerk, C.R. Chicks and Agliolio.
The hospitality room was sponsored by the Dermatology Center of the Palm Beaches.
According to Colin, plans are already underway for next year’s March Madness basketball tournament, which will be held March 6-7, 2027, in Wellington.
