Hoops Finds Annual Home During Holidays
December 27, 2019
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Nothing says the Holidays like a high school basketball tournament.
It started, like many things do, with a drip. Well, make that a dribble.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has allowed Holiday basketball tournaments for years. When was the first? That’s hard to establish. No one really kept track of such. A 1934 Wakefield News article indicates that a “Christmas Tournament will be held for the (Gogebic) Range teams at Wakefield December 27 and at Ironwood December 28.” Hurley, Bessemer, Ironwood and Wakefield were entered in the “blind” tournament, with opponents drawn just before game time. It was a new idea, at least in the Upper Peninsula.
“Nothing of its kind has ever been attempted in the Peninsula before,” stated the Ironwood Daily Globe. The tournament, won by Hurley, was a financial success. After expenditures, including the purchase of trophies, profit equaled enough that $22.42 was distributed to each school competing in the tournament. Plans were announced to bring back the tournament in a larger format the following year. It did return the following December, with the same teams in the same format but with all games played in Wakefield. This time out, Ironwood topped Hurley 22-21 for the tournament title.
In the Lower Peninsula in 1935, an All-Berrien County Holiday tournament was held Dec. 26, 27 and 28, with Three Oaks winning the Class B-C division title, 15-13 in the final over Berrien Springs. St. Joseph Catholic emerged as the Class D victor with a surprising 27-26 win over the reigning MHSAA state champ from Stevensville. The 14-team competition was played at Niles High School. Attendance was “slim, very slim” for the opening day of the tourney. The event did not return in 1936.
A similar, but much smaller, event was staged in Berrien County in 1941 with the Bridgman Class C Invitational. The tournament featured seven teams with contests spread over three nights. It was a success.
“Some 450 paid admissions were checked in Wednesday night for the championship finals, which Bridgman won from Berrien Springs. … The total paid admission for the three night event was 1,420 fans with a gross gate of approximately $400.”
By the mid-1940s, the idea of playing prep basketball during the Christmas lull had begun to take off across the state.
In December 1946, before a crowd of 1,500 at the Flint IMA Auditorium, Holland, the reigning Class A champion, downed Flint Northern 51-48 behind a pair of late field goals by Ken ‘Fuzz’ Bauman in the first annual Motor City Invitational. In Jackson, Detroit Catholic Central won the Michigan Catholic Invitational, beating Kalamazoo St. Augustine, 42-40. Bridgman again snagged the title at the Sixth Annual Berrien Class C Christmas Holiday Tournament. It was the Bees’ third Christmas championship in four years. The Little Eight Conference Holiday Tournament was played across four school gymnasiums as the calendar transitioned from 1946 to 1947. Bangor downed Covert, 34-29, in the championship contest hosted at Watervliet High School on Saturday, Jan. 4.
“Holiday tournament basketball has really caught on in Michigan,” said Hal Schram in the Detroit Free Press in 1947. “There will be no Christmas-New Year’s rest for at least 60 Michigan high school squads which have jumped at the chance to sharpen their collective shooting eyes for the long season ahead. … At last count, tournaments will be played between Dec 17 and Jan 3 at Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Lincoln Park, Fremont, Negaunee, Marquette, Benton Harbor and Detroit.”
The same eight schools that played at the first Motor City tournament – Jackson, Grand Rapids Central, Holland, Muskegon Heights, Monroe, Midland, Flint Central and Flint Northern – were invited back for the second year. According to Schram, “Not a single participating school of a year ago wanted to be left out.”
Jackson downed Flint Northern in the title game, 39-34.
The Saginaw Invitational, hosted at Arthur Hill High School, boasted six Class A schools as well as Alma and Mount Pleasant, both Class B schools. Mount Pleasant surprised the field, winning the tournament with a 40-25 triumph over Dearborn Fordson in the championship game.
A year later in December, Schram wrote, “The Michigan High School Athletic Association wasn’t caught unaware when the tournament bug started to bite every sector of the state.”
“Never did we expect such a wave of tournament play as we will see during the next three weeks,” said Charles Forsythe, state director for the MHSAA, noting 34 Christmas vacation tournaments were scheduled between December 15 and January 8 during the 1948-49 basketball season. “Perhaps we’re lucky at that. The Oklahoma association has had to sanction 123 tournaments.”
