Holidays mean lots of tourneys
Holiday basketball tournaments have become a tradition for many area high schools, who either host their own tournament or travel out of the area to take part in events and hope to gain from the experience to take into the postseason playoffs.
Ida Baker is hosting its own tournament for girls’ teams, which runs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Mariner, North Fort Myers, Lehigh and Palmetto Ridge also are involved in the action.
Baker’s first opponent is Reynoldsburg (Ohio) at 7 p.m. Monday. North Fort Myers opens the tourney at 2 p.m. Monday against Palmetto Ridge, followed at 3:30 p.m. by Lehigh against Brooksville Central. Mariner takes on Jupiter at 5:30 p.m.
The semifinals are at 5:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesday with the championship game set for 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Ida Baker’s boys, meanwhile, start play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the 14th annual Naples Daily News Gulfshore Shootout at Golden Gate High School. Baker faces Jacksonville Mandarin in the first round. Mandarin made it to the semifinal round in last year’s tourney.
Five of the past 11 winners of the shootout were out-of-state teams. Only one team in this year’s field is from outside Florida – Ensworth of Nashville, Tenn., which lost in the championship game to Jupiter in 2007.
Lehigh and Dunbar also are participating in the four-day, 16-team tourney along with Collier County schools Palmetto Ridge, Naples, Barron Collier, Gulf Coast and Golden Gate.
Games begin at 9 a.m. each of the first three days and at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday. The championship game is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Cape High’s boys are in Tampa while Bishop Verot’s boys are in Atlanta for tournaments. Cape High’s girls also are playing a tournament out of the area.
Soccer
Competitive soccer is another activity that takes full advantage of the holiday break for school schedules.
The Cape’s Island Coast Soccer Alliance teams are competing in major tournaments this weekend in Tampa and Broward County.
The Island Coast boys’ under-15 and under-18 teams begin play Saturday in the Tampa Bay Sun Bowl Soccer Tournament, which runs through Tuesday.
Several Island Coast girls’ teams are participating in the 12th annual Orange Classic International Girls Soccer Tournament spread out over four parks in Fort Lauderdale. It runs Saturday through Tuesday.
The tournament has drawn more than 400 teams from 27 states, Holland and Canada. It also attracts more than 300 college coaches from Division I, II, III and NAIA schools to evaluate players for college scholarship offers.