(12-29-23) This Holiday Season two high school basketball tournaments ended after long runs…Celina hosted the Girls OVISCO Classic and Coldwater hosted the Boys Asset Allocation Tournament. Both tournaments featured four Mercer County teams…Celina, Coldwater, Marion Local and St. Henry.

RELATED: Local Holiday Basketball Tournaments To End

This year two of those schools, Marion Local and St. Henry joined Ft. Recovery in the Battle of State Route 119 Basketball Classic. The round-robin format allows for every girls and boys basketball team from middle school to Varsity to play the two other schools with all those games being played on the same day.The school with the best record against their opponents wins the title.

The new format will now see the three Southern Mercer County schools varsity teams play each other twice during the season, the 119 series and the Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC) games.

For the two schools left out in the cold during the Christmas break…

Celina boys and girls picked up varsity games with Heritage (Indiana) and Ansonia…scheduled for the 29th and 30th.

Coldwater girls will picked up just one game that was played on 12-12-23 with Mississinawa Valley and Cardinal Stritch on the 30th, the boys will play Ansonia and Cardinal Stritch on the 29th and 30th.

A look back…

From a SSN story (12-31-22) last year when it was announced that the two Holiday Tournaments would end…

Email from Coldwater AD Eric Goodwin on the change –

For the Holiday Invite at Coldwater, this is the final year of it for now.  We have been trying to keep it going for a couple of years now and this ended up being the last year of it.  One school wanted to look in a different direction and wanted out, some schools and coaches were having concerns over playing each other so close together during the season (including MAC games within a few days of the tournament), the always possible issue/concern of what to do if weather becomes an issue with makeups, along with several other factors. 

We looked at possible alternative options and decided for now it was best that it has run its course.  Coldwater has replaced the games already by adding Mississinawa Valley on for next year for the girls and Ansonia for the boys.  We are also bringing down Cardinal Stritch for a Quadruple header on Saturday, December 30th for the boys and girls to replace the Holiday Invitational.  That will replace our two games for each program. 

There are a lot of logistics involved that people don’t realize from weather concerns, scheduling issues, coaching changes with their different thoughts, where various programs are at each year, obtaining sponsorships, etc.  We appreciate the participation over the past 11 years, appreciate the sponsorships, especially from Asset Allocation Associates, and look forward to our schedule changes for the future.

Celina Athletic Directior Derek Wenning replied –

The Holiday invite at Celina, this is the final year for now. Piggybacking off what Eric Goodwin sent, there are a lot of factors that went into this decision. As for Celina next year we plan on holding a two day (12/29 & 12/30) Holiday Showcase at the Historic Celina Field House. We will have a quadruple header each day playing JV Girls, JV Boys, Varsity Girls, and finally Varsity Boys. We are in contact with several teams to finalize a schedule.