Release Date:12/12/2009
News Title: 19th Annual Holiday High School Tournament Hosts All Georgia Line-up


The Deep South Classic, one of Atlanta and Georgia’s top holiday basketball tournaments for nearly two decades will be hosting an all Georgia high school line-up.

“Last year’s return to our original format of 16 teams was successful and tournament officials decided to continue,” stated .stated Tournament Director Les Witmer. “We are again unfortunately impacted by the economy and limited sponsorship.”

Sixteen teams, all from Georgia, are set to kick off the 19th Annual 2009 Deep South Classic holiday high school basketball tournament which will be held Monday thru Wednesday, Dec. 28 -30. The long running tournament will feature 16-teams (8 boys and 8 girls’ teams) in a 3-day tournament held only at Brookwood High School. Each team will play three times with finals and consolation games on Wednesday, December 30. For complete listings of the schedule go to www.deepsouthclassic.com.

“We will again use both Brookwood High School gyms--both are 94 foot, wood floor surfaces--and the game schedule will be 2:00, 3:45, 5:30 and 7:15 p.m.,” added Witmer. “We’ve got another quality line up for 2009 with a nice combination of teams that have played in the tournament before and some talented teams playing for the first time—and teams from different classifications and regions that don’t normally play each other.”

Teams participating this year include three schools that will have both their boys ad girls teams—Brookwood, Grayson and Winder-Barrow. Other boys’ teams include Gainesville, Mill Creek, Osborne, South Cobb and Sprayberry. The other girls’ teams include Forest Park, Madison County, McEachern, Northwest Whitfield and Peachtree Ridge. Gainesville, Osborne and Sprayberry Boys and Forest Park and Madison County girls are making their first appearance in the Deep South Classic.

“It’s always amazing how many of these teams played well into the post season last year and in compiling information on them for this season, it’s obvious there will be some highly competitive match-ups early and there should be lots of interest in our Deep South Classic Top Prospects for 2009 that we put together for our college coaches and recruiters.” stated Tournament Director Les Witmer.

Eight teams in this year’s Deep South Classic are coming off state tournament appearances with three playing in the final four.

“The backbone of the successful tournament continues to be the outstanding volunteer support and local business sponsorship the tournament has received," stated Witmer.
“We’re very proud to run a high quality tournament now in its 19th year and do so with just local sponsorship,” concluded Witmer.“We always get great feedback and comments from our participating schools with teams wanting to return here who have played in major tournaments with national sponsorship. That says a lot for our community, our local sponsors and the many volunteers who are responsible for us being able to host this tournament.”