STARKVILLE — The Starkville Sportsplex will host the Starkville Police Department’s annual basketball tournament on Saturday at the Outlaw Center, featuring teams of first responders from across the Golden Triangle playing to raise money for Starkville’s National Night Out festivities.
The tournament is a young event in the community, organized by Starkville Police Corporal Kenya Bibbs, and continues to add new faces with the Mississippi State University Police joining the fun for the first time this year.
“They reached out to us to participate and we accepted, so we wanted to do what we could to help support their efforts in having a successful National Night Out,” MSU Police Chief Kenneth Rodgers said. “She approached us to be a participant, and she explained there were other departments as well. It’s to show camaraderie between the agencies in the Golden Triangle, and not just police departments but the Starkville Fire Department is participating as well. I think this is the second time they’ve held this, so hopefully as it continues there will be more first responder entries to help it grow.”
National Night Out is a nationwide campaign that aims to build bridges between communities and their police departments. It takes place annually across the country on Aug. 6, promoting camaraderie and police-community partnerships. In that same spirit, the SPD hopes to bring out community support to raise funds for this year’s festivities in Starkville.
“It’s kind of a way to bridge and enhance relationships with the community and allow them to see the police departments in a different light,” Rodgers said of National Night Out. “There are a lot of businesses that have booths offering other services, and it’s a community event that police departments across the country participate in.”
Starkville Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough will lead his team for another year, continuing a partnership that has seen SPD and SFD compete in multiple sports over the last few years, including softball and tennis as well as basketball.
Yarbrough’s favorite sport is basketball, and has been since he started playing at 7 years old, and it’s a great opportunity for him to help build bridges in the community as well as relive his playing days.
“I think it’s a great idea and we look forward to it every year, and to compete with the other departments,” Yarbrough said. “The camaraderie and the competition aspect is great, hanging out and talking to the officers, I think it’s a good thing for our community as well as the departments.”
The games will run from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and admission is $10.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
