Welcome to the 2025 Vertical Hoops Championships at Mohegan Sun! We are very excited to have nearly 300 teams coming from multiple different states. Please see below for all the information you need to navigate through the weekend.
Standings, Schedules, Brackets, and event messages can be found using the link below or by simply downloading the Vertical Hoops app on your phone for the weekend.
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PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A THREE-DAY EVENT. TEAMS WILL LIKELY PLAY FRIDAY, AND WE DO NOT TAKE TIME REQUESTS FOR THIS EVENT. NO REFUNDS OR CREDITS WILL BE ISSUED AFTER THE “NO TURN BACK” DATE, WHICH WILL BE EMAILED TO ALL COACHES.
All Coaches and Players Must Be Verified
We’re excited to share that Vertical Hoops now partners with National Sports ID for reliable age and grade verification in our basketball events. This partnership ensures the fairness and integrity of our players, teams, and the tournament itself.
National Sports ID provides a convenient online platform for confirming the age and grade of young athletes, offering official Sports ID Cards. It takes just 10-15 minutes to set up an account, register your child, or form a verified team. Our NSID customer support team is always ready to help you and your players with this easy process.
For an annual fee of $10, you receive a Sports ID card valid for one year from the date of issue. With this verification, your child or team becomes eligible for all Balling at the Beach Tournaments for the next year.
To begin, simply follow the instructions below to create your account, add your child, or establish your team. And remember, live support is always available on the National Sports ID website to assist you and your players.
TEAM & PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS AVAILABLE!!!!
The Vertical Hoops app can be downloaded in both app stores. The app will provide you with your team’s schedule, standings, bracket information, locations, and updates throughout the weekend. We suggest that all of your parents and coaches download the Vertical Hoops app prior to the weekend.
IMPORTANT. In the app when you click on your team’s schedule you will only see the games currently scheduled, not the “bracket games”. These games will populate on your team’s schedule once standings are finalized in your pool of teams. Please remember everyone plays a minimum of 3 games so if you only see two games on your schedule you know at least one more game will be added once places are established on the app. If you want to gauge possible times of upcoming games use the “bracket” button in the app under your team’s division to see times of bracket games.
Once the schedule is finalized no changes will be made for Sunday games. This is a strict rule made to avoid unseen changes that could negatively impact other teams and result in forfeits.
Home Team Listed on bottom of schedule. Home Team should wear white uniform.
Basketball Size: 28.5 Grades 4-6, 29.5 Grades 7-9
Team attendance is required for all games, including Sunday “consolation” games. Failure to show up will result in your team or possibly your town being banned from next year’s event. We want to ensure that every team plays the maximum number of games possible. If it is completely unavoidable, please let us know well ahead of time that your team cannot play, so we can attempt to find a team for your opponent to play. Teams will not receive a refund if their opponent does not show up.
The Coach’s Check-In will be located in the front lobby before the admissions table. ONLY VERIFIED COACHES WILL BE GIVEN A LANYARD AND WRISTBAND FOR FREE ENTRY. MAXIMUM TWO PER TEAM, NO EXCEPTIONS
Admissions to the event (entire weekend including Friday) is $45 for adults, $30 for seniors, and kids over the age of 10. Wristbands must be worn to gain entry into the event. (In-person purchase only, Credit Cards & Cash)
Sunday Only $30 Adults, $20 Seniors
Parking: Winter Garage is most convenient, but no parking lot is that far away from the Convention Center.
Vertical Customs will be on-site offering custom Championship apparel throughout the weekend right outside the front entrance.
Please remind your coaches and parents that poor language, abusive behavior towards officials, or Vertical Hoops staff will result in removal from the event without a refund. All of our referees are board-certified high school and college officials. They are assigned by NEOS, who will have a table set up for anyone interested in training to become an official in the future.
We will have athletic trainers available throughout the weekend. The trainer table will be located about halfway down the convention center on the left side of the facility against the wall.
During the event your two contacts will be Karim 203-809-4770 and Sekouba 475-467-0964. Jason will not be your contact during the weekend. In addition, there will be 8-10 supervisors on site at all times.
Rules:
Game Rules
Time Rules:
Two 16 minute Halves
Clock stops only on free throws & last 2 minutes of each half.
Ball Size
29.5 (Size 7) for grades 7th-9th, 28.5 (Size 6) for grades 4th-6th
2- 4 minutes warm-up time.
20 point difference the clock runs.
Pressing Rule (4th grade -6th grade) only
Teams can press in the first half until they are up by 10 or more points.
Teams can press in the second half until there are up by 20 or more points.
6 fouls = player disqualification
7 team fouls = 1 & 1, 10 team fouls = 2 shots
Two full timeouts per team. In the event of overtime each team is given an additional timeout. (Timeouts do not carry to second overtime).
Overtime 2 minutes. If still tied after one overtime the first team to score 3 points in second OT will be the winner. For example, if Team A scores a two point FG and then Team B scores a 3 point FG on the next possession the game is over and Team B is the winner.
Technical Fouls / Flagrant Fouls
Two Technical Fouls = Ejection (Coach or Player). Vertical Hoops supervisors along with NEOS (officials) will make the determination on whether of not that player or coach will face further penalty, such as a game suspension or removal from the tournament.
Fighting = REMOVAL FROM THE EVENT NO EXCEPTIONS. ADULTS ENGAGED IN FIGHTING ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE MOHEGAN SUN TRIBAL POLICE AND THEIR RULES AND REGULATIONS.
Roster Rule
Scorekeepers and referees will use the binder at each scorer’s table which will include a copy of every roster verified through NSID. Rosters will include all information including pictures or each player. Any player not verified that participates will result in a forfeit for that team. Coaches are welcome to check the binders as well to confirm player eligibility. If you notice an ineligible player simply let the clock person know and they will call over to a supervisor. We will all work together to ensure a fair competitive environment.
Tie-Breakers:
In the event of a tie in your division in the standings the first tie-breaker if only two teams are involved in the tie is Head to Head. If there are more than 2 teams involved in the tie than point differential is the next tie-breaker. Please remember that the maximum amount for point differential for one game is 20 points. So if you beat a team by 40 you will see 20 show up next to your team in the standings. This is to encourage good sportsmanship. If the teams are still tied the next tie-breaker is total points allowed in pool play and then finally total points scored. If there is still a tie a coin flip will be used to break it.
Program Conduct
Parents, fans, coaches, and players are all expected to conduct themselves appropriately. Swearing at or excessive yelling at refs, opposing players, or other fans will result in removal from the facility.
All teams must provide a contact person who is reachable during the tournament.
Team dropouts due to Covid or any other reason will not receive a refund as games are scheduled.
See court diagram below. Entry to the venue is directly in front of Court 2
Mohegan Sun
All Courts Will Be Marked
Foxwoods Diagram Coming Soon….
ENTRY TO THE VENUE IS DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF COURT 2
