The biggest tournament for Jewish high school girls teams begins Wednesday night in South Florida.
Hebrew Academy of Miami’s 16th annual Captain Hyman P. Galbut Tournament features 12 teams, with preliminary games running through Thursday night and the opening round, quarterfinals, semifinals and final on Friday and after Shabbat.
The championship game is early Sunday. Real early. Like beginning at midnight early.
In addition to the host Warriors, this year’s participants include Yeshiva League teams Central, Flatbush, Ma’ayanot and SAR, Katz YHS of Boca Raton, Ida Crown from Skokie, Fuchs Mizrachi from Cleveland, Shalhevet and YULA from LA, Margolin HA from Memphis and Hustle & Heart, comprising mostly players from Long Island.
Each team will play twice to determine seeding. The top four teams will then receive byes into the quarterfinals.
All four of the New York-area schools made the Yeshiva League playoffs, although Flatbush lost their quarterfinal game Tuesday night. Ida Crown and Shalhevet would have been in a scheduling bind but they lost in their state playoffs Tuesday as well.