‘Tis the time for Christmas tourneys
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

Think your high school team is taking a break now that the holidays are well underway? Think again.

Local teams are as busy as ever during the Christmas “break,” participating or even hosting tournaments that will dot the landscape this weekend and into next week.

The appeal of holiday tournaments to coaches, players and fans seems to be escalating as more and more spring up around the state. Coaches will often schedule their teams for more than one each year, and some will even take trips out of state to give their players a chance to bond and face some new competition.

Edward Little hosts the ninth Annual Gipper’s Holiday Classic Friday and Saturday nights at Ingersoll Arena. Lewiston will face Cape Elizabeth tonight at 6 p.m., followed by the nightcap between EL and Gardiner at 8 p.m. The consolation and championship contests will be played at the same times Saturday.

EL coach Jamie Belleau said holiday tournaments help break up a long season.

“I think it just gives the kids something to look forward to,” Belleau said. “Certainly, the competition is very sound. I think it just breaks up the monotony of league games.”

All of the Gipper’s participants except for Gardiner will skate in Hannaford’s Maine High School Hockey Invitational next week. Eighteen Maine high schools and 14 teams from around New England, New Jersey and Ontario, Canada, will compete at the Portland Ice Arena, Travis Roy Arena and the Biddeford Ice Arena starting this weekend and carrying through the middle of next week.

“It’s a great opportunity for our program to see where we stack up against teams from other states,” Belleau said. “There are prep school coaches and college coaches and scouts there, so anytime we can get some exposure for kids in Maine, it’s a great thing.”

The Lewiston and Mountain Valley boys basketball teams will be participants in the Cony Invitational this weekend at the Augusta Civic Center. The Blue Devils will used the tournament to regroup after getting off to a rough 1-3 start during a brutal early schedule that included some of the top teams in their new league, the KVAC.

“It’s a chance to experiment with chemistry and different lineups,” Fuller said. “We use it as an evaluation tool.”

The Augusta Civic Center has been the site of some great inter-class matchups. Fans who wanted to see how Class D powerhouse Valley would fare against competition from A, B or C have been witness to some memorable clashes.

“It’s one of the classiest tournaments I’ve ever been to,” Fuller said. “It’s got great competition and the organization is phenomenal.”

The biggest concentration of Central Maine teams will be in Turner, where Monmouth, Livermore Falls, Dirigo and St. Dom’s will converge for the Hornet Holiday Stinger, hosted by Leavitt High School. Other tournaments, for boys and girls, are slated for Freeport, Portland and Winslow.

While many hockey teams will be coming to Maine for some new competition, a few basketball teams are headed beyond the border. For instance, Brunswick is playing in a Boston tournament.

“This is the third year in a row we’ve been down there,” Dragons’ coach Todd Hanson said. “We play Jeremiah Burke and Boston English. Last year, we played a team from New Orleans. It’s great for the kids.”

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