The Holiday Invitational sponsored by HighschoolOT. com will be back at Broughton’s Holliday Gym in 2014 with some interesting match- ups. The tournament will begin on December 26 and be played through December 30, excluding December 28th, which is a Sunday.

The format of the tournament will remain the same this year as it has in past. The three brackets will consist of a boy’s public school and private school bracket and a girl’s bracket. All boys’ games will be held at Broughton, while the girls will play at Cary Academy. Both boys and girls from Broughton will participate in the games in addition to several other teams from across the nation. The men will play against Knightdale at 1:50 p.m. at Broughton and the girls will play Athens Drive at 12 p.m. at Cary Academy. All championships will take place at Broughton.

The Holiday Invitational has been played for 40 years. It started as an 8-team tournament for only North Carolina teams but has progressed into one of the nation’s best. A range of popular ACC and even NBA players have participated in the tournament, including Jason Kidd, John Wall, Josh Smith, Rajon Rondo, the legendary Matt Bonner, and several others.

The Holiday Invitational will welcome three out of the top five players from the class of 2016 including Thon Maker from Orangeville Prep, Harry Giles from Wesleyan Christian, and Dennis Smith Jr. from Trinity Christian.

The tournament has been held at Broughton’s Holliday gym for the majority of the past 40 years, however it has been held at various other venues. Holliday Gym has been chosen as the venue because of the number of seats and the centralized location.

Tickets will cost $12 per day. Parking for the tournament will be free. Some items aren’t allowed. Air horns, signs, bags, cameras, and food and drinks will all be prohibited inside the gym.

The event is a fun way to pass the time over winter break, watching the best basketball players in the best gym.