Prep Tournament Season

(St. Louis, MO) – High School basketball junkies are ‘main-lining’ this week!  There seems to be a prep basketball tournament on every corner.  Whether you live in Jefferson County, West County or the ‘Ill-Side’ there is great hoop action all over the STL.

While the the legendary Normandy Christmas Tournament has fallen on hard times, they are still playing in Viking Hall and even though the Meramec Holiday Festival lacks some star power this year its 16-team field is deep and they are playing it for the 36th straight year!

Some tournaments are gender specific and yet some facilities have a tournament for both boys and girls going on at the same time. Of course we love the MICDS Holiday Tournament. They are hosting both genders and raising money for Special Olympics and on semi-final night they have the Special Olympians play a game in between the two semi-final games.  This is always a high-light of the Christmas tournament season.  Our hats are off to Athletic Director Don Mauer and the whole MICDS family for such a special event! “The High School Sports Caravan” will be covering tons of games from MICDS.

The brand new “Prep Sports Showcase” will be video streaming eight games from Meramec beginning with the quarter-finals on Saturday. Go to their site www.prepsportsshowcase.com to watch some great action on the “Chick-Fil-A of Des Peres – Game of the Week”. There just happens to be eight ‘games-of-the-week’ this week!

I have the pleasure of announcing some of those games and look forward to seeing some of the great talent and great teams.  Kevin Paulus and I will trade off announcing chores throughout the weekend.  Five of the top 20 teams in the latest “stlhighschoolsports.com” power rankings are playing at Meramec. Top seeded Hazelwood Central is fourth in the latest poll.

‘Tournament Season’ gives us a great feel for which teams are emerging and which are not. Enjoy the ride!

Do Good