Gulf Coast Holiday Classic: Basketball At Its Best

Dec 28th, 2015

MOBILE, Ala. – The Mobile Sports Authority has teamed up with the John L. Leflore High School Rattlers to sponsor the 2015 Gulf Coast Holiday Classic (GCHC). The three-day high school basketball tournament begins today and will go through Wednesday, December 30th.  All games will be played at the John L. Leflore High School J.D. Shelwood Gymnasium.  

The GCHC initially began as an eight team field in 2014, but expanded to 16 teams this year. Originally called the Leflore High School Holiday Tournament, it has evolved to accommodate the heightened competition among teams and the growing interest of fans wanting to see high school basketball at its best. “This year’s tournament features seven teams ranked in their respective Alabama classes and also includes the undefeated Pensacola High School Tigers,” stated Eric Lovett, Director of the GCHC and Varsity Boys Basketball Coach at Leflore High School. “We expect it to be one of the best tournaments in the Southeast Region.”  

As a result of the increase in teams, tournament brackets will have two divisions: Red and Green. This ensures that each team will play three games.  

“Since the discontinuation in the 1990’s of the nationally-renowned Sertoma Basketball Tournament of Champions, we’ve never replaced that void on the Mobile sports calendar. So by teaming up with Coach Lovett at Leflore, we hope to eventually build this tournament to the same level as was the popular Sertoma Tournament,” said Danny Corte, Executive Director of the Mobile Sports Authority.    

Featuring several teams from the Gulf Coast and Northern Alabama, the first tip-off will take place between hometown team B.C. Rain and Randolph High School (Huntsville, AL) at 9 am for the Red division. The Green division tip-off will follow at 10:30 am between Daphne High School and Pensacola High School. The champions of each division will be awarded trophies following the end of their games on Wednesday night.
For more information on the Gulf Coast Holiday Classic, please visit gulfcoastholidayclassic.weebly.com.