My Quest for the Brackets Begins
So my nephew’s playing in this Section 3 tournament and I promised I’d track his games. Tuesday morning I grabbed coffee and fired up Google. Typed “2025 Section 3 boys basketball brackets” like any normal person would. First page showed me stuff from last year’s tournament – total dead end.
The Local News Rabbit Hole
Remembered our local paper covers high school sports pretty good. Went straight to their site but man, their search sucks. Found preseason predictions and coach interviews but zero bracket info. Even checked their Twitter – bunch of score updates but no full schedule.
Started getting frustrated so I called buddy who coaches JV. He told me: “Bro, Section 3 ain’t consistent where they post it. Sometimes it’s buried under ‘Athletics’ then ‘Postseason’ then like five dropdown menus.” Felt like I needed a treasure map.
The Breakthrough Moment
Around noon I had this idea – checked MaxPreps finally. Scrolled past player stats and school rankings until I spotted tiny “Tournaments” tab. There it was! Section 3 Boys Basketball Division listings with all matchups laid out clean:
- Class AA quarterfinals: Syracuse East vs Nottingham 3/1 @ 4pm
- Class A play-in game: Fulton at Cortland 2/28
- Class C semifinals doubleheader 3/5 at Onondaga CC
They even had printable brackets with cute little basketball icons. Why didn’t I start here? Spent half the morning chasing ghosts when the solution was right there.
Bonus Tip from My Fail
Later I realized NYSPHAA official site posts them too under “Winter Championships”, but you gotta navigate like six layers of menus. Next year I’m skipping the detective work and going straight to MaxPreps. Printed the whole schedule and circled nephew’s game dates in red marker – felt like I won my own tournament just finding them!