By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
Dec. 11, 2003
Two local high schools will host basketball tournaments this weekend, one being a staple of the area sports scene and the other hoping to such recognition.
The Frazier-Yarbrough Tournament, hosted at Meridian High School for two decades, will tip off Thursday at 4 p.m. At the same time, the inaugural Lamar-Rush Sports Medicine Pre-Holiday Classic will begin at Lamar School.
Meridian's event, which uses a round-robin format, features the hosts and three other teams from the surrounding area Quitman, Heidelberg and Noxubee County.
The Lamar tournament has six teams total and will be single elimination with a consolation bracket. Newton County Academy, Starkville Academy, East Rankin Academy, Wayne Academy, South Choctaw Academy (Ala.) and the host Raiders make up the field in the Lamar-Rush Pre-Holiday Classic.
Participating schools have entered their girls' and boys' varsity teams in both tournaments.
Lamar head coach Steve Harber said the Pre-Holiday Classic was conceived because of the few existing tournaments for schools in the Mississippi Private Schools Association.
In the Frazier-Yarbrough Tournament, teams will play one game apiece on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Pre-Holiday Classic teams will compete all three days only if they win their first-round game on Thursday. The consolation bracket does not begin play until Saturday afternoon.
Though three games in three days gives teams in both tournaments little time to recover physically, Harber said that experience could be an advantage when the postseason rolls around.
The tournaments will also herald a break in action for both Meridian and Lamar. The two teams play just one game each between their tournaments' conclusions and Jan. 6. Meridian is at Heidelberg on Dec. 20, and Lamar hosts Hillcrest Christian on Dec. 19.