Welcome to the 2026 Vertical Hoops Championships at Mohegan Sun! We are very excited to have 336 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 by downloading the Vertical Hoops app on your phone for the weekend.

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, June 1, 2026

All Coaches and Players Must Be Verified

COACHES CLICK HERE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS (PARENTS DO NOT USE THIS LINK, YOUR COACH WILL SEND YOU AN INVITE)

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.

Baller TV

Download the BallerTV app and follow live action or go back and watch past games from your Vertical Hoops weekend. You can also access using the link below.

https://www.ballertv.com/events/vertical-hoops-championships-at-mohegan-sun-2026-uncasville-ct-81cf58df1ab271e2654da1ae822fbebb/countdown

Important Information

• FROM MOHEGAN SUN (IMPORTANT!) : Children must be supervised in the casino/hotel. Bouncing basketballs, running around, and poor behavior will not be tolerated in the resort areas. Security has been instructed to take basketballs and teams and programs could be asked to leave if players from their program are involved in any misconduct, including rudeness and/or disrespect towards security and casino employees.

• 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
  (6th Grade Coaches can mutually agree to play with a 29.5, Size 7 ball, but if one of the coaches prefers the size 6, 28.5, then that is the ball that will be used.

• Team attendance is required for all games, including Sunday “consolation” games. Failure to show up will result in your team or possibly your program 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 FOR FREE ENTRY. MAXIMUM TWO PER TEAM, NO EXCEPTIONS

• Admissions to the event (entire weekend including Friday) is $55 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

  • WE UNDERSTAND THAT ADMISSIONS PRICES ARE HIGH, BUT WE HAVE TRIED TO KEEP THEM BELOW OUR COMPETITORS AND AT A REASONABLE NUMBER. COSTS CONTINUE TO INCREASE, ESPECIALLY AT SUCH A GREAT VENUE. PLEASE ADVISE PARENTS AND ASK THEM NOT TO GIVE STAFF A DIFFICULT TIME. THANK YOU!

• 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.

• Highlights, stories, and other fun content can be viewed on @verticalhoops on IG, Facebook, X, and Youtube.

  Game Rules

  1. Time Rules:

     1. Two 16 minute Halves (Grades 6-9) Two 14 minutes Halves (Grades 4-5)

     2. Clock stops on all whistles.

     3. 15 point difference the clock runs. (Second Half Only) There is no running clock in the first half regardless of the score.

  2. Ball Size

     1. 29.5 (Size 7) for grades 7th-9th, 28.5 (Size 6) for grades 4th-6th

  3. 2- 4 minutes warm-up time.

  4. Zone Defense (4th-5th Grade ONLY)*
     - No zone defense in the first half
     - Zone defense is permitted in the 2nd half
     Pressing Rule (4th-5th Grade ONLY)
     - NO pressing in the first half
     - Pressing allowed in 2nd half
     - Teams can press in the second half until they are up by 20 or more points.

  5. 6 fouls = player disqualification

  6. 7 team fouls = 1 & 1, 10 team fouls = 2 shots

  7. Two full timeouts per team. In the event of overtime each team is given an additional timeout. (Timeouts do not carry to second overtime).

  8. Overtime: First Team to 4 points or leading team after 2 min clock expires, whichever occurs first. If still tied and neither team reaches 4 points in the 2 mins, sudden death to determine the winner.

  9. Technical Fouls / Flagrant Fouls

     1. 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.

     2. 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 /Pre-Game Procedure (NEW)

  Before each game coaches are responsible for scanning the QR code on the opposing coaches lanyard, which will bring them to that teams roster with pictures. In order to do this coaches must be logged into their own NSID accounts, so please be prepared and logged in before your game. Coaches can then confirm the correct number of players and point our any discrepancies. NO PLAYER NOT VERIFIED ON THAT ROSTER WILL BE PERMITTED TO PLAY WITHOUT THE GAME BECOMING A FORFEIT. NO EXCEPTIONS.

  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 25 points. So if you beat a team by 50 you will see 25 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

  1. 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.

  2. All teams must provide a contact person who is reachable during the tournament.

  3. Team dropouts for any reason will not receive a refund as games are scheduled.

  4. FROM MOHEGAN SUN (IMPORTANT!) : Children must be supervised in the casino/hotel. Bouncing basketballs, running around, and poor behavior will not be tolerated in the resort areas. Security has been instructed to take basketballs and teams and programs could be asked to leave if players from their program are involved in any misconduct, including rudeness and/or disrespect towards security and casino employees.

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….