The Class of 2022 won its division for the third year in a row in 2024 in the Westwood Alumni Softball Tournament. (Photo courtesy Facebook page of Westwood Alumni Softball Tournament)

GWINN — Led by the “new kids on the block” in Gwinn, close to a hundred teams are planning or are already taking part in annual softball tournaments through the alumni associations at Gwinn, Ishpeming, Westwood and Negaunee high schools.

These tournaments always take place around the Fourth of July holiday as the alumni groups take advantage when many graduates have extended time off or return home for reunions with family and old classmates.

Gwinn is in just the eighth running of its event, but for at least two years now, has the biggest turnout of the four tourneys in Marquette County, counting 34 teams this year.

Even with a single-elimination format, it takes time to get all its games played in two divisions, so it began on Saturday and was already scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday.

Ishpeming, claiming its event as the “World’s Oldest Running Alumni Softball Tournament (As listed in The Guinness World Records)” begins tonight in two divisions with 12 teams before finishing up Saturday afternoon.

Westwood has three divisions with 19 teams and begins play Friday — the actual Fourth of July — and runs through Sunday.

Finally, Negaunee schedules its tourney during the city’s annual Pioneer Days, which start on or right after the Fourth of July.

Negaunee’s 28 alumni teams in two divisions begin play Saturday and won’t have their championships games until Friday, July 11.

Here are some more details about each tournament:

Gwinn

Maybe the secret to success for Gwinn alumni softball is not taking itself too seriously with divisions named Diapers — for the younger teams — and Depends — for the older set.

The Depends Bracket includes just eight of the 34 teams, going back as far as the 1976-78 team and as recent as the 1990-93 group.

Both those teams have made it the final four in that bracket, with semifinals and finals that were scheduled to be played Wednesday.

All games are were being played at the Gwinn softball complex across from the high school.

The Diapers Bracket has the other 26 teams, starting with 1994 and going right through to this year’s graduates, 2025.

There were also four teams left to be played in semifinal and final rounds Wednesday at the softball complex.

Ishpeming

A dozen teams begin play tonight at three fields — the fastpitch and slowpitch fields at the Ishpeming Ballfield Complex just off South Second Street, along with the Al Quaal field at the Al Quaal Recreation Complex on the north side of town.

In its 46th annual running, this event has five games tonight at the fastpitch and Al Quaal fields. Starting times range from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the fastpitch field with the lone Al Quaal game at 7 p.m.

In a fairly unique twist, the Blue Division, which includes eight of the 12 teams, will have its first-round losers jump over to White Division to continue play and round out that bracket by joining the four oldest teams — ones ranging from 1970-88 through 2010-11.

The Blue Division includes mostly double-year teams, starting at 2012-13, though the 2024 and 2025 teams are their own stand-alone squads.

Championship games are scheduled for Saturday at Al Quaal at 1:30 and 3 p.m.

Ishpeming’s tournament always remembers one or several graduates who have passed on, this year honoring Louie Willey of the class of 1971, Daniel Willey of 1979, Ellen Flynn Young of 1980 and Jack Young of 2019.

Westwood

The Patriots tourney go all-out with patriotism, easy to do with a school nickname of the Patriots and colors of red, white and blue.

Those three colors are the division names, each division with six or seven teams.

All games will be played at Sunnyside Field, located just off U.S. 41 near North Lake Drive in west Ishpeming.

The oldest division is Red for classes from 1975-83 to 1998, White is in the middle with 1999-2001 through 2015-16, while Blue is the youngsters going from 2017-19 to 2025.

The teams not receiving first-round byes all play Friday, with games starting at 11 a.m. and a new game beginning each hour and 15 minutes later until the final one is set to get going at 6:30 p.m.

Semifinals are set for Saturday on the same schedule, except the games don’t start until 1 p.m. and the last one beginning at 7:15 p.m.

Finally, the trio of championship games will be played Sunday, the Red Division at noon, White at 1:30 p.m. and Blue at 3 p.m.

Negaunee

This tourney is unique among the four in that the winners of the two brackets meet up for an overall champion immediately afterward.

Though it wasn’t explicitly stated on its Facebook page or the bracket, the two divisions have been referred to in the past as JV for younger teams and Varsity for the older ones, and all games traditionally have been played at LaCombe Field on Baldwin Avenue in Negaunee.

Organizers have built in a rain date of Wednesday, with the annual Home Run Derby at 7 p.m. next Thursday.

Fourteen teams are in each division, with JV teams ranging from 2011 to the current year 2025, and Varsity squads starting at 1973-81 and going through 2010.

The JV Division also includes the Negaunee High School Faculty team, which in fact kicks off the entire tournament at 2 p.m. Saturday against the Class of 2025, with a new game beginning at the top of each hour through 8 p.m.

The first round will be finished off Sunday, with a few second-round games played then, too, until divisional semifinals come up on Tuesday and next Thursday.

The Varsity final is at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 11, with the JV championship at 6 p.m. Then the overall championship will go at 7 p.m. that same day.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.