Holiday Tournaments Finally Come To A Close After A Crazy Week
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–It was a blizzard that will be long remembered for not only its power and fury, but also its aftermath. An aftermath, in which there was a poor response to the cleanup in many parts of the Garden State. The chaos in the storm’s wake reverberated down to the high school boys and girls basketball tournaments.
Most tournaments were delayed for a few days. Others were pushed back just a day. One tournament was completely called off while a couple started in the old year, and ended in the new. Teams pulled out of some of the tournaments due to the weather. Other squads weren’t able to get to the gym on time pushing back the start times of some of the contest. Despite all of these obstacles, we were able to get through. It is a credit to the athletic directors, coaches, players, and parents.
GMC Hoops dealt with the obstacles as well. Particularly, the first couple of days. The site traveled over to Edison High School on Tuesday and Wednesday only to find out later that the Gene Haley Memorial Tournament had been called off. Then, during its trip to the Joe Silver Holiday Tournament in Hillside, the site waited for an hour and a half before the game finally started between St. Joe’s and Lincoln of Jersey City.
In spite of all the difficulties, GMC Hoops managed to cover 12 games from seven different holiday tournaments. The site has done more in past years, but in light of all the scheduling changes, and road conditions in some of the towns, it was quite an accomplishment. This year marked the third straight year that wintry weather has played havoc with the start of the boys basketball season. The past two years have seen storms postpone games on opening weekend.