The Panther Classic is a basketball tournament that is held at Carolina Forest High. This was the 15th annual tournament and the first time it was held in the new year.
Although the tournament now hosts schools from other states it was not always this way when the tournament began back in 2010 the teams they played were only from South Carolina. The 2010 tournament was mainly only local teams, but since then it has begun to grow and include so many more schools.
As popularity for this tournament grew it spread throughout the southern states coaching community. Requests had begun to pour in from so many coaches. In 2015 the tournament went from an eight team tournament to a 16 team tournament.
This year’s tournament hosted eight schools. Each year there are a few schools that will receive an invitation, while a few spots are left open for teams that request to be part of the tournament. This year’s teams included Carolina Forest, Conway, and Christian Academy as the local teams. The other teams that participated include: Christ Church Episcopal School (Greenville), Brookland Cayce (Columbia), Legion Collegiate Academy (Rock Hill), Northmont (Clayton, Ohio), San Jose Prep (Jacksonville, Florida).
Basketball coach Emmanuel Dewalt shared, “My favorite part of this classic is getting the opportunity to compete against other schools that we typically would not get to see.”
The Panther Classic has become one of the most sought after tournaments in the southeast. Every year with more and more teams asking to take part from further away places. At The Classic college coaches are at the games to come see talent from all over the country. The Classic has now had teams from 11 US states stretching as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania, as far west as Alabama and as far south as Florida. This year the tournament hosted eight teams.
Senior point guard Carter Cooley shared, “ My favorite part of the tournament is the different levels of competition. It was also nice to be able to play in three games over the holiday break!”
This year’s classic winner was Christ Church along with winning the classic, Christ Church has a MVP (Anthony Atkins) and an All Tournament Team winner (Reid Hipp). Other All Tournament Team members include: AJ Edwards (Brookland Cayce), Carter Jackson (Brookland Cayce), JJ Gray (Carolina Forest), Javion Crawford (Conway).
“My favorite part about the Panther Classic was the competitiveness and efficiency of all of the teams in the tournament,” added Conway High School senior point guard, Amaris Wilson.
Carolina Forest finished the tournament with a 3-1 record placing fourth overall! Congratulations, boys!
