Out of more than 600 motel rooms available in the Fairfield area, only a handful are still available next week when the Little Dribblers National Tournament comes to town.

Hotel and motel managers in Fairfield, Buffalo and Mexia report few vacancies for the event in which more than 800 youth basketball players compete.

The boys’ tourney starts Wednesday, April 14, and runs through championship games Saturday evening.

All Fairfield Independent School District gymnasiums—-the junior and senior high and elementary school—-are to be pressed into service to play about 140 basketball games in the double-elimination tournament.

When all is said and done, six national champions will be crowned.

Tourney brackets are divided into National and American divisions based on the population of home towns, and further divided into junior, major and senior age groups.

American teams are from towns with fewer than 10,000 residents and National teams are from towns with fewer than 35,000 residents.

The junior division fea- tures players who are 10 years old and young, majors are 12 and under and seniors are 14 and under.

Over the years Fairfield teams have claimed 11 national championships in various age groups in the American division.

The Fairfield senior team is the defending national champion, a title won in 2009 at Levelland.

Each team in the tourney consists of 12 players, who will be accompanied by parents, siblings, grandparents, coaches and friends.

The influx of visitors to Fairfield not only fills motels, but also should keep restaurants busy for several days.

And, once the boys’ event is concluded, Little Dribblers go to work to put on the girls’ national tournament scheduled here the first week in June.

Fairfield city council has allocated $25,000 to each tourney to help coordinate activities bringing visitors to town.