CASS LAKE — With basketball season right around the corner, roughly 40 teams congregated at Cass Lake schools over the weekend for a preseason tournament.

The games were rather arbitrary, though.

While players from third grade through high school played in 32-minute, 5-on-5 contests on Saturday and Sunday, the games took a back seat to a larger message.

LeRoy Fairbanks III has been around basketball for a long time. He’s also worked in government, serving as the District III Tribal Council representative for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe since July 2012.

In merging the passions of basketball and improving the well-being of his community, Fairbanks helped organize the inaugural Pathways to Wellness Basketball Tournament, a youth event where people from across the region come together to

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