St. Raphael's Winter Classic a slam dunk for youth players

If you live in East Meadow and you love basketball, chances are you’re familiar with the annual Winter Classic basketball tournament in the gym at St. Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church.

The 10-day event features Catholic Youth Organization, or CYO basketball teams, between fourth- and eight-grade. This year’s tournament ran from Feb. 15 through Feb. 25, with 40 teams participating from throughout Long Island. It gives young athletes a chance to showcase their skills and sportsmanship.

The inaugural tournament tipped off in 2007 with a small number of teams, but has grown into a highly anticipated event that players and fans alike look forward to. Teams that reach the semifinals and finals are given NBA-style player introductions before games, in which they walk onto the court to a show of strobe lights.

“The winter classic — it’s always just exciting to be down here,” said Dave Hudzik, the director of St. Raphael’s CYO basketball program. “For most of these kids, this is going to be the highlight of their lives, athletic-wise, getting the same treatment that a professional basketball player would get. So it’s a really big deal.”

Hudzik has directed the St. Raphael’s CYO program for the last five years, and has been involved with the program for over a decade. He guided it through the coronavirus pandemic, and on the side, he runs a basketball training business called Mindset Basketball Training.

The popularity of the Winter Classic and the effort that goes into making it the spectacle that it is, grows every year, Hudzik explained. The event has a DJ, and local businesses donate raffle items. All the money that is raised goes back to the basketball program, to support local youth players in East Meadow and beyond.

Teams register to play in the tournament by early December, Hudzik said. The tournament takes place during a holiday break for schools, sometimes coaches are away, and Hudzik said the more popular the tournament becomes, parents end up volunteering to lead a team.

“I’ve received more phone calls the past few years from moms and dads saying ‘My son’s in sixth-grade and we play at St. Francis. Can we play in the tournament?’” Hudzik said. “As great as coaches are, in every single parish, they’re all volunteers. You have coaches that obviously have busy lives, and they sacrifice their time to help the kids play.

“The parents are now beginning to pick up the slack,” he continued. “(The tournament) has kind of amalgamated into its own creature, where we don’t have to go out and say to people, ‘Hey, come play in our tournament.’ They know about it. And we take a lot of pride in that.”

The tournament creates nostalgia with a lot of people and former players that have long been involved in CYO, Hudzik added.

“There are kids that are in college now, that are like ‘Oh, I remember Coach Dave announcing my name and it was so cool and it was so fun to play the game after that,’” he said. “The introduction is the one thing kids always remember. So it always turns into a real positive experience.”

And on multiple occasions, the tournament welcomed a special guest who came down to interact with players — whether it be a former NBA player, or people with connections to college teams in the area, such as St. John’s University.

What’s started in the East Meadow community has grown into something appreciated by parishes, players and parents everywhere.

“The energy that the tournament gives off and the looks on the kids faces, it’s just a great atmosphere,” he said. “We turned it into a community event, even though it’s other communities. The gym is always packed.”