Southeast Guilford High School headed to the HAECO Invitational Basketball Tournament in 2021
from Joe Sirera, at the News and Record and with HSXtra.com…..
Southeast Guilford will replace Northern Guilford in the eight-team field.
Northern, which had participated in the eight-school basketball event since 2010, withdrew because conference realignment for the 2021-22 school year placed the Nighthawks in a league with four other HAECO participants: Grimsley, Northwest Guilford, Page and Ragsdale. Northern did not want to potentially play those schools four or even five times in a season.
Northern athletics director Brian Thomas said the Nighthawks are looking for another holiday tournament in which to play, but have not committed to an event yet.
**********Northern moving out, and Southeast Guilford moving in…And once you get in the HAECO, you usually want to stay put, because it can be hard to get back in, once you pull/drop out…There is a very good chance that the Northern Guilford Nighthawks would have been the #1 seed on both the boys and girls side of the brackets for the 2021 HAECO, if the Nighthawks would have chosen to remain in the field…
Both of Northern’s basketball teams, have lots of returning talent, and really should be teams that other area tournaments would like to have join their fields, if and when Northern Guilford decides which way they want to go next….The NG boys team with Nolan Hodge, Jackson Helms, and Manny Elliot returning can, and will, light up most basketball scoreboards like a Christmas Tree, at Christmas time…
The NG girls team with Jadyn Newsome, Jasmine Harris, Christina DeLisa, Laurel Zlotkowski and others returning, will be ready for all of the new competition that they will see in the newly formed Metro 4-A Conference…
Coach Kellen Parrish for the boys, and Coah Kim Furlough for the girls, are two of the top coaches in our area, and across the state of North Carolina…
I did talk to Southeast Guilford girls basketball assistant coach Dave Beasley last week, and he his girls and the SEG girls program, were elated to on their way into the 2021 HAECO Invitational Basketball Tournament….
We will have to wait and see where Northern Guilford lands this upcoming Holiday Season of 2021, but if I were on The Sheetz Holiday Tournament committee over at Southwest Guilford High School, and heard Northern Guilford was ready to play for sure in 2021, and they didn’t want to travel too far away from home, I would be going after the Northern Guilford basketball teams, with open arms…TheY will bring in a large following/crowd/group of fans, and that means more ticket sales…
Basketball will be here again before you know, and before too much longer, we might be able to totally realize what sports season we are in, here in March, or is it May already?????
Northern gonna Northern. You either love them or hate them. There is no in-between.