HURRICANE - totalUTAHpreps.com will host its first ever basketball tournament December 18-19, 2009 with host Hurricane High School.

Maple Mountain, a new school beginning in the 2009-10 year from Nebo school district will participate. Parowan High School from Iron County and Gunnison Valley High School will participate with Hurricane in the Tiger Classic.

The TUP tournament will be much more than just the basketball games. Following the Friday games, which Maple Mountain will play Parowan and Gunnison battles Hurricane, Saturday will have all the teams together to have a skills contest. Slam dunk, 3-point shots and a coaches contest on the free throw line will be memorable.

Also, TUP will have a motivational speaker to come and speak to the students prior to the Saturday games, which will be the winners of Friday’s games and the losers battle. All schools will also bring their junior varsity teams for the two game tournament.

It is the first year TUP has taken this on and plans to make it into a 16-team tournament by 2011. “We hope to make this an tremendous event for the community and for these schools,” said TUP’s Mike Butler. “We believe that in a short time, this can be a premier event that can rival tournaments all throughout the Western United States”.