Forsythe and Schram explained the reasons for the wave of popularity. Of particular interest was the fact that, at the time, a school sponsoring both football and basketball could play a total of no more than 24 games, combined, in the two sports. However, MHSAA rules allowed a basketball team the chance to play as many as three games during a Holiday tournament and be charged with only one of its allotted combination of 24 contests. (The MHSAA rules changed prior to 1972-73 to allow basketball teams a maximum of 20 games.)
Coaches could keep their squads sharp during the two-week layoff with games rather than just mandatory practices. And, as a bonus to all because tournaments were financed through gate admissions, invitations to larger tournaments meant teams got to “stay and eat at the best hostelries, go on sightseeing tours when not playing and play non-conference opponents from other sections of the state.“
Add in the chance to play before larger-than-normal crowds, and the formula for a successful tournament was cast.
Beginning with the 1950-51 season, the football-basketball rule was altered to count play in mid-season invitational tournaments as two contests. With the change, according to the Detroit Times, “the number of such meets dropped sharply.”
Only nine Holiday tournaments, involving 50-plus teams, were recorded by the MHSAA during the 1951-52 season: the 5th annual Flint Parochial Invitational, the Alpena Catholic Invitational (involving 16 teams), the 5th Annual Greater Lansing Invitational, the Albion College Invitational, the Twin-Five Conference Christmas Tournament (a 10-team replacement for the disbanded Little Eight Conference’s tournament), the Otisville Invitational, the Columbiaville Invitational and the 1st Annual Portland St. Patrick Christmas Invitational.
But by the 1960s, Holiday Tournaments were again regaining popularity, with more now focused on teams from a specific community or section of the state, especially among smaller schools.
The St. Patrick tournament was still going strong in 1966 – its 15th year – with an eight-team, four-day design. Williamston downed a Cinderella squad from Carson City, 64-44, before 1,100 fans at Portland to earn the championship. Other Mid-Michigan holiday tournaments played out in Chelsea and Swartz Creek at the same time.
The Flint Parochial League Tournament was a mainstay of the Holiday season until the breakup of the league in the early 1970s.
“Basketball tournaments have become popular around the state and nation in recent years,” wrote Wendy Foltz, longtime Battle Creek Enquirer sports editor, before the kickoff of the inaugural Battle Creek Central Holiday Cage Tournament in 1968. In a twist that harkened back to earlier days, the eight-team event represented nearly every section of lower Michigan. “Battle Creek never has been a rabid basketball town like some around the state,” added a hesitant Foltz, noting a hope that the event could at least break even.
Hosted at the Cereal City’s historic Fieldhouse, built in 1928, that first tournament was won by host Battle Creek Central, which downed Traverse City 71-53 before a crowd of 2,000. Phil Todd led the Bearcats with 29 points, including 21 in the first half, while 6-foot-8 Tom Kozelko paced TC with 24. Muskegon Heights won the consolation game, holding off a late Ypsilanti Willow Run rally, 78-77. Other schools competing were Battle Creek Lakeview, Grand Blanc, Romulus and recently-opened Jackson Lumen Christi.
Chuck Turner, Central’s head coach, and junior varsity coach Jack Schils had contacted 60 schools during the summer of 1967 to organize the 12-game schedule.
“The response was terrific,” said Schils, who added, “Many schools could not accept because of schedule commitments but want to enter a year hence.”
The Battle Creek tournament was back in 1969, again hosting teams from near and far. Schils noted that cost ran high when teams were brought in from long distances: “However, this type of tournament is highly desirable so we hope fans will support it.”
But the event was discontinued following the 1970-71 season when the “eight team format became too unwieldy,” according to the Enquirer “… and both crowd and the quality of play declined.”
Pared down to a four-team format, it returned in a big way in December 1975. The tournament saw standing-room-only crowds of more than 3,000 for games between Battle Creek Central, Detroit Northeastern, Class A quarterfinalist Lansing Everett and reigning Class A champion Highland Park.
Detroit Northeastern downed Lansing Everett, 63-58 for the Cereal City championship trophy. Everett junior Earvin Johnson scored 22 points and, with teammate Reggie Chastine, was named to the all-tournament team along with Northwestern’s Wilbert McCormick, the tourney MVP, and his teammate Greg Lawrence. Highland Park’s William Trent and Battle Creek Central’s Leon Guydon also were named to the team.
By the 1980s, it seemed that the Christmas break nearly mimicked March in Michigan.
