THE FAIRFIELD ALL-STARS will play to defend the national Little Dribblers title they won in 2009. Team members are: front l-r, Byron Mireles, Cam Adams, Kieshaun Cunningham, Michael Hudson, Demarcus Taylor and Larry Rose; back l-r, Danny Cockerell, Chris Lide, Luke Rachel, Bryson Gates, Jacob Gallegos and Cade Warren. The team is coached by Ren Roberts and Chad Cunningham. More than 800 young basketball players, family members, coaches and fans come to Fairfield this week to compete in the 40th annual Little Dribblers National Championship tournament.

The tourney started Wednesday and runs through Saturday evening.

Games are to be played at all Fairfield Independent School District gymnasiums with championship games at the maroon gym in Johnson Activity Center.

A brief pause in the action is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the opening ceremonies at Johnson Activity Center, featuring motivational speaker and basketball magician “Travlin” Dave Davlin. The speaker is a former Fairfield Little Dribblers and Fairfield Eagles player.

REPRESENTING THE FAIRFIELD major boys at the Little Dribblers National Championship are: front l-r, Elijah Ransom, Geonta Cotton, Noah Mireles, Zachary Barlow and Jaylen Jackson; back l-r, Caleb Scires, Dominic Brackens, David Ransom, Jr., Cameron Hicks, Terrence Rischer, Jr., Charles Oliver and Cade Hill. The team is coached by Donald Brackens, Jr., and Eric Johnson. Bookkeeper is Shana Mireles. The national tournament is actually six separate tournaments in one, divided by community size and player ages.

Age divisions are juniors, 10 years old and younger; majors, 11-12 years old; and seniors, 13- 14 years old.

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

PLAYING ON THE FAIRFIELD junior all-stars team in the Little Dribblers National Championship this week are: front l-r, Devin Cunningham, KeShun Crenshaw, Jordan Gibson, Kolby Adams, Nick Knight and Blake Posey; back lr, coach Clifford Taylor, Jaise Oliver, Tyreke Mikell, John Owens, JarMychael Hudson, Jailyn Ransom, Marcus Hayes and coach Kayla Adams. Bookkeeper is Jamie Knight. Fairfield is represented by junior, major and senior all-star teams in the American Division.

Also in the American Division is a major team from Teague.

A pair of Mexia teams competes in the National Division junior and major brackets.

Fairfield teams hit the court for their first games Wednesday afternoon in the maroon gym. The juniors faced Crockett, the majors met Kountz and the seniors played Kermit.

With wins across the boards, the Fairfield junior and major teams were scheduled to return late Wednesday and the seniors are to tip off at 8 a.m. Thursday at the elementary school.

Losses would put the teams on a Thursday schedule, the juniors at 9:15 a.m. in the Fairfield high school south gym, the majors at 10:30 a.m. at the junior high and the seniors at 6 p.m. in the gold gym.

Teague majors started Wednesday afternoon against Livingston and will play at 8 a.m. Thursday in the south gym with an opening game victory and 11:45 a.m. Thursday at the junior high with a loss.

Mexia juniors faced Levelland in their opener Wednesday afternoon, play at 9:15 a.m. Thursday in the gold gym with a win and 10:30 p.m. Thursday in the gold gym with a loss.

The Mexia major team opened Wednesday against San Antonio Harlandale, play at 11:45 p.m. with a win or 1 p.m. Thursday with a loss. Mexia games on Thursday are in the maroon gym.

All championship games are being played in the Johnson Activity Center maroon gym.

Representing Fairfield on the junior team are Kolby Adams, Keshun Crenshaw, Devin Cunningham, Gregory Jordan Gibson, Marcus Hayes, Jar’Mychael Hudson, Nick Knight, Levatus Mikell, Jaise Oliver, John Owens, Blake Posey and Jailyn Ransom.

The juniors are coached by Clifford Taylor, assisted by Kayla Adams and David Knight.

On the Fairfield major team are Zachary Barlow, Dominic Brackens, Geonta Cotton, Cameron Hicks, Cade Hill, Jalyn Jackson, Noah Mireles, Charles Oliver, David Ransom, Jr., Elija Ransom, Terrance Rischer, Jr., and Caleb Scires.

Coaching the majors is Donald Brackens, assisted by Eric Jackson and Shana Mireles.

The Fairfield senior squad is the defending national champion, winning the title at Levelland last year. Players are drawn from the FJHS seventh and eighth grade basketball teams.

FJHS eighth grade cagers won the district basketball championship this season, as well as football and track titles.

Members of the senior team are James Adams, Danny Cockerell, Keishaun Cunningham, Jacob Gallegos, Bryson Gates, Michael Hudson, Chris Lide, Byron Mireles, Larry Rose, DeMarcus Taylor and Cade Warren.

The seniors are coached by Ren Roberts, assisted by Chad Cunningham.

The influx of Little Dribblers teams has filled all but a handful of motel rooms in Fairfield, Buffalo and Mexia.

In addition to filling motel rooms, tourney players and their entourage are expected to keep Fairfield businesses and restaurants busy this week.

After the boys’ tourney is concluded, Fairfield Girls’ Little Dribblers will start working in earnest to prepare for hosting their National Tournament in June.

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