Before now the idea of having a Marengo County basketball tournament was just talk between coaches. But on Saturday the talking stopped as four Marengo County basketball coaches came together in the teachers break room at Linden High School to reform the once lost tournament.

All six AHSAA Marengo County schools were invited to attend the meeting Saturday, but only four representatives, John Essex head coach Pierre Goode, A.L. Johnson head coach Mose Jones, Marengo High Lady Panthers head coach Shuronda Agee and Linden High head coach Willie Scott, were in attendance.

Coach Scott took over as the leader of this project well over a month ago and has spent the last few weeks calling coaches throughout Marengo County to see if the idea of a county tournament interests them.

The response to the idea was good, but getting all the coaches to come together to work out the details was the challenge. “With the schedules that we have it’s hard enough to get two coaches together, much less six,” Scott said.

Scott may have been the one to get all of the coaches together, but it was Demopolis High head basketball coach, Jesse Bell who was the originator of the tournament. But because of scheduling issues, coach Bell and his Tigers will not be able to attend the event this year.

“It’s a shame that Demopolis can’t participate because it was coach Bell’s idea to get it going again,” Scott said.

But four schools are enough to get this tournament up and running and with all of the tournaments guidelines worked out and this year’s host selected, it looks like everything is finally in place for the long awaited tournament to begin.

And everyone seems to be in agreement about how much this tournament will mean to Marengo County. “I think this will be a great success,” Agee said.

Not only does the event look to be a great success for the county but also for the schools and the fans. According to coach Goode, fans will be the one’s to benefit the most from a tournament of this nature. “With this type of championship atmosphere I think we should see some really great games between these schools.”

And according to coach Jones the need for something like this in Marengo County has been around for a long time. “This is something that has been overdue in this area,” Jones said.

The stage is now set and the wait is finally over.

And come January 29th, Marengo County will know which team is the best.

The Marengo County Basketball Tournament

Tournament to be held on a rotating basis

Proceeds of the event will all go to host school

Host school was determined by drawing from hat

There will be three tournament champions-Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls and J.V. Boys

Teams will be seeded according to when they host event

Three-day tournament January 29, 30 and 31st.

2004-A. L. Johnson (Thomaston)

2005-John Essex (Jefferson)

2006-Linden High (Linden)

2007-Marengo High (Dixons Mills)

Tournament Schedule

Thursday Jan. 29.

-Linden vs. John Essex (J.V.) 5 p.m.

-Linden vs. John Essex

(Boys) 6:30 p.m.

-A. L. Johnson vs. Marengo High (Girls) 8 p.m.

Friday Jan. 30

-A. L. Johnson vs. Marengo High (J.V.) 5 p.m.

-Linden vs. John Essex (Girls) 6:30 p.m.

-A. L. Johnson vs. Marengo High (Boys) 8 p.m.

Saturday Jan. 31

-Championship (J.V.) 5 p.m.

-Championship (Girls) 6:30 p.m.

-Championship (Boys) 8 p.m.