Fifty-seven basketball games in a three-day span at the Brownwood Coliseum and Warren Gym tip off the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 28 as the TexasBank Holiday Classic returns following a one-year, COVID-imposed hiatus.

The Brownwood Lady Lions are hosting a field of 10 girls teams, while 15 teams – divided into big school and small school divisions – will battle on the boys side, along with the Brownwood Lions.

“We’re real excited to bring it back, last year because of COVID we weren’t able to have it,” Lady Lions 13th-year head coach Heather Hohertz said of the Classic. “It’s really exciting that the UIL let us have tournaments this year. It’s big for our community and it’s big for our school district.”

The Lady Lions carry a 12-7 record into the Classic, having won four of the last 10 games after an 8-1 start.

“It’s good to go and get five days off and refocus our brains and our bodies,” Hohertz said. “But it’s about coming back for the second half of our season and getting our legs underneath us and fixing the things we’ve struggled with throughout the middle of the season. Offensively, we need to be more consistent and get our conditioning back in time for district play. It’s a really good tune up going into district.”

The 10 teams in the girls draw include Fort Worth Nolan Catholic, Valley Mills, Coleman and De Leon, along with Brownwood, in Pool A. Pool B consists of Goldthwaite, Aquilla, Wellington, Hamilton and Fort Worth Lake Country Christian.

“We have all different classifications in the girls bracket,” Hohertz said. “We have some really good teams coming, Wellington is really good, Nolan Catholic has come every year we’ve had the tournament and they’re always a really hard team to beat. The competitiveness of the pools are where they need to be, and I think there’s going to be some good basketball to come out of it.”

The Lady Lions will face De Leon at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday at Warren Gym, Coleman at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday at Warren Gym, Valley Mills at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday at the Brownwood Coliseum, and Nolan Catholic at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday at the Coliseum. A seeding game will follow Thursday.

The Lions (12-5) enter the event winners of 10 of their last 12 games after a 2-3 start.

“I love Christmas but I hate the Christmas break,” said Lions’ first-year head coach Will Parker. “You get guys getting into a rhythm then you lose them for five days so you’re putting a lot of trust and faith in those guys putting in some work somehow, somewhere, some way. Losing contact with our team for five days is always tough, but the fact that we’re being led by so many seniors, those guys are really dedicated to making this season special. I think they’re going to do the right thing and take care of their bodies.”

The boys draw features two brackets – a large school and a small school. Big School Pool A features the Lions, Big Spring, and Abilene Wylie, while Pool B is comprised of Levelland, Alvarado, and Dublin. Competing in the small school division are Ballinger, Santo, Coleman in Pool C; Harper, Sidney, and Goldthwaite in Pool D; and Gustine, De Leon, and Hamilton in Pool E.

“We’ve got some really good teams coming in here, Abilene Wylie, Big Spring, Dublin, Levelland,” Parker said. “There’s going to be some big schools coming so we’re excited for the opportunity to play some new schools.”

The Lions will face Abilene Wylie at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Coliseum and Big Spring at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday at the high school. Seeding games will take place the rest of the way.

Regarding the goals Parker has in place for the Lions during the tournament, he said, “We’ve got to be in shape, we’ve got to be doing a good job defensively because we’re looking toward district. We should be cleaning up anything that we’ve learned about our team thus far. I love our tempo and our pace, we’re pushing the ball up the floor really well. To me, that’s a lot of fun to watch, it’s a lot of fun to coach and I know for the guys it’s a lot of fun to play. Defensively I still think we have to do a better job of putting ball pressure on guys. We’re trying to make them shoot the shots we don’t want to take, so we have to do a better job defensively for sure.”