The eight teams have been announced but the brackets for the annual George Long Holiday Hoops Tournament at Wakefield High School are yet to be released for the three-day Dec. 27-29 boys basketball event.
As always, the Wakefield Warriors will be the host team of the competition, now in its 20th year. The popular tournament is one of the longest running boys holiday tournaments in the metropolitan area.
The tourney was not held in 2020 because of the pandemic.
“We have a very good field of teams again,” said Wakefield head boys varsity coach Tony Bentley, also the tournament’s director.
The entries are highlighted by four-time champion Wakefield along with its Arlington rival Washington-Liberty Generals, who have played in just about every tournament. Wakefield last won the tournament in 2015.
Washington-Liberty finished second in last-season’s tournament, losing to the South County Stallions in the championship game. The Generals are yet to win the tournament.
South County returns this season, as well. The Stallions also won the 2019 tourney and is a former Class 6 public-school state champion in recent seasons.
Other teams entered are Oscar Smith from Chesapeake, Falls Church, Colonial Forge of Stafford and Colgan and Battlefield from Prince William County a past champion in 2017. Oscar Smith finished 25-2 last season and played in the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state tournament, losing in the semifinals.
Battlefield finished 22-4 last season.
Former Wakefield player and assistant coach Deidrich Gilreath, who played in the tournament, is the head coach at Colonial Forge, off to a 4-0 start this season.
In first-round games Dec. 27, Washington-Liberty plays Battlefield at 1 p.m., Colonial Forge and Colgan meet at 2:45 p.m., South County faces Oscar Smith at 4:30 p.m. and Wakefield takes on Falls Church in the night cap at 6:15 p.m.
Game times for each tournament’s four days are 1, 2:45, 4:30 and 6:15 p.m.
The host Wakefield team this season features returning top players Horace “B.J.” Willis Jr., Jeremiah Poole, Gabe Henneman, Derrick Bailey, Shane Morrison and Ricardo Snyder, out with an injury.
Wakefield opened its 2023-24 season with a 53-41 comeback road victory over Olympic High School in Charlotte, N.C. Poole and Henneman were the leading scorers for Wakefield.
