Below is a transcript of the letter received from the LBAA outlining their affiliation with the Lutheran Sports Association of Wisconsin and the State Basketball Championship.

January 18, 2006

Dear Wisconsin Friends,

The Board of Directors is very pleased to hear of all the great Christian athletic work coming from the relatively new Wisconsin State Middle School Basketball Tournament. It has been our privilege to work with individual schools, coaches, players and parents from your great state over the past many years, but now that you have developed a recognized state tournament we are even more pleased. Having been part of other state tournaments as a coach or observer, it becomes more apparent to me and each of our directors that through state competition fantastic things will happen. I know in my current home state of Texas this is the only time some teams can compete, worship and have fellowship with various areas of the state, different sized schools and ethnic groups. It is a time the students and coaches look forward as they focus their season toward the prize of the state title and perhaps a birth in the Lutheran National Tournament of Champions.

As the President of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Basketball Association of America, it is my duty to be sure you realize that as a nationally recognized state tournament, each boy’s and girl’s team that has a completed application into the selection committee chairman (currently Mr. Charles Woest) by March 1 of the given year and is the top qualifier as a consequence of the state tournament will receive an automatic bid to the Lutheran national tournament. Also, as participants in the state tournament, other national applicants will receive first consideration into the Lutheran national tournament. Teams not entered into the state tournament will receive consideration only after it is deemed the amount of teams to be selected from Wisconsin were not met by legitimate applicants who the committee feels would be competitive at the national level.

We look forward to this relationship between the Wisconsin state tournament and the national level of competition over many years. May the Lord bless you on your work as you continue to bring our young people in the knowledge of our Lord though athletics.

Sincerely,

Tom Schultze, President

Lutheran Basketball Associations of America