The 75th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament, familiarly known as REIBT (and commonly “Ribbit”), is an action-packed four days of basketball this weekend, taking place on host Healdsburg High School’s campus.
Eight girls basketball teams and five boys teams will compete starting on Wednesday, Dec. 11, building to the tournament championship games on Saturday afternoon. Several of the games, both boys and girls, will be played in the East Gym, while most will take place in Smith Robinson Gym, the school’s larger hall.
Both championship games will be played in Smith Robinson on Saturday evening, Dec. 14—the boys at 6:30pm, the girls at 8pm.
Participating girls teams, and their records to date, include Healdsburg (5-0), Cloverdale (2-2), Fortuna (4-1), Tamalpais (4-2), Justin-Siena (2-0), Middletown (2-1), McKinleyville (4-1) and Ukiah (3-3). They represent six North Bay counties—Marin, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Sonoma.
However only five boys teams are participating this year—Healdsburg (3-4), San Rafael (7-2), Kelseyville (1-2), Roseland Collegiate Prep (0-3) and from the East Bay, AIMS College Prep of Oakland (4-4).
Lance Munselle, whose Munselle Vineyards is one of the sponsors of this year’s tournament, admitted that the competition for fall tournament play is stiff—both boys and girls Greyhounds teams played in two other tournaments this month.
Some schools have had turnovers in their coaching departments this year as well—Healdsburg has new head coaches for both their boys and girls teams, for instance. And while REIBT over time has shown itself to be a competitive and reliable tournament, new coaches may not recognize the opportunity.
“If coaches don’t know about it, they say, ‘Oh, just another tournament,’” Munselle said. “But it’s always been a big deal for the school. It’s such a significant part of Greyhound athletics.”
Other sponsors include Kiwanis International, Denny’s Electric, Capricorn Automotive, Robert Young and others.
Origin Stories
The idea for REIBT, a regional basketball tournament to fill the enthusiasm gap between the football and baseball seasons, is attributed to Art McCaffrey, whose impact on local sports is recognized by the playing field at Rec Park that bears his name. Though he proposed the tournament in 1948, it wasn’t until December 1949 that the first one was held—making this year, 2024, the 75th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Originally only a boys team tournament, girls were added in 1984—making this the 40th anniversary of the oldest boys and girls basketball tourney in the state.
All of the games encourage fan participation. Tickets are available online or at the door—a tournament pass is $25 (plus fees) for all games, available at tinyurl.com/bdftwzcf.
Schedules and information at reibt.org.
