The National High School Invitational (NHSI), a end-of-season tournament that has featured some of the nation’s best teams over the past five years, will be moving from Maryland to New York City with a new title sponsor. The event’s championship game will take place at Iconic Madison Square Garden on April 5.
High school basketball has never had a national tournament to determine a true national champion on the court, but it’s not because of lack of effort.
That effort is continuing in a positive direction with the announcement by Chicago-based Paragon Marketing Group that the season-ending tournament the organization has executed since 2009, the National High School Invitational, will move to New York City in 2014.
The sixth annual boys and girls championship games will be played at iconic Madison Square Garden and has a new event title — Dick’s Sporting Goods High School National Tournament.
“For us, New York provides the biggest stage in sports,” said event organizer Rashid Ghazi of Paragon Marketing. “This will be a completely new and exciting experience for the teams and players to partner with MSG on this event. From a marketing and PR standpoint, brining this event to New York is quite a step for us to take.”
In 2011, New York Public Schools Athletic League champion Boys & Girls (Brooklyn, N.Y.) participated in the event. According to Ghazi, now that the announcement has been made, he’s hopeful conversations will continue with the PSAL to include this year’s PSAL champions.
The quarterfinals and semifinals of the boys tournament and the semifinals of the girls portion of the event will take place April 3-4 at another New York City location to be determined. According to Paragon, the games will continue to be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
“DICK’S Sporting Goods is thrilled to serve as title sponsor for the DICK’S Sporting Goods High School National Tournament and to further our support for high school basketball,” said Lauren Hobart, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, DICK’S Sporting Goods. “We look forward to seeing some of the best high school basketball teams and players in the country take center court at the World’s Most Famous Arena this spring.”
Last year’s event was won by Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.), which finished as the No. 1 team in the final 2013 Student Sports FAB 50. The Eagles are currently No. 1 in this year’s FAB 50 as well.
Seven teams in last year’s boys field finished ranked in the FAB 50, including No. 2 St. Benedict’s (Newark, N.J.), No. 3 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.), No. 12 Ely (Pompano Beach, Fla.), No. 22 La Lumiere (LaPorte, Ind.), No. 23 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) and No. 32 Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.).
Past Dick’s Sporting Goods High
School National Tournament Champions
2013 — Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) — No. 1 FAB 50
2012 — Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) — No. 2 FAB 50
2011 — Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.) — No. 2 FAB 50
2010 — Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) — No. 3 FAB 50
2009 — Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) — No. 1 FAB 50
This year’s boys and girls fields will be announced in March. For more information about this tournament, please visit dicksnationaltournament.com.
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