Coaches recall past Holiday tournaments at luncheon
This year’s tournament will begin Dec. 17 at both Georgia Highlands and Berry College.
History is something of which the annual Holiday Festival Basketball Tournament has plenty.
And with players and coaches from this year’s tournament on hand for the tournament’s tip-off luncheon Tuesday, a brushstroke of that history was presented by a panel of former coaches.
Andy Akin, Larry Bing, Hazel Hall and Dwight Henderson answered questions from moderator and veteran broadcaster Randy Davis about their memories of the long-running tournament during the weekly meeting of the Seven Hills Rotary Club at Coosa Country Club.
After winning the Holiday Festival title as a player with East Rome, Bing went on to be a part of five more championships as the coach for the Coosa Eagles. He said some of the venues where the tournament has been played are unique.
The tournament began as a boys-only event in old Memorial Gym on West Third Avenue next to Barron Stadium. It then moved to the gym at Georgia Highlands College, then Floyd Junior College, and is now played there and at The Cage Center at Berry College.
“Each of those three places added something to it and made it special,” Bing said, sitting a couple of feet from this year’s Gold Ball trophies. “Of course, nothing is like taking one of those things home.”
Akin, who has five tournament titles to his name as the boys’ coach at East Rome — his alma mater — and the girls’ coach at Model, recalled games at Memorial Gym and Georgia Highlands and how each one had its own character.
“At Memorial Gym you would have this hallway that you would walk down, and if you stood outside the locker room you could see the other team,” Akin said. “It was nerve-racking.”
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But one of Akin’s most vivid memories came when his daughter, Karlee Akin, was named the Holiday Festival MVP in 2011 when the Model girls beat Rome at The Forum.
“I never won as a player, and that’s a little disheartening. I’d rather win that than anything else,” Akin said. “But I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with some great teams as a coach, and I’m thankful for that.”
Henderson developed East Rome into a power with state titles in 1989 and 1991. He then went on to coach the Rome High boys after the consolidation of East and West Rome, where he led the team to six Holiday Festival titles in eight years.
“You talk about all of those games won in the Christmas tournament and at state, but the goal wasn’t to win ball games,” Henderson said. “It was to develop character in young men and women.”
Hall was the girls’ coach at Model from 1998-2003 and led the Lady Blue Devils to three state tournament
appearances during that time. She was the head coach at Flowery Branch until last year when she retired.
“When I moved to Hall County, they had a Christmas tournament there they said was the longest-running one in the state,” Hall said. “But I don’t know. The Christmas tournament here just has a whole different atmosphere. Theirs might be the longest, but this one just has so much community support behind it.”
Sponsorships for the annual high school basketball tournament help Jeremy Stewart / Rome News-Tribune
Former East Rome and Rome High boys’ basketball coach Dwight Henderson talks at the Rome News-Tribune Seven Hills Rotary Holiday Festival Basketball Tournament Tip-Off Luncheon on Tuesday at Coosa Country Club.
Rotary continue to support a number of causes, both local and worldwide.
Ticket sales, meanwhile, go directly back to the participating schools, with the proceeds made divided up among the athletic departments.
The 63rd annual Rome News-Tribune Seven Hills Rotary Holiday Festival Basketball Tournament begins Dec. 17 with a slate of eight games in a special opening day schedule. Four games will be held at Georgia Highlands and four at Berry’s Cage Center. The finals will be held Dec. 22 at Berry College.