In its 22-year history, the George Long Holiday boys basketball tournament has become a popular annual high-school sporting event in Arlington County — and beyond.
Each season, eight teams from different jurisdictions, public and private, have participated in the three-day event at Wakefield High School, usually beginning Dec. 26 or 27.
This year, all eight teams were Virginia public-school squads. Two were from Arlington, the host Wakefield Warriors and Washington-Liberty Generals. Two others were from Prince William County, three from Fairfax County and the eventual champion Oscar Smith Tigers came from Chesapeake.
Wakefield has played in all 22 tournaments and Washington-Liberty in 21. Head coaches Tony Bentley of Wakefield and Bobby Dobson of Washington-Liberty began the event. Each remains as the head coach of their teams.
Over the years, 16 public-school teams and four private-school squads from Northern Virginia have competed. Thirteen different schools have won championships.
Virginia teams from Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Fredericksburg, Hampton, Richmond and Virginia Beach have participated, as well as schools from D.C. and Maryland. Also, teams from Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania have entered.
Oscar Smith entered this season and last and won both titles, with a 6-0 overall record. This year the 9-0 Tigers blew out all three opponents, including Wakefield. They routed Potomac Senior from Dumfries, 83-45, in the championship game.
Oscar Smith was the first repeat champion since Wakefield won in 2014 and 2015, the Warriors’ last of four titles. T.C. Williams and West Potomac were the other repeat winners. No team has won three in a row.
Two Oscar Smith players, Travis Johnson and Na’Rod Jarvis, also were members of this fall’s Virginia High School League Class 6 state champion football team for the Tigers.
That team defeated Vienna’s Madison Warhawks in the championship game, as Oscar Smith teams finished December 4-0 against Northern Virginia squads when football and basketball are combined.
Johnson and Oscar Smith’s Jacobi Harper were chosen to this season’s George Long all-tournament team along with teammate Anthony Lewis, the tournament’s MVP.
Other all-tourney players were Wakefield’s Kooper Odar, W-L’s Carmichael Williams, Osbourn’s Kha’moni Morris, West Springfield’s Aaron Lowman, Chantilly’s Najilah Bey, Potomac’s Ryden Rodney-Sandy and Amani Asari and South County’s Yusef Washington.
NOTE: During the years Wakefield and Washington-Liberty have both played in the tournament, the Arlington rivals have never met. There is an agreement the teams won’t play unless both reach the championship game. Sometimes they would have met in a consolation round, but the opponents have been changed to avoid the contest. The teams play at least twice during the regular season as Liberty District rivals.
