HANCEVILLE – A holiday hoopfest at Wallace State Community College has brought 25 teams to Tom Drake Coliseum for five days of entertaining Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) basketball.
Wallace State coach John Meeks was able to get 23 varsity teams and two varsity girls' squads to be a part of the inaugural Buffalo Wild Wings Christmas Challenge.
"The first year of the event presents an exciting field, giving teams at all levels a chance to experience all that Tom Drake Coliseum offers," Meeks said. "We are excited to host the Christmas Challenge and grateful to Buffalo Wild Wings in Cullman for their partnership and support."
Seven teams arrived with impressive credentials, being currently ranked in the state prep poll for their classifications.
Two stood at the top in the class with Cordova the best from Class 4A and Pelham currently No. 1 in Class 6A.
From Class 7A, Lee-Montgomery is second, Sparkman sixth and Grissom No. 10.
Muscle Shoals joined Pelham as a Top 10 squad from Class 6A. The Trojans suffered their first loss on Friday in a regular season game with Hazel Green.
Madison Academy is third in the 4A poll, playing in this classification for the first time after being a 3A participant for a very long time.
Teams like Lee-Montgomery, Oxford, Helena, Vestavia, Columbia, Grissom, Carbon Hill, Addison, Northside, Handley, Hueytown are enjoying the environment of the Coliseum for the first time.
Cordova, Cleveland, Muscle Shoals, Sparkman, James Clemens, Sheffield, Oak Mountain, Spain Park, Madison Academy and Cullman have played here in the past as qualifiers in the AHSAA Northwest Regional Tournament.
Cullman, who is the high school host of the pre-Christmas event, had been the host the past three years of the Mitch Smith Chevrolet Yuletide Classic.
Buffalo Wild Wings had a promotional event at halftime of each game. A person who made a shot from half court would receive free wings for a full year.
The restaurant, along with Cullman High, got creative in promoting its menu with the tournament schedule.
It began Thursday with the "Traditional" bracket as Carbon Hill defeated Addison 69-49 and Handley was a 53-23 winner over Northside.
On Friday, the "Sampler" was the Wallace State Lady Lions in a late afternoon game as they romped past Volunteer State 78-50 to go 9-3 on the season.
The main course for prep games began with the "Blazin" matchup as No. 1 Cordova pulled away late and beat Cleveland from nearby Blount County 68-50.
Northside took the traditional consolation game over Addison 48-24 with the championship going to Handley by a 51-33 victory against Carbon Hill.
Handley is now getting into basketball after the Tigers recently won the Class 4A state football title at Auburn University, defeating Madison Academy in the championship.
All games Saturday were classified as a classic, which does not count against a team regarding the number of tournament games (3) all schools in the AHSAA are allowed per year prior to the postseason.
A majority of the Saturday games had teams playing one another for the first time. This was designated as a North vs. Central Alabama Challenge.
Those games were Oxford vs. Muscle Shoals, Sparkman vs. Helena, James Clemens vs. Lee-Montgomery, Columbia vs. Vestavia, Sheffield vs. Oak Mountain, Grissom vs. Pelham and Hazel Green vs. Hueytown.
It's tournament play for Monday and Tuesday with Cullman facing a strong challenge against James Clemens at 7:30 p.m. Monday after Madison Academy meets Spain Park at 6 p.m. This is the "Boneless Bracket" of the challenge.
The Monday winners meet in the championship Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The losers from the Monday games will play at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to close out the event.
Tom Drake Coliseum is celebrating its 25th year on the Wallace State campus. It opened with volleyball in the fall of 1992, followed by the Lady Lions and Lions hooping it up that season.
High school basketball made its impact in January of 1993 with the Cullman County Tournament being played at a neutral location for the first time ever, according to reports.
Since then, the AHSAA reached an agreement with Wallace State to host the Northwest Regional with the state association allowing tournaments during the regular schedule, even though there was concern of teams getting an advantage playing on the collegiate regulation floor prior to qualifying for the regional.
Aside from Drake Coliseum, other collegiate programs such as Samford University's Pete Hanna Center, University of North Alabama's Flowers Hall and Snead State's Plunkett-Wallace Gymnasium have holiday-type tournaments between Thanksgiving and Christmas that have been well established through the years in organization and participation.
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