By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
Regarded as one of the most prestigious high school basketball tournaments, competing in the Hoophall Classic is a privilege and extremely high honor. Teams have the once and a lifetime opportunity to play a game in front of fans, scouts and members of top media outlets. Hoophall provides high school basketball players a setting they may never get elsewhere, especially for some of the smaller local schools in the area.
Even just being invited to the tournament is an honor in and of itself, but for some of the best teams in the country, they have the opportunity to compete numerous times.
On the girls side, Christ The King High School in Queens, N.Y. and Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., played twice. Christ the King forward and ESPN’s No. 5 recruit in the class of 2026 Olivia Vukosa relishes the opportunity.
“It means a lot,” Vukosa said after her first game against Sacred Heart Academy. “Even though it was only a 12 point loss, we still get to bounce back and win it tomorrow. That’s really all that matters to me and my team. I just put today behind us. The games are already over so I’m already focused on tomorrow.”
On the boys side, a handful of teams also competed in numerous games during the five-day tournament. Montverde Academy competed three times across the event, while other teams such as Wasatch, Brewster, Columbus, IMG and Springfield Central competed twice just to name a few.
Arkansas commit and No.8 recruit in the class of 2025 Darius Acuff loves competing in Hoophall, coming to IMG to compete in tournaments like this.
“It’s one of the biggest tournaments of the year, if not the biggest,” Acuff said. “It’s always a blessing to play here. It’s where all the top players play. [IMG has] been a great school for so many years, that’s why I came here.”
IMG suffered a loss to Wasatch in their first game Friday losing in a tight 59-58 affair, and another loss to Brewster 55-51. Following the win against IMG, Brewster’s Sebastian Wilkins talked about how multiple opportunities to play meant a lot for the program.
“I know it means a lot to me and my teammates,” Wilkins said. “Hoophall is such a stark event and to be able to have two games is really a blessing.”
Wilkins also believes this says a lot about Brewster as a program, noting the teams strong on court presence.
“I just think it means we have talent and we need to be respected more,” Wilkins said.
For Brewster’s head coach Jason Smith, he looks at the opportunity to play twice as a positive thing, knowing that they’ll be matched up against two teams in the Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL).
“Hoophall is a great venue [and] we’re very fortunate to be here,” Smith said. “With us, it’s more important that we play two league games. With the way that the EYBL scholastic is set up, there’s a lot of times where it’s set up like this. You’d travel on Friday, play Saturday [and] Sunday, or travel Thursday [and] play Friday [and] Saturday.”
Photo: Kyle Valentine/Springfield Student