Sports fans have four days of high school varsity basketball to look forward to over the Martin Luther King Day Weekend, starting Friday. The Interscholastic Athletic Association will host 13 teams at the IAA/McDonald’s MLK, Jr. Boys and Girls Memorial Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Promoters welcomed players and invited the public to turn out, starting Friday, at the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School gymnasium to enjoy live sports competition staged in elimination rounds.
This year’s tournament features nine boys’ teams — Kean High, Charlotte Amalie High School, St. Croix Central High, Educational Complex, Antilles School, All Saints Cathedral School, Freewill Baptist Christian School, Bregado Flax Educational Centre and Elmore Stoutt High School.
Four girls’ teams are scheduled to play — Central High School, Antilles, Educational Complex and CAHS.
Kean High Devil Ray boys team and Central High Lady Caribs, winners from the 2019 tournament, will be on hand to defend their respective titles.
A group of coaches and players appeared at McDonald’s restaurant at Lockhart Gardens Shopping Center at a pre-game press conference on Wednesday. They were welcomed by McDonald’s Managing Director for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Marisol Vega Couto.
The fast food restaurant chain has sponsored MLK tournaments for the past six years and is promising to award $2,000 to the athletic director of the winning teams in the boys’ and girls’ divisions.
Tournament organizer Kenny Todman said he’s been pleased to see how student athletes develop their skills from freshman through senior high school years. “And I would see some of the coaches (from the U.S. mainland) come down and watch them. Some of them got scholarships,” Todman said.
Athletic association president Shane DeGannes said he decided to step into a leadership role after serving on the association board as a member for years. He said his job this year was to sit back and watch a dedicated core of tournament organizers run the show.
DeGannes also came to the press conference to thank the corporate sponsors. “We appreciate the ongoing partnership with McDonald’s,” he said.
Coaches who came to the event spoke about their hopes at the start of basketball season. Ronnie Cummings, coach of the Eudora Kean Devil Rays boys’ team, said 2020 was a rebuilding year.
“We have a lot of building to do. We have three returning players and everybody else either moved up from (junior varsity) or are new players. We’re still working on continuity with our guys, trying to get our bench guys to be more ready in the game. We have a lot of work to do as a team,” Cummings said.
KyAndra Rogers, playing with the Lady Chickenhawks at CAHS said she liked her team’s prospects. Once a dominant force in girls varsity, Charlotte Amalie saw rivals take their place in recent years, but the team ended last season by capturing the title of territorial champs.
“We play well, we have a great connection,” Rogers said.
And Todman said the competition could liven up, once the two teams from the British Virgin Islands take to the court. “Flax, they have been here for three or four years. They’ve had some good teams,” he said.
Play begins at 4:30 Friday with the champion Devil Rays meeting Bregado Flax. Girls’ champ, Central Lady Caribs, start off elimination play immediately after the end of the first boys’ game, facing off against Antilles.
Nine games are slated for Saturday, with winners from Friday’s games playing other winners to advance towards the semi-finals. Losing teams from Friday play other losing teams in the consolation rounds.
Seven games make up Sunday’s roster of tournament play; semi finals are likely to begin by Sunday evening.
The top teams in the girls’ and boys’ divisions play for the title Monday morning, starting at 10 a.m.