“I think a Christmas tournament really helps your program,” said Turner in 1980 to the Enquirer. He had taken over the head coaching position at Battle Creek in the fall of 1967 after a successful stint at Willow Run. “I don’t understand basketball teams having a preseason, playing three or four games, then taking two weeks off. When you get back, it’s like starting over.”
Besides Turner’s squad, the 1980 field included Detroit Western, Detroit Murray Wright and eventual winner Kalamazoo Central. The event would ultimately be re-christened the Battle Creek Central Chuck Turner Holiday Classic.
“The late Chuck Turner started bringing big games to the city over the holidays when he first started at the school in the 1960s,” wrote Bill Broderick in the Enquirer in 2018.
“Chuck started this because he wanted to give people the chance to come back home for the holidays and see everyone play. It’s been like a family reunion over the years,” Fred Jones told Broderick. Jones was a longtime assistant to Turner. “That we can keep it going in his name is great and hopefully we can keep if going for another 50 years.”
The girls are now part of the action. All five Battle Creek city schools – Central, Pennfield, Harper Creek, Lakeview, and St. Philip – were part of the event in 2018.
This year the Chuck Turner Central Field House Holiday Classic will again span two days – December 27 and 28 – and will again see all five city schools play on the historic floor.
Other Holiday tournaments scheduled this year include:
Petoskey Invitational – December 13-14
Raider Shootout – December 21
18th Annual Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame Classic – December 27
Earl McKee Classic – December 27-28
North Farmington Holiday Extravaganza – December 27
Motor City Roundball Classic – December 27
Cornerstone Invitational – December 27
Washtenaw Hoops Showcase – December 28
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Battle Creek Central and Pennfield girls face off during the 50th Chuck Turner Classic. (Middle) Shaheen Shaheen scores two points for Flint Northern, which fell to Jackson 39-34 during the 1947 Motor City championship game. (Below left) Lansing Everett’s Earvin Johnson makes a move toward the basket against Detroit Northeastern during the 1975 Battle Creek event. (Below right) Box scores from the 1975 tournament include Johnson’s 22 points in the 63-58 loss. Photos courtesy of the Battle Creek Enquirer, Lansing State Journal and Ron Pesch archives.)
Hackett Mentor's Care Sparked Lifetime in Hoops for BCAM President White
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
July 24, 2026
KALAMAZOO — When Kevin White counsels an unruly student, he usually understands what’s going on.
At one time, he was that student.
For the dean of students at Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep, White’s life has come full circle.
He thrived while attending St. Monica Elementary School as a child, but after his father Damon passed away in 1989, the family moved to Portage and he changed schools.
“Eighth and ninth grades there was a change in behavior and grade point average,” White said. “Right about Christmas break, I had three gentlemen in my living room.
“Mike Smith, Shawn Potts and Nib Reisterer were having a conversation with my mom. They were worried about the direction I was headed and I think somehow those three came up with a plan to get me back (to Hackett).
He soon realized he needed the structure, discipline and smaller class sizes available there. But the worst part of transferring to Hackett was that he had to sit out the upcoming basketball season.
“I was not allowed to play right away because they decided my grades weren’t good enough to play, only to practice,” he recalled. “To sit on the bench as a high school kid with a bad GPA, and (bad attitude), it was like when I was little. If I wanted to do things, I had to do them the right way.”
At Hackett, he was reunited with Reisterer, his mentor who put him through some tough workouts.
“They were some of the hardest workouts I ever had because I had to go back to changing some bad habits, which changed pretty quickly,” White said.
He also had to face the players he idolized as a child when they asked why he wasn’t playing.
“That’s when I knew I had to kick it into gear because I didn’t want to let those guys down,” White said. “They said, ‘You wanted to wear that jersey since you were in fifth grade.’ My mom says peer pressure is the best pressure.”
Learning from the best
White first encountered Reisterer, who changed his life, during elementary school.
After losing his father, White would have to remain at school until his mother, Sheila, who was a police officer, picked him up.
“This gym teacher was, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out in the gym?’ Then he said he had basketball practice at 5 and did I want to come with him to practice? And he’s been stuck with me ever since,” White recalled. “It turned into ‘can I come to practice’ to ‘can I go to a couple games?’ Then I got to ride the bus. Then the Reisterer vacations at the lake became ‘Kevin’s coming too.’ There was a time when the Reisterers became my extended family, and within that came a basketball family.”
Reisterer, who was physical education teacher at St. Monica, said he knew White’s situation and wanted to help.
