RECAP: 2026 Tulalip March Madness Indigenous Basketball Tournament

Basketball isn’t just a sport in Tulalip. It’s an identity. When parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles—generations upon generations—fill the stands to cheer on their family member and team, it’s a special scene.

From March 27-29, the Tulalip Boys and Girls Club partnered with TRIBE Athletics SPORTS to host the annual Tulalip March Madness Indigenous Basketball Tournament at several locations in Tulalip and Marysville. The three-day event welcomed more than 80 teams spanning Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, and this year also marked the first time the tournament served as national qualifier for the Native American Junior Nationals.

“(This tournament) got started from a vision and a dream of just having the culture and the basketball back in our Tulalip community,” said Shawn Sanchey, unit director for the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club, in an interview with KIRO 7 News days before the tournament. “It’s a safe place for all tribal kids from every tribal community to come together, compete (and) foster relationships.”

Visit https://snocosports.org/event-recap-2026-tulalip-march-madness-indigenous-basketball-tournament/ for article, gallery and a list of the winning teams from each division, which will also advance to the Native American Junior Nationals tournament, hosted by Tribe Athletics in Mesa, Arizona, from June 25-28.