NORWICH – The population in the City of Norwich is expected to nearly double this weekend as thousands of basketball fans flock to the area for the 21st season of the Gus Macker three-on-three basketball tournament.

The second weekend in July, dubbed by locals as “Gus Macker weekend,” marks one of the largest event weekends in Chenango County. Each year, the Gus Macker tournament, sponsored by the Norwich Family YMCA, brings in the most devoted basketball players from the east coast, resulting in the city’s population of 7,000 people to more than double in size over night.

Beginning Friday and continuing throughout the weekend, volunteers will sacrifice their time and energy to make sure things run smoothly, proving that this 21-year-old sporting event has a much deeper community impact than the sport itself.

“It’s amazing to see that people who played in it years ago now have kids who are playing,” said Norwich YMCA Executive Director Jamey Mullen. “This all started with an idea 21 years ago of how we could bring people into our community. We want people to come to our stores, eat at our restaurants and use our hotels. We want people to know who we are and where we are, and I think we’ve done that. People get caught up in the competition, but that promotion of the community is our number one prize.”

Volunteers began work early Friday morning to snap together court flooring in the parking lots of Tops Supermarket and City Hall, and to set up the quarter-mile line of basketball courts on East Main Street. When all is said and done, downtown traffic is replaced with a basketball haven for local and visiting competitors.

The Norwich community has done nothing but show support for the event over the years. This year alone, several hundred volunteers worked throughout the year on everything from planning and coordinating, to taping boundary lines on the pavement and raising basketball hoops.

“Because it’s running at the same time as a number of other local events this year, we’ve had to get creative with our volunteers,” Mullen said, noting that the number of volunteers this year is actually down from previous years. “We’re hoping to work our way through that knowing that we still have seasoned volunteers who have done it for many years. We may have folks who have to work smarter to get through it.”