By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LYMAN — The annual “HoopsFest”, for many years one of the most acclaimed prep basketball events on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, returns this weekend but in a bit of a different form than originally scheduled and in a new arena as well.

The 2025 version of “Hoopsfest” features five contests, four boys and one girls game, beginning at 10:30 a.m., Saturday at Harrison Central High School.

It marks the first-time ever the annual affair has been played in Lyman. And with all the postponements this week due to the inclement weather, veteran Red Rebels head coach Boo Hardy had to scramble over the last few days to make sure that “HoopsFest” lived up to its past reputation of presenting a top-notch field for the beloved event.

“Man, it was a hassle, no doubt.” Hardy said Friday afternoon. “All the postponements and school closings made it difficult at times to hold the thing together. But, through the grace of God, we did it and I’m just glad things worked out as well as they did.”

All but one of the games was reconfigured from the original schedule, and at the last minute Friday afternoon a surprise match-up was revealed and will now be considered the marquee match-up of the day as the Gulfport boys will face Pascagoula.

The day will begin with a pair of boys games as West Harrison meets Forrest County AHS to tip things off at 10:30 a.m., followed by Long Beach taking on Jefferson Davis County at Noon.

The only girls game of the day is up next, as home-standing HCHS meets Gulfport in Region 4-7A play at 1:30. The contest will count in the league standings as it was originally slated to take place one week ago but had to be postponed.

Next up at 3:00 p.m., is Hardy’s Red Rebels taking on Pass Christian in the penultimate contest of the day. That game will be followed by the long-awaited match-up between the Panthers and Admirals in the final game of the five game affair.

Since its inception in 1995, “HoopsFest’ has been a staple in prep basketball circles throughout South Mississippi. The event was the brainchild of then Coast Coliseum assistant director Matt McDonnell, who is now the Executive Director of the same venue. Under his guidance, it went on to become one of the longest-running annual prep hoops events in the Gulf South region.

Throughout its history, “HoopsFest” has featured not only just boys and girls teams from across south Mississippi but throughout the rest of The Magnolia State as well as teams from neighboring Louisiana and Alabama also.

The 2003 HoopsFest was a two-day affair that included four prep games on Friday night and then three more on Saturday night as well as a Southern Mississippi-Houston Conference USA match-up sandwiched in between those two sessions on Saturday afternoon.

This is the third year since the event closed up shop at the Coast Coliseum and was shifted to on campus sites on a rotating basis at Biloxi, Gulfport and HCHS.

“We just wanted to keep it going because we all thought that it was such a good event,” Hardy added. “There was a lot of fond memories about HoopsFest over the years, and we as coaches just wanted to make sure it continued.”