Mountain View Holiday Invite features eight boys basketball teams, including five from Clark County, playing over three days from Dec. 26 through Dec. 28

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

A basketball tournament that was created for the love of the game and the community is changing venues, but the spirit of the tournament will remain.

The Mountain View Holiday Invite will tip-off the day after Christmas, featuring eight boys basketball teams, including five from Clark County. All eight teams will play three games in three days. This was the tournament that was held at Fort Vancouver High School for years.

“I wanted to keep the tournament going for the community,” said Mountain View coach JC Alexander. “It’s a great thing for the county.”

Before Fort Vancouver started its tournament, there were no boys basketball tournaments in Clark County during the winter break. Many high school basketball teams, at all classifications, attend tournaments during the break. The Fort Vancouver Holiday Tourney, which became the Myron Lawrence Memorial Tournament in a salute to a Fort Vancouver graduate, gave teams in a region a chance to have a tournament environment without the travel costs. Plus it featured teams from other parts of the Northwest — and in one year, Nevada — the opportunity to come to Southwest Washington.

This year’s event at Mountain View will keep that tradition alive. Benson from Portland is on the schedule, as well as Washington teams Shelton and Snohomish. The Clark County teams are: Columbia River, Evergreen, Union, Ridgefield, and host Mountain View.

Ben Jatos created the event at Fort Vancouver. A teacher at the school, a former coach in multiple sports, and an avid sports fan, Jatos said he has mixed feelings about the tournament’s departure from his school. 

“The thing I miss is all the pre-work, putting it together, reaching out to all the colleges, sending them a prospectus of the players going to be here,” Jatos said. “I won’t miss being there all day for three days, 18 hours a day. That was a lot.”

James Ensley was instrumental in running the tournament, as well. Enlsey was the longtime boys basketball coach at Fort Vancouver and was also the athletic coordinator at the school. But budget cuts did away with that position, and the domino effect led to Ensley leaving Fort Vancouver to coach at Battle Ground. Jatos and Ensley agreed that it might be too big of a task for the new Fort Vancouver coach to handle hosting duties for the tournament. 

They wanted to keep the tournament in Clark County, though.

Jatos said he is thrilled that Alexander and Mountain View took over the tourney. 

“Of every coach I’ve ever dealt with, he was the most on-top-of-it coach,” Jatos said. 

“I know JC works his butt off,” Jatos said. “I trust him with it.”

Alexander had experience working large summer basketball tournaments. 

“Let’s do it,” he said when Jatos and Ensley approached him with the proposal to take over the event.

“It’s a lot more stressful,” Alexander acknowledged this week. “As a participant, you show up, coach the game, enjoy it, and go home. Now we have to staff it.”

Alexander said the booster club, friends, family, and parents of athletes in the program are volunteering to make next week’s tournament happen. The tournament will help raise funds for Mountain View athletics, of course, but there is a more important reason to maintain the event.

“It’s special. It’s exciting,” Alexander said. “It’s for the county.”

He also said this is a chance to showcase his school. The renovated Mountain View opened in 2022, so it has had a couple of basketball seasons in its new gym. But this will bring athletes and fans from other schools who have not yet had the opportunity to see the new Mountain View.

Mountain View Holiday Invite

• Thursday, Dec. 26: Columbia River vs. Evergreen at 2 p.m.; Benson vs. Union at 4 p.m.; Ridgefield vs. Shelton at 6 p.m.; and Snohomish vs. Mountain View at 8 p.m. 
• Friday, Dec. 27: Consolation semifinal games at 2 and 4 p.m. Championship semifinal matchups at 6 and 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 28: Games at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. The championship game is at 4 p.m.

For updates, follow the tournament on X at: https://x.com/MVHolidayInvite