Boulder Creek baseball coach Joe McDonald is making good on a promise he made to his former assistant coach and friend, the late Bob Weinheimer.

Before Weinheimer passed passed away in 2011, McDonald told Weinheimer that he’d work hard to help organize the best and biggest high school baseball tournament in the nation, the National Coach Bob Invitational, to honor Weinheimer.

Weinheimer had an extensive baseball background and was an Arizona High School Hall of Fame inductee, but to Boulder Creek he was a family member. McDonald is getting close to overtaking what is likely the largest tournament, the Lions Tournament in San Diego, in the nation.

The Lions Tournament attracted 120 teams this season. McDonald’s tournament started in 2006 and registered a tournament-high 97 teams this season, which will play a total of 231 games.

The Coach Bob Invite will run from Saturday to March 30. Fourteen Valley schools, including Boulder Creek, will host games, and seven different division winners will be crowned in the tournament.

Nineteen Arizona teams will participate in the tournament, and 13 different states sent teams to play in this year’s tournament. Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, ranked No. 13 by MaxPreps, is the tournament’s top attraction.

“This is the best field we’ve had from top to bottom,” McDonald said.

Boulder Creek, which has won 85 games in the past three seasons, will play Bishop Gorman on Thursday at Grand Canyon University in a televised game (Cox 7).

“Our kids gear up for this tournament,” McDonald said. “I can guarantee they will play their hearts out for coach Bob.”

On March 22 at 7 p.m., aia365.com will broadcast the Sandra Day O’Connor-Mullen Colorado game.

Sandra Day O’Connor coach Jeff Baumgartner and McDonald joined forced to help the Coach Bob Invite really take off. Sandra Day O’Connor used to host a tournament a week after Boulder Creek’s, but the coaches decided to merge their tournaments into one event.

For the tournament’s schedule, list of teams and more information about Bob Weinheimer, go here.