BASKETBALL’S FIRST OLD SCHOLARS tournament may not be sticking to one school.
The Clash of the Decades could very well be joined by a battle of the schools, as organisers are contemplating introducing an inter-school competition following the raving success of the just-concluded Harrison College tourney.
Tournament organiser Shane Sandiford disclosed the option in an interview with The DAILY NATION following Saturday’s post-mortem meeting.
“The initial discussion was about bringing in other schools into this tournament but it seems like we are leaning towards having a tournament altogether. However, the plan is definitely to have an inter-schools’ old scholars tournament eventually,” he said.
“We don’t just want a ‘Kolij’ thing, even though our initial goals were to create awareness over the deteriorating state of the sports facilities at the school and highlight the successes of past students while getting the old scholars to socialise.
“So what we’re thinking of doing in the next year is to stage a couple [of] one-off matches, like a Lodge 80s against a Kolij 80s, or a Queen’s College 90s versus a Kolij 90s, just to generate public interest and to gauge where the organisation of the other schools are at,” added Sandiford.
The comments come fresh off the heels of the inaugural Clash of the Decades tourney, which featured six separate decades of Harrison College basketball competing for the right to be named the school’s best.
But past bragging rights, the tournament afforded current students the chance to be mentored by old scholars while facilitating camaraderie among the different eras.
“While we want to look at having the other schools, at the same time we don’t have to have major changes either, because we do deem it to be a success and I thought everything went off smoothly,” reasoned Sandiford.
“I thought there was a great turnout and the tournament was played in good spirit while we were able to create awareness about the state of sports facilities at the school as well as highlighting the success of past students.
“We definitely won’t want to lose sight of that, especially considering the kind of responses we got from not only the players but the old scholars who came out and were able to reconnect with their friends and old schoolmates,” he added.