The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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For 87 years, the Lyon County League basketball tournament has been a mainstay on the calendars of area high school basketball coaches and players, making it the longest continuously running high school basketball tournament in the United States.

The man behind it all — at least, for the past 22 years — is Ted Vannocker, the superintendent for the Marais des Cygnes Valley school district and the Lyon County League Tournament manager.

The tournament, which began Monday and ends with tonight’s championship games at 6 for girls and 7:30 for boys, has been held in Emporia’s White Auditorium since 1940.

Although the games appear to flow seamlessly from one to the next, it takes much more than two teams lining up and playing for the tournament to be successful year after year.

Behind the scenes, Vannocker puts in hours and hours of time making sure teams are on schedule, that media and tournament volunteers alike are well-fed and taken care of, and, most of all, that the patrons and participants of the tournament have the most enjoyable experience possible.

It takes a lot of work, but Vannocker has dedicated a significant portion of his life to the tournament because, as he says, “It really is a special thing.”

On Thursday, from his court-side seat, Vannocker took a short breather and sat down with The Gazette for a few minutes to talk about the tournament that has become so important to so many coaches, parents and especially athletes over the years.

Q How many years have you been doing this?

A That’s pretty easy for me to answer. I helped out for nine years, and this is my 22nd year basically running the tournament. This is 31 years of this. I hate to say it, but I was 33 when I started.

What happened was, when I first started with the league, they would rotate the person every year who would run the tournament. It was the president of the league who ran it, and that always changed from year to year. So there was no continuity.

Finally, after nine years of helping out, I said, ‘You know, I’ll run this if you guys will help me out.’ That was 22 years ago. I developed a manual on how to put the tournament on, and that’s how it’s gone for the past 22 years.

Q Are the tournaments still enjoyable year after year, watching these teams compete each year?

A Oh yeah, I enjoy it. The reason I do it is for the kids — to try and put on the best tournament possible — and also for the schools. I have an allegiance to these schools, and there are a lot of good people at these schools.

Q How special is this tournament? It’s one of the oldest high school tournaments out there.

A It is very special. That’s the reason I do it, because it is so special. It has so much history to it.

There are so many people in Emporia and in the surrounding communities that played in it so many years ago, and they come back to see their kids and their grandkids play. It really is a special thing.

Like, my grandkids, when they were growing up, they’d come out and help me take care of the basketballs, and that was always a lot of fun.

I guess that’s what so fun about it. With all the small communities, it’s more like a big family get-together or social event or whatever you want to call it. It’s just a lot of fun.

That’s the reason I do what I do, because you try to do what you can to make it the very best that it can be for those people.

I’ll tell you, it’s the best place to have a tournament — I think, the best place in the state. Emporia, the workers here are tremendous to work with. I could name them all off, but they’re all great to work with. The city has been good to us. They waive parking meters fees, and really make us feel like we’re welcome.

So, those things really make you want to do a good job.

Q What does it take to put on a tournament like this? How long are you working on the Lyon County League Tournament?

A Well, I’ve got everything I need in a box. I pull all that stuff out, and I spend probably 15 hours in December getting everything sent out and getting prepared. My secretaries at Marais des Cygnes help me, and the secretary at Waverly helps me, at the district office.

Then, this week, I’ll spend about 30 hours at my regular job, and then I’ll spend about 60 hours here. Basically, it comes out to about six 16-hour days. But, you know, I’m pretty young.

This is our 87th year, and I’m going to work one more year as far as in the school system, but I plan on managing the tournament through its 100th year. I’ll only be 77 by that time, so I’ll be OK.

Q Is there a tournament that sticks out in your mind as the most memorable one throughout the years, or do they all just seem to mesh together?

A They are all excellent, but I can tell you that one of the noisiest and most exciting ones was in 2003 when the Olpe and Hartford boys played for the championship (editor’s note: Olpe won, 74-69). I thought they were going to have to re-plaster the place it was so crazy. Really, the noise was so loud and the crowd was so large.

Of course, there have been a lot of other very close games, but that Olpe-Hartford game in 2003 was just unbelievable.

And, I think it was in 2000, and there were just a few seconds left, and the Lebo girls took the ball the full length of the floor and hit a shot to beat Olpe (editor’s note: Lebo won, 36-35). That one sticks out.

But all of them are important. Those are just some of the ones that stick out.

There are just so many special games.