First-year events normally have growing pains.
Sometimes, it's so painful there isn't a second year and you wonder why someone thought this was a good idea in the first place.
Sometimes, the event only gets bigger and better.
The inaugural Capital City Basketball Shootout may certainly get better in the coming years, but it's hard to imagine it getting much bigger.
"We exceeded our expectations," Jays coach Blair Thompson said.
And there will certainly be a second year, and a lot more, it appears.
The event --- which runs Thursday-Saturday --- will be held at Fleming Fieldhouse, on both the main floor and the stage. It will also be staged at Rackers Fieldhouse and the old Helias gym --- Helias coach Josh Buffington and Thompson worked together to make this happen.
That's four courts.
That's not nearly enough.
No less than seven more facilities, including Blair Oaks, will be used to accommodate the 50-team event. Yes, 50 teams and 11 courts.
"We're almost maxed-out right now," Thompson said. "We had to go get several additional gyms to hold the teams we ended up getting."
Our initial goal was 20 to 30 teams. At one point, we had well over 50 teams (57) and now we're hovering right at 50."
How did this happen?
"Coach Buffington and I got together during the Christmas Tournament," Thompson said. "Both of us had talked about putting on separate, smaller shootouts.
"But after talking and visiting, we decided we would just pool the two and use our resources and contacts we've created over the years, and put all those things together and make one big one."
There will be close to 200 (varsity, JV and freshman) games played in a three-day span.
That's big.
"This is really where the state's going with high school basketball," Buffington said. "We feel like we can put on a quality event, a high-level event, right here in Jefferson City.
"We've really come together to make this thing happen."
The games will be played in 50-minute increments (to view the complete schedule, go to capitalcityshootout.com.)
There will be two 16-minute halves with a running clock. The clock, however, will stop as normal during the last minute of the first half and the final two minutes of the game.
Teams get two timeouts per game. On shooting fouls, players will only shoot one free throw that will be worth two points on a 2-pointer and three on a 3. There will be overtime -- sudden death overtime.
This is basketball in a microwave.
"The month of June is ours in high school basketball," Buffington said. "With every sport in high school turning into a year-round deal, we really have to focus on the month of June to work around football and other sports.
"MSHSAA (Missouri State High School Activities Association) allows us 25 contact days this month and we try to use all of them. For coaches, it's great to get everybody together to work on team stuff against quality competition, rather than just individual stuff.
"What a better way to do it than in our own town with minimal expenses for our teams?"
Fifty teams means a lot of tired, hungry players and parents coming to town. This should be a $hootout for Jefferson City.
"Staying at hotels, eating out --- and there are a lot of things to do here in between games --- all of those things, when you add them up, will be a very good thing for the city, financially," Thompson said.
"We're looking forward to this being an annual event that has some quality basketball being played. It will be fun for the kids and a good thing for the community."
And yes, if you were wondering, the Jays and Crusaders will square off at 10:40 a.m. Saturday at Rackers Fieldhouse. At the same time, however, some players will be taking the ACT.
"Hopefully," Buffington said with a smile, "Blair will have more guys taking the ACT than we will."
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