BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity basketball team will play host to the annual John Coleman Christmas Tournament next week featuring county rival Pocomoke and three of the top schools from Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
The annual holiday tournament, named for long-time Worcester County Public Schools Administrator John Coleman, has become one of the highlights of the holiday basketball tournament schedule on the Eastern Shore. The event has evolved over the years and barely resembles what it once was, but it still offers some of the best tournament action on the shore.
In the beginning, the Coleman Tournament featured both the men’s and women’s basketball teams of the three public high schools in Worcester with at at-large invitee. Several years ago, the format changed to feature the men’s and women’s teams in alternating years and the site would rotate between Decatur, Pocomoke and Snow Hill.
While the tournament still rotates among the three county schools, the field does not necessarily include Decatur, Pocomoke and Snow Hill anymore. Next week, for example, Decatur will host the annual Coleman Tournament with a field including Pocomoke and Nandua, Arcadia and Northampton from the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
The round-robin tournament gets underway next Thursday, December 27 with games beginning at 4 p.m. and will conclude on Friday, December 28.