BANGOR, Maine — For 32 High School basketball teams across northern and eastern Maine, there was one more holiday present to open.
That present was the chance to play in the second annual Maine Basketball Hall of Fame Holiday Classic. The tournament brought 19 different schools to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor with both boys and girls teams competing.
Tony Hamlin is the Executive Director of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame. He said that the goal of the tournament was to bring small schools to a big environment.
“To the smaller communities and try to get people to get into the city and experience the atmosphere of the Cross Center," Hamlin said.
The Holiday Classic also has another layer of opportunity built into it. The Cross Insurence Center hosts playoff games come postseason time. This gives teams who played this weekend a chance to get used to playing in a bigger setting.
Mel Grant is the Searsport girls coach. He added that this weekend is a great pre-playoff opportunity.
“It’s kind of a pre-tournament tune-up. Get the jitters our, learn how to shoot on an open backboard," Grant said.
Michael Leblanc, the Skowhegan girls coach, added that the court is a different size than a normal high school gym.
“Getting used to the shooting atmosphere and the size of the court, because it’s a bigger court," Leblanc said.
This year's tournament featured teams from Class "C" and Class "D" divisions. Hamlin mentioned that in the future the tournament may expand to include Class "A" and Class "B" teams.
Hamlin said the tournament will be back next year, and the Hall of Fame has some new ideas in the coming seasons.
“The hall of fame is looking at the possibility of looking into some Unified tournaments, and getting some unified games into the Cross (Insurence Center)," he said.