ST. CLOUD - The St. Cloud Youth Basketball Association hosted a tournament to help children in need during the holidays.

The tournament asked all those who attended to bring a toy with them to donate to the annual Toys For Tots fundraiser.

While the 4th and 5th graders were on the court making baskets, bins were filling up in the hallways with toys for kids in need this holiday season.

Scott Schroeder is on the board for SCYBA. He says they hope to bring in more toys than they did last year.

"Last year we donated over 50 toys. This year we're hoping for over 100."

While the SCYBA are the ones who are bringing in the toys, Schroeder says it took a team effort to get the event together.

"It's a bunch of people working together. Between the city giving us the facility to use, getting all these teams from surrounding cities to get after the Christmas spirit and start-off the basketball season."

The Sunday afternoon "Jamboree" also gave local youth basketball teams a chance to practice another time before their regular seasons start.

"A lot of these kids have never played a basketball game before. We wanted to get them [a chance] to play in a controlled setting with very little pressure. The big things were to just get everyone together, bring in some toys for Toys for Tots and play some basketball."

The competition featured boys and girls teams from St. Cloud, Sartell, Albany, Becker and Sauk Rapids.

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