Follis Tournament kicks off Thursday
Full Schedule:
2023 O.W. Follis Basketball Tournament
Lamesa’s annual O.W. Follis Basketball Tournament tips off again here this weekend. There will be 14 boys teams and 14 girls teams playing here starting Thursday and running through Saturday.
There will be both a JV division as well as varsity division for both the boys and girls. Games will be played at Lamesa High School at both the main new gym as well as the auxiliary gym. Games will also be played at Follis Gym.
“We’re very excited. We’ll have 28 basketball teams all in our community this weekend,” Lamesa ISD Athletic Director and Golden Tornado head boys basketball coach.
“This will be a big community event with lots of great basketball.”
Lamesa head girls basketball coach Trenton Jones is just as excited about this coming weekend.
“We’ve got 14 girls teams here this weekend including one from Socorro, New Mexico which is a big school over there. People like New Deal, Perryton and Big Spring are always pretty good,” Jonessaid. “Oneof thebestthingsabout a tournament is getting the chance to see different competition, which always helps,.”
“This tournament should help bring lots of people into town. With everybody guaranteed five games, this tournament will help put us back on the basketball map again.”
The Chamber of Commerce is once again sponsoring this annual event.
“The Chamber has hosted this event many years and this has been a traditional eventinourcommunity. Withallof the teams that this tournament brings in every year, this tournament helps bring in a lot of people from all over the Permian Basin into our town,” Chamber President Ashleigh Tidwell said.
The Golden Tornado girls will have both the varsity as well as JV teams in this three day tournament.
“This should be really good experience for our JV. We’re seeing a lot of growth in our varsity team this season and hopefully this weekend, we’ll continue to see more growth,” Jones said.
Jones likes what he’s been seeing in the Golden Tors’ young guns on the JV as well.
“Our JV girls play super, super hard, as well as very aggressively, which helps them get a lot of rebounds,” Jones said.
Getting his JV action in this weekend’s tournament looks like a win-win situation for Jones.
“This could be good for those girls. We see potential to move some of those girls up (to varsity), so by seeing varsity experience could help everybody out,” Jones said.
After watching his boys win two out of their first three games before the holiday break, Moreland referred to this year’s squad as a ‘work in progress.’ Going into this season, there were only five players back from last year’s district championship squad.
“Right now, we just want to play as many games possible, to where we can keep on improving. We’re a work in progress and we just want to continue improving. The best way to do that is by playing,” Moreland said.
It has not taken Moreland long to take a liking to this year’s squad.
“We love our guys’ effort and intensity. They play really, really hard which makes them a joy to coach,” Moreland said.
Lamesa’s five boys games in this week’s tournament start Thursday at 11 a.m. against Pecos and then 8 p.m. against Sweetwater. The Golden Tor boys will then play two more games on Friday starting at 12:30 p.m. against Fort Stockton and then 8 p.m. against Colorado City. Lamesa’s final boys game will be 8 p.m. Saturday against Stanton. All five boys games will be played at the high school’s new main gym.
Golden Tor girls will have three games each day. Starting on Thursday at 9:30 p.m., varsitytakesonPostinthenew high school gym, 12:30 p.m. the JV girls will take on Colorado City in the new auxiliary gym and then at 6 :30 p.m., varsity takes on Pecos in the new high school gym.
There will be three more girls games on Friday starting at 11 a.m. when the varsity takes on Socorro, then at 12:20 p.m. when the JV takes on Pecos at Follis Gym and then 6:30 p.m. when the varsity takes on Perryton in the new high school gym.
The final three Golden Tor girls games will be on Saturday. The JV taking on Post at 12:30 p.m. in the new high school main gym, then Grady at 3:30 p.m. at Follis Gym before the varsity takes on Big Spring at 6:30 p.m. in the new high school gym.