The Harrisburg Shootout kicked off Monday morning with 32 games expected to be played before the day ended.

The Shootout will pit junior varsity teams from all over Northern Missouri, including Harrisburg, Fayette, New Franklin, Moberly, Centralia, Fulton, and Westran during the first week. 

During the second and third weeks, teams such as Smith-Cotton, Boonville, Tipton, Moberly, Father Tolton, Cairo, Zumwalt South, and Chillicothe will travel to Harrisburg, bringing both boys’ and girls’ teams to the home of the Bulldogs to participate. The second and third weeks will see varsity squads honing their skills. 

The shootout will use both the high school and middle school gyms to maximize time on the court.

“I’d like to thank Logan Ball with State Farm Insurance,” said Harrisburg girls’ coach and co-athletic director Ryan Richardson. “He’s sponsored us every year we’ve had the shootout, so I definitely want to give him some credit.”

Richardson also wanted to thank his staff, and boys coach Kyle Fisher and his staff for all the hard work, along with the maintenance crew for making sure everything is ready for the event.

“Me and coach Fisher work real hard to schedule getting teams here,” said Richardson.

“For our varsity shootouts, we’ll have teams that will drive two-and-a-half to three hours to get here from North Missouri,” said Richardson.

“We’ve had teams from Milan, and Rolla and Trenton before. We get teams that just want to test themselves early on, to see what they’ve got for next season.”