|
MAJOR FORMAT CHANGES AHEAD FOR HINSDALE
CENTRAL HOLIDAY CLASSIC
Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic Tournament Manager Joe Spagnolo has seen a
lot of high school basketball over the past five decades, but his listening
skills are proving to be just as important.
The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Famer was the former
Tournament Director at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament for four decades
and saw the likes of Isiah Thomas, Kevin Garnett, Jon Scheyer and Jaylen
Brunson play in that event – which was considered one of the top high school
Christmas tournaments in the country.
In 2015 Joe moved to rival Hinsdale Central to start their own Holiday
Classic. Always trying to build a better mousetrap, the tournament
affectionately known as HC Squared, has been filled with innovation.
This year, the Hinsdale Central event will undergo a series of major changes
after using those listening skills.
“We asked all of our stakeholders what they like and what they don’t like
about the traditional 16-team Christmas tournament” Spagnolo said, who
polled coaches, players, parents, workers and even tournament managers at
other events.
Some of their findings were predictable. No one liked playing morning
games, coaches wanted to play new faces, and everyone wanted an atmosphere
at the games that contained a buzz.
But Spagnolo learned a whole lot of new comments, including coaches needing
more time to properly prepare for their next opponent, parents having
sufficient time to plan for when their next game will be played, and
avoiding play on the day after Christmas.
Tournament managers from around the state voiced concerns of losing marquee
talent with the current landscape of player transfers; and coaches breaking
their signed contracts for various reasons, which left those administrators scrambling to
fill their field.
This year’s Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic will once again think outside
of the box and create a new template for its schedule of games – something
that hasn’t been done for years in the holiday tournament scene.
The plan is to return to the tournament’s original tenets of playing both
before and after the Christmas holiday. “It’s always nice to have at least
one day of practice during game week, which certainly is more beneficial
than a full week of practice of many days in a row” said Spagnolo, who also serves as assistant coach of the Hinsdale
Central varsity basketball team.
The round-robin format will be played prior to the Christmas break.
Participating teams will be given their choice of what days they would like
to play in the group stage competition. After the group stage is complete, a
Holiday Classic Reveal Show will be broadcast on social media on the morning
of Christmas Eve Day that will announce the matchups for both the Final Four
bracket and the game assignments for those teams that do not make the
championship round. The last two rounds of the event will be played on
December 28 and 29.
“Every game scheduled to conclude the tournament will be known at least
four days in advance. This will give teams ample time for scouting
preparation and for an additional day of practice", Spagnolo said. Teams
not making the Final Four bracket will then be manually assigned to allow
for the best potential matchups, while maintaining flexibility in scheduling
so that teams will not face common opponents already on their schedule.
All games in the Group Stage rounds will start after 3pm and all games on
the final two days will be scheduled for the afternoon and evenings – alleviating the morning
game issue.
“The purpose is that every game at our event is meaningful, and that no one
is playing for fifteenth place before an empty gym at nine in the morning”
said Spagnolo.
The new tournament structure will also reduce the number of participating
teams from sixteen to twelve, which also allows for more scheduling
flexibility.
This year’s
Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic will feature half of its field of teams
that won 20 or more games last season. The teams include: Hinsdale
Central, Lane Tech, Lincoln-Way Central, Maine South, Neuqua Valley, Niles
North, Oswego East, Plainfield East, Rockford Auburn, Schaumburg, St.
Charles East and Waubonsie Valley.
|