“My son Ryan was only a couple years younger than Kevin,” he said. “Ryan just adored him, and Kevin became my second son.”
Reisterer, who was also Hackett’s head boys basketball coach, noted, “Kevin became my ball boy. He came to every practice and did all the drills with the kids. He led the team in warmups before the game and became quite a celebrity himself.”
The highlight of his younger years was riding the bus with the Irish players, White said.
“Doing my third-grade homework with them showing me how to do the math problems and arguing about giving me the answers or not giving me the answers,” White laughed.
“The reward was, if you behaved in school you got to go to the games. So it was real easy to behave because I wanted to hang out with the high school guys and be on the bench.”
That sparked his love of basketball.
White graduated from Hackett in 1998 and then played at Glen Oaks Community College. With thoughts of prolonging his career in basketball after college – he went on to graduate from Western Michigan University – White remembered words he heard in passing.
“The guy said, ‘You might be able to play for a long time, but you’ll coach a lot longer than you’ll play if you start coaching right away,’” White said. “As a young guy, you hear it but you don’t think about it.
“Then you get into coaching and start working camps and going to the Final Fours and start networking. I like playing, but I love teaching the game. It’s been fun doing it that way.”
Reisterer said White wasn’t going to “set the world on fire” as a basketball player, but he worked his way through the coaching ranks, from instructing young kids and contributing at summer camps to filling roles at the high school and college levels, learning at each stop.
“He has quite a network of coaches and a lot of experience,” Reisterer added.
Prioritizing family life
As an assistant coach at Kalamazoo College, White met athletic trainer Kathleen O’Farrell and was immediately smitten. He credits her with making him more detailed and organized.
They eventually married and have two children – Vincent, 7, and Riley, 3.
“Vincent is at the age where he wants to come to practice with dad,” White said. “People ask if he’s going to play basketball.
“Right now he loves to swim, loves to play soccer. I love that because I can just sit there and be Dad.”
Vincent not only goes to practice with his dad, but has his own whistle, his own spot in the locker room and his own practice plan.
“He’s in charge of the clock,” White added. “I make him sweep the floor because I had to sweep the floor when I was young. If he decides to coach, I wouldn’t be upset.”
White called his daughter a “mini-me.”
“She will say hello to anyone,” he said. “She’s got confidence, she will speak up. If she doesn’t like something, she will tell you.”
White honed his coaching skills as an assistant to several college and high school coaches, including at Hackett last season, and discovered that working at the same school where he coaches is special.
“I will tell any young coach, if you can get a high school job in today’s age and work in the school, that’s a win-win,” White noted. “The relationship with players is an advantage of working in the school because you’re with them during the day and after school, a lot of times more than they’re with their parents.”
White is running the summer basketball program at Hackett, but that’s not all the gregarious coach is doing.
As the current president of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM), “We run an event called Reaching Higher,” he said. “High school teams are selected from all over the state and they come for two days to play at Grand Valley University.
“It’s open to college coaches all over the country to watch the top high school players from the state.”
He was also involved in Midwest Live where 20-40 Michigan teams compete against teams from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania at Cedar Point.
But next month, White will be back at Hackett, working to keep students on task.
“I see a lot of my classmates and myself in students today,” White said. “Yes, times have changed, but kids still want to be taken care of and want to be treated well and have support. Yes, some discipline comes with my job, but it’s also built on relationship and trust.
“I want (alumni) to come back and tell current kids that yes, Mr. White was hard on me about x, y and z, but when I needed something, he was there for me and if I didn’t follow through, he made sure I did.”
2026 Made In Michigan
July 24: Mackey Leaving Court with 500+ College Hoops Wins, Many More Lessons Shared - Report
July 16: Country Day Two-Time Champ Moore Building Perennial Winner at Harvard - Report
July 9: Multi-Sport Career at TC West Helps Gillis Thrive as Pro in Game She Once Left Behind - Report
July 2: Inspired by Home, Eager to Give Back, Spencer Hosts Hoop City Alumni Games - Report
PHOTOS (Top) At left, fifth-grader Kevin White celebrates with the Hackett boys basketball team in 1991. At right, White huddles with his players this past season while serving as an assistant with the Irish varsity. (Middle) White stands for a photo with BCAM Executive Director Dan Young. (Below) White poses with wife Kathleen and children Vincent and Riley. (Photos provided by Kevin White.)