TWO NEW TEAMS JOIN PROVISO WEST HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT
Two teams will
make their first ever appearance at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament next
season as Brooks and Rockford Auburn become the 90th and 91st schools to play in
the annual event since the tournament’s inception in 1961. Brooks and Auburn
replace Foreman and T.F. North in the tournament’s sixteen team field.
Brooks becomes the second straight Chicago Public League Champion in as many
years to play on the Proviso hardwood, joining Morgan Park, who was the 2010 CPL
champ. The Eagles have become one of the top emerging teams in Chicagoland and
finished the regular season ranked among the top five teams in the area.
Brooks’ coach Bobby Locke is no stranger to the Proviso West Christmas Classic,
as he guided Evanston as their head coach in the event from 2005-2009.
Rockford Auburn becomes only the third non-Chicagoland area team to play at the
Proviso West Tournament, joining neighborhood rival Rockford Boylan, which
participated at Proviso from 1987-1988, 1992 and Peoria Central who played in
the Holiday Tournament in 2005-2006. This year the Knights became the first
team in nine years to compile a perfect conference record in the NIC-10. Auburn
is led by junior point guard Fred Van Vleet, who is ranked among the top players
in the Class of 2012 and has become one of the state’s most entertaining players
on the court to watch in recent memory.
“The ability for our tournament to go out and secure emerging powers such as
Brooks and Rockford Auburn and add them to an already outstanding nucleus,
should once again make the Proviso West Holiday Tournament a must-see event”
said long-time tournament administrator Joe Spagnolo.
The complete field for the 51st Annual Proviso West Holiday Tournament includes:
Benet Academy, Brooks, Fenwick, Glenbrook North, Hillcrest, Hinsdale Central,
Homewood-Flossmoor, Morgan Park, Morton, New Trier, Proviso East, Proviso West,
Rockford Auburn, Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick and Von Steuben. The tournament
will be held in the Proviso West Sports Arena starting on Tuesday, December 27
and run through Friday, December 30.