Area basketball teams will be in holiday tournament action next week, but the format will look different from past years.
Teams will be headed to two sites, with a Davidson County vs. Randolph County flavor.
“They agreed to do that this year,” Asheboro athletics director Steve Luck said. “It kind of worked out. We thought this would be neat.”
The changes stem from sponsorship changes and the renovations at Asheboro’s gym, which had been used for what were basically Randolph County tournaments on back-to-back weeks. That venue is unavailable this year.
This is called the Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic.
Now, the girls and boys play on the same days. That’s eight games per day at each site.
Games are set for Dec. 27-29 at Providence Grove and Ledford. Eight schools will be at each site with both their boys’ and girls’ teams.
“We kind of wanted something new and different,” Providence Grove athletics director Calvin Brown said.
Luck, Brown and Ledford athletics director Donald Palmer were among those putting together plans, beginning last spring.
With new North Carolina High School Athletic Association conference alignments beginning this school year, it was another reason to adjust. All the schools in Randolph County with the exception of Asheboro are in the same league.
“The Randolph County schools were getting tired of playing each other,” Luck said.
There are bound to be some matchups between conference teams, but the brackets are set up to avoid that as much as possible.
So on Day 1, Randolph County schools (plus Jordan-Matthews) take on Davidson County Schools.
There are benefits to the format, primarily that three days – albeit it long ones – will be used. In the past, the girls’ tournament came prior to Christmas and the boys’ tournament followed Christmas, so that meant organizers and support personnel had six days when they had to be in attendance.
“You’ve got three days dedicated to this,” Luck said.
Providence Grove was a site for NCHSAA championship games last March. Now there will be three consecutive days stacked with basketball in the gym.
“We’ll see how it goes and we’re hoping it grows from this,” Brown said.
Revenues from the two sites will be combined and split among the 16 participating schools.
Brown said other benefits could arise from this format. With the girls and boys playing in separate weeks in the past, it made scheduling difficult across those periods because normally girls and boys play doubleheaders. This way, Brown said it frees time in the week prior to Christmas for non-conference games.
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Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic
The tournament runs Dec. 27-29. Listed below are matchups for Day 1. Game times at both sites will be the same for Day 2 and Day 3 with matchups pending.
At Providence Grove
Girls
Randleman vs. Lexington, 10 a.m.
Asheboro vs. East Davidson, 1 p.m.
Jordan-Matthews vs. Central Davidson, 4 p.m.
Providence Grove vs. West Davidson, 7 p.m.
Boys
Randleman vs. Lexington, 11:30 a.m.
Asheboro vs. East Davidson, 2:30 p.m.
Jordan-Matthews vs. Central Davidson, 5:30 p.m.
Providence Grove vs. West Davidson, 8:30 p.m.
At Ledford
Girls
Thomasville vs. SW Randolph, 10 a.m.
Oak Grove vs. Eastern Randolph, 1 p.m.
South Davidson vs. Trinity, 4 p.m.
Ledford vs. Wheatmore, 7 p.m.
Boys
Thomasville vs. SW Randolph, 11:30 a.m.
Oak Grove vs. Eastern Randolph, 2:30 p.m.
South Davidson vs. Trinity, 5:30 p.m.
Ledford vs. Wheatmore, 8:30 p.m.
