2023 Fairfield Holiday Hoops

2023 Prep Holiday Tournament All-Tournament Team 

Winter break means holiday tournament basketball around Fairfield on Wednesday and Thursday. 

There's the varsity girls' tournament, the Todd Burger Holiday Tournament, the boys' varsity tournament, The Fairfield Prep Holiday Classic, as well as a boys' JV tournament, the Walter Fitzgerald Tournament. 

The girls' tournament featured Ludlowe, Warde, Seymour and East Hampton.  

In the first round of Wednesday, East Hampton defeated Ludlowe 61-27 and Warde defeated Seymour 46-33. 

On Thursday in the consolation game, Ludlowe defeated Seymour 60-38. East Hampton took home the championship, defeating Warde 48-33. 

Congrats to Ludlowe's Kate Cimador and Warde's Emmy Carley on being named to the all-tournament team. 

As far as the JV boys' tournament, Prep won the title over Notre Dame. Ludlowe defeated Warde in the consolation game. In the first round, Prep edged Ludlowe and Notre Dame topped Warde. 

To the boys' varsity tournament, which features the four Fairfield high schools, Ludlowe, Warde, Notre Dame and Prep. Notre Dame won the title with a 68-41 victory over Ludlowe. In the consolation game, Warde defeated Prep 59-54. 

The All-Tournament team consisted of Will Kane of Prep, Ryan Moore of Warde, Tate Mahoney of Ludlowe, Nate Charlot of Notre Dame and Kamryn Salters of Notre Dame, who was named tournament most valuable player. 

Great job by everyone who was involved in hosting and running the tournaments. From all the coaches to Matt Narwold and Gina DiGiacomo at Warde and Tom Curran and Graham Nemi at Prep, This extends to everyone who worked the tables and contributed to the success of the tournament in many other ways. 

I was disappointed to see the lack of media covering the games. I know Fairfield Prep's students broadcasted some, but not all, of the boys' varsity tournament, but all these games should have professional coverage. That would be print or broadcast media or both. I get the reasons why, just disappointing.

I also wish we did more surrounding the reason that the girls' tournament is named in honor of Todd Burger and the boys JV tournament is named in honor of Walter Fitzgerald. Both men who lost their battles with cancer. In the past, there were donation efforts for the American Cancer Society. 

Always a great couple of days of basketball to end the calendar year. 

Now on to the rest of the season.  

2022 Fairfield Holiday Tournaments

The week between Christmas and New Years often features many holiday tournaments across sports on the local scene. 

The 2022 Fairfield Prep Holiday Classic basketball tournament was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Fairfield. 

The tournament features the four high schools from Fairfield. Ludlowe, Warde, Notre Dame and Prep. 

After many years of the tournament being at Alumni Hall at Fairfield University and last year being at Warde, this was the first tournament in the new Leo D. Mahoney Arena at Fairfield Univ. 

The arena is really nice. I love the setup of the stands and how close the fans are to the action on the court. There was something special about Alumni Hall and the history there, but the new place will be great. I love that they have the history section, which highlights Alumni. 

As for the tournament, the first night saw Notre Dame defeat Ludlowe and Prep defeat Warde. 

Notre Dame downed Ludlowe 81-43 and Prep edged Warde 44-35. 

That set up a consolation game between the two public schools and a championship game between the private schools. 

Neither game of night two was close in score. Warde took down Ludlowe by 20, 55-35 and Notre Dame won the championship, defeating Prep 78-50. 

If you missed the games and want to re-watch, you can via Hudl and Prep TV with Rob Adams on the call. 

The All-Tournament team was named, with Ryan Torello getting named to the team from Ludlowe and Jack Plesser from Warde. For Prep their representative was Jamere Brown. Finally, for Notre Dame, it was Carmelo Ayala and Nate Charlot with Charlot being named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. 

I was on scorebook duties for all four games of the tournament, as the official scorer. I often do Ludlowe's book when the game is not at Ludlowe. Then, Tom Curran, AD at Prep, asked me if I wanted to do the Prep book for both of their games. It worked out that they didn't end of playing Ludlowe, so their was no conflict there. 

Their was also a JV boys tournament at Ludlowe, featuring the same four teams. That tournament is named after Walter Fitzgerald, who was a long-time Fairfield High School and Warde coach, who passed away in 2010 from cancer. 

Warde won the JV title, for the second year in a row. They defeated Notre Dame in the final.

In the girls tournament, Ludlowe defeated Warde for the championship. The girls tournament, which rotates between being hosted at Ludlowe and Warde, was hosted at Ludlowe this year. 

In addition to the two Fairfield public schools, the girls tournament currently features St. Paul Catholic out of Bristol and Staples. 

The tournament is named for Todd Burger, who was the former sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen, who passed away in 2006 from cancer.

To get to the final, Ludlowe defeated St. Paul, and Warde defeated Staples. 

In the consolation game, St. Paul took down Staples. 

The holiday tournaments are some of the best times of the season as it brings the town together and they are always a great atmosphere. 

Great work by everyone involved in putting on the tournaments. 

Fairfield Holiday Hoops

A look at the court during a break in the action of the girls game 

The Fairfield Holiday Basketball Tournaments got underway today, with the conclusions tomorrow. 

The boys have a varsity tournament, as well as a JV tournament. This tournament features the four high schools from Fairfield, Ludlowe, Warde, Fairfield Prep and Notre Dame of Fairfield. The varsity boys tournament was held at Fairfield Warde this year, as the usual home, Alumni Hall was knocked down and is being re-built. The JV tournament rotates between being hosted by Ludlowe and Warde and this year it was at Ludlowe. 

The boys JV tournament is named the Walter Fitzgerald Holiday Tournament in honor the of former Fairfield High School assistant coach and Warde head coach, who passed away from cancer in 2010. 

In the JV tournament, Warde toped Notre Dame and Prep topped Ludlowe, so Notre Dame and Ludlowe play in the consolation game, while Warde and Prep play for the championship. 

Notre Dame withdrew from the varsity tournament due to COVID, so Warde, who ND was supposed to play in the first round, got an automatic bye to the championship on Tuesday at 6pm at Warde. Ludlowe and Prep played Monday night to see who would face Warde. 

The Jesuits came away with a 49-30 victory. The game was closer than the score as Prep was able to pull away in the fourth. 

The girls also play a varsity holiday tournament. Their tournament features Ludlowe, Warde, Staples of Westport and St. Paul Catholic of Bristol. That tournament also rotates between being hosted at Ludlowe and Warde, with this years edition being at Warde. 

Their tournament is the Todd Burger Holiday Tournament, named in honor of former Fairfield Citizen Sport editor, Todd Burger, who passed away from cancer in 2006. 

Like Notre Dame for the boys, St. Paul Catholic had to back out of the girls tournament due to COVID.

 That meant Warde, just like the boys, who they were supposed to play, got an automatic bid to the championship. They would meet the winner of Ludlowe and Staples. The Falcons came away with a 56-39 win to set up an all-Fairfield championship matchup on Tuesday at 2pm at Warde. 

The tournaments, while different this year due to COVID, are always an awesome events for the teams and the community, no matter the outcome. It brings students out (shoutout to The Nest), as well as Alumni, parents, and just random town people. Day two will be different with fewer games, but hopefully the games we do have are great.