Staff photo by Mike Buhler Clarkton's Dustin Ferguson (left) shoots against Gideon's Dustin Horad during a game at a recent tournament. Both schools will compete at the Clarkton Holiday Tournament this week, but Campbell will also have its own holiday tournament that kicks off Monday. [Click to enlarge]

This is due to the fact that Campbell, a charter member of the eight original teams that have played in the Clarkton Holiday tourney every year since its inception, has decided withdraw from Clarkton to start its own Invitational tournament.

With so many changes in its lineup, the 2007 Clarkton Holiday Tournament will not be played in its usual eight-team bracket play format. This year, with Campbell and Naylor withdrawing, the Reindeer have adopted pool play to determine the winner of the six-team shootout.

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Sloan Richardson (33) and Delta C7 will kick off play at the inaugural Campbell Holiday Tournament Monday night against Armorel, Ark. The Chargers are seeded fifth in the eight-team field. [Click to enlarge]

Despite the loss of Campbell and Naylor, the Clarkton tournament won't suffer in the least when it comes to the level of competition. This is due in large part to the addition of Gosnell (Ark.), who will be everyone's pick to take home the championship after winning the Senath-Hornersville Lions Invitational Tournament two weeks ago. Also new this year to the CHT is from Richland, who is coming off a win against Campbell earlier this week and also downed traditional power Portageville to open the season.

The way the tournament works is there will be two pools, with each pool consisting of three squads. Every team will match up against each member of their pool one time, and whoever has the best record from each pool moves on to play in the championship. The second place teams from each pool will play for third place. Then, the last place team from each pool face off for fifth place.

Pool 1 consists of Clarkton, Holcomb, and Richland while the second pool features Gosnell, Gideon, and Risco. The safe pick would be a Gosnell vs. Clarkton final. However, Richland is a fundamentally sound team and Gideon features arguably the tournament's best player in Jordan Boone.

Some of the more intriguing matchups in pool play are as follows:

Clarkton vs Richland -- Monday, 7:30 p.m.: The Reindeer must be on upset alert here as Richland will try to slow down their outstanding guard play.

Richland vs Holcomb -- Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.: Holcomb will need to stay out of foul trouble and cut down on turnovers if they want to pull off the upset.

Gosnell vs Gideon -- Thursday, 6 p.m.: This is a mismatch on paper, but could turn into a ballgame if Gideon catches the Pirates looking ahead to the finals or if Boone gets hot.

Clarkton vs Holcomb -- Thursday, 7:30 p.m.: One of the more intriguing games of the tournament with the young Hornets looking to upset their former coach and principal, Scottie Blackburn.

As exciting as the Clarkton Holiday Tourney is sure to be, roughly five miles away will be more great tournament action in the inaugural Campbell Invitational Holiday Tournament. Unlike Clarkton, the action at Campbell will feature eight teams and be played in the traditional bracket play format. This pairings for this are as follows:

Monday: (1) Naylor vs. (8) Campbell JV, 4 p.m.; (4) Armorel (Ark.) vs. (5) Delta C7, 5:30 p.m.; (2) Campbell vs. (7) Southland, 7 p.m.; and (3) Neelyville vs. (6) Senath-Hornersville, 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday: 1-8 loser vs. 4-5 loser, 4 p.m.; 2-3 loser vs. 6-7 loser, 5:30 p.m.; 1-8 winner vs. 4-5 winner, 7 p.m.; 2-3 winner vs. 6-7 winner, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday: Seventh place, 4 p.m.; Consolation final, 5:30 p.m.; Third place, 7 p.m.; Championship, 8:30 p.m.

Naylor and Campbell look to be the favorites here. However, a dark horse that could really surprise some people is Delta C-7. You can't say enough about the point guard play of Damien Flowers, along with the job first-year coach Nathan Baker has done with the Chargers.

"I think that with the teams here, we've got a good group of quality teams (in the tournament)," Baker said. "I think it will be a pretty competitive tournament."

All of this should make for a very exciting week of basketball.