Category:High School Tournaments

From Hoopedia

Every state in the United States has high school basketball tournaments. Boys and Girls each have their own tournaments. Nearly all state tourneys are divided into classes (by size of school); Delaware and Kentucky are the exceptions. Some states have separate tournaments for parochial or private schools. Only recently have the Philadelphia public schools begun to participate in the state tournament; they used to think that being city champ was enough.

Today individual high school players often participate in High School Showcases, post-season affairs which allow players to show off their individual skills for college scouts. Back in the day, teams showed off for college scouts at various tournaments: state tournaments or special tournaments.

National tournaments, which brought together some of the best teams in the country to claim a national title, were popular long ago. Two of the most notable were the National Interscholastic Basketball Tournament, sponsored by the University of Chicago from 1917 to 1930, and the National Catholic Interscholastic Basketball Tournament, sponsored by Loyola University, Chicago, from 1924 to 1941.

There was also a National Interscholastic Tournament for girls, held in various locations from 1924 through 1927; and a national interscholastic for academies sponsored by the University of Wisconsin in Madison from 1926 through 1930.

From 1929 through 1967, there were a series of national tournaments for African American schools, but the end of school segregation put an end to such tournaments. Also before integration, African American schools in the border and Southern states sponsored their own state tournaments, the most notable of which was the West Virginia Athletic Union Tournament, from 1925 to 1957.

Several sections of the country also sponsored sectional tournaments, notably the Central States Interscholastic, held in Evanston, Illinois, for schools in the Midwest; the Cotton States Interscholastic, held in Alabama for Southern schools; and the Eastern States Interscholastic, held in New York State for schools in states primarily along the Atlantic seaboard.