By Dade County coach Glen Hicks' reckoning, it's been at least a half-dozen years since Dade County has hosted a holiday basketball tournament. But the veteran coach admitted he was "tired of traveling for the holidays."
From there, it was a small step to put together the Santa Slam, which begins a two-day run Friday at Dade County High School. This will be an annual event if all goes well.
"They're doing 'MIstletoe Madness' at North Murray, so we did a little brainstorming to come up with Santa Slam," said Hicks, whose 9-1 Wolverines figure to be the favorites of the non-trophy classic.
Friday's schedule begins at 5 p.m.
with RIdgeland facing Marion County. That will be followed at 6:30 with SIgnal Mountain challenging East Ridge and the finale has Dade County hosting Walker Valley.
Saturday's games start with Marion County facing Signal Mountain at 4 p.m., Ridgeland meets Walker Valley at 5:30 and the two-day event concludes with a 7 p.m. meeting of Dade County and East Ridge. All games will be played at Dade County High School.
David Jenkins carty43@netzero.net