Sports

Missing those early-season tournaments

By Tom Haley
Staff Writer
There is something about those early-season basketball tournaments in the area.

They are not allowed this season, another item scratched by COVID.

Like Frosty, they will be back again some day. Can’t wait.

In their own way, a very different way, they are as special as those tournaments at the other end that we tag with labels like February Frenzy or March Madness.

The early-season affairs, like the Bob A Tournament in Proctor, the Mary Canfield Holiday Tournament in Fair Haven, the Green Mountain Tip-Off Tournament in Chester, the North-South Challenge in Rutland or the Dave Morse Tournament in Hardwick, give us our long awaited basketball fix. They are a holiday gift.

They also give us our first read on the four teams in the field. We have been eagerly awaiting to see what coaches have assembled after graduation losses, unexpected departures and the newcomers in the fold.

The tournaments also come at a time when everyone is giddy. There is joy in the air with the holiday approaching. Fans are in a good mood as they catch up with one another.

Some of the tournaments honor some extraordinary people, community icons.

The Bob A is named for longtime Proctor High School administrator, coach and official Bob Abrahamson. The octogenarian always said the reason he shows up every year to present the trophy was so that people would not think that it was the Bob Abrahamson Memorial Tournament.

He is very much alive and we can’t wait until the world is more normal in December of 2021 and he is back to not only present the hardware, but also lend his customary pregame touch to the event by shaking hands with each player as he is introduced.

Mary Canfield was a tireless worker on behalf of Fair Haven Union High School athletics and the Fair Haven Post 49 American Legion baseball. She devoted countless hours to the booster club and was there at 49er baseball games in the summer, providing players and coaches with food between or after doubleheaders. She never forgot the reporters, either.

The girls holiday basketball tourney tournament named for her offered a chance to size up local teams like Fair Haven and Mill River and others like Burr and Burton and Mount Abraham.

Dave Morse was an icon at Hazen Union High School and when he died, the Hardwick school lost a treasure. Actually, an entire state did.

He chronicled the games and athletes for that school for nearly the last two decades of his life. He did not do it as a job but rather as a burning passion, a passion that extended to the school, athletes and community. He loved it all and it showed.

Hazen hoop fans are so passionate about their Wildcats anyway, imagine them waking up to get that first taste of action they had been waiting for all those months and having Lamoille, Williamstown and Randolph in their gym for two nights.

Playing it in honor of a man everyone in the community knew and loved just added all the more to it.

Green Mountain’s holiday tourney was a treat for fans because it included eight teams. The girls were also included. This made for wall-to-wall basketball, a basketball junkie’s delight.

Area high schools like Fair Haven, Poultney, Mount St. Joseph and Burr and Burton Academy have made the short trip across the New York State line to compete in the early-season holiday tournaments in Granville and Poultney.

“We have been going for years (to Whitehall),” Fair Haven boys basketball coach Bob Prenevost said.

“They are close by, have good teams and big crowds. Not having those tournaments is going to leave a big void. We are going to miss it.”

The Hockenbury Classic is a college version of an early-season basketball tournament for area fans. It is played on the campus of Norwich University in honor of the late Ed Hockenbury.

The tourney is known as “The Hock” and the early-December affair provided the same excitement as all those high school tournaments.

Hockenbury infused what had been a moribund Norwich men’s basketball program with energy. It translated into plenty of success in his 17 seasons at the helm of the Cadets where he won 182 games and got to the NCAA tournament a couple of times.

Unfortunately, none of these tournaments are being played this year.

We can’t see early-season basketball wrapped in the excitement of a tournament setting.

We can use our powers of anticipation and hope. We can think of their return and how much more we will appreciate these events when they come back.

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