North Shore 'All-Star Team' Vies for Spot in The Basketball Tournament

CHICAGO, IL - A Chicago-based “all sports” league is seeking an entry in The Basketball Tournament, a national amateur tournament that gives out a huge prize for the winner of a 64-team bracket.

All Sports Series, which offers sports leagues on a rotational basis in several Midwest cities including a few Big Ten college towns, was founded by Holden Metz, an alum of Highland Park High School and the University of Illinois. The company hopes an “all-star” team from their leagues will be one of the 64 teams vying for a $2 million prize during the summer.

A good chunk of the players on the All Sports Series team are former high school stars at schools throughout the upper North Shore.

There’s Marin Kukoc, the former HPHS standout who later played for Penn. He’s the son of former Chicago Bulls three-time champion and Sixth Man of the Year Toni Kukoc.

Another HPHS alum, Chris Wroblewski joins Kukoc on the team as does Kyle Nelson, a former standout at Deerfield High School and Nate Johnson, a former Stevenson High School star.

Other players come from the greater Chicago area like Tim Szatko of Naperville Central. Some are former NCAA Division I college athletes like Jeff Howard of Indiana University and Victor Ojeleye, who played for Kansas State University.

David Gershenzon, a Glenbrook South High School grad, will be a player/coach for the squad.

But with hundreds of talented teams across the country organized and ready to be part of the 64, the choice on narrowing the field will come down to a public vote.

“To vote, you have to log in to the Chicago regional site and the 12 teams with the most number of votes will get to play,” said Metz, who has expanded All Sports Series from Chicago and Highland Park to several other Midwest cities such as Bloomington, Ind.; Ann Arbor, Mich and Champaign, Ill.

Voters will need to enter their email to verify. More than 200 have already clicked their support for the All Sports Series team.

“We just want to be part of this fun thing,” Metz said of his team's possible inclusion in The Basketball Tournament, which is preparing for its third summer of quality basketball.

“We don’t care about winning all the money,” he added, noting that the All Sports Series has petitioned the tournament to allow them to share $1 million of their potential winning prize with their voters. The standard process has been that the voters split up $200,000.

The league can get pretty competitive, too. While current NBA players don’t play because of contract obligations and current NCAA Division I players are barred due to eligibility requirements, just about all the other best players in the country become involved.

“All of them have played in college,” Metz said of the quality of The Basketball Tournament. Former NBA stars such as Jamario Moon have also taken part.

If the All Sports Series team is chosen to play and ends up winning, Metz promises to give much of the money to charities such as The Kidney Foundation.

Metz says his company has seen a sharp growth in interest this year, with more than 3,000 people expected to participate in one of the many weekly sports leagues offered. Several sponsors have hopped on as well.

“The way it works is that league teams will be formed and come in one day a week. One week they’ll play basketball, then the next week softball, then flag football or something else,” he said. While most leagues are multi-sport, there are options to join a team that focuses on the same sport every week as well.

Voting for the company’s inclusion in The Basketball Tournament began in April and is open through June 1.