CYO tournament fills bracket with 16 teams

Story and Photos By Ron Brocato, Clarion Herald Sports

The 64th annual CYO Basketball Classic will have a full field of 16 teams, including 10-time champion St. Augustine, which returns after a three-year hiatus.

Sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the tournament field, will also have four new entries for the Dec. 4-7 games, announced by CYO Director Timmy McCaffery.

Joining the field for the first time are Central Lafourche, Northshore, Lee High of Baton Rouge and Long Beach, Mississippi.

Originally a football game matching the New Orleans Catholic school champion against a national Catholic school power, the CYO Classic became a two-game basketball tournament in 1951.

The original four participants – St. Aloysius, Jesuit, Holy Cross and Redemptorist – were members of the New Orleans Prep League, which also included Warren Easton, Fortier and Nicholls, which played for a common championship.

The CYO tournament was conceived to recognize a Catholic school champion prior to 1955, when the Catholic and public leagues were formed as separate entities.

Although most of the city’s large Catholic schools remained in the tournament to help fund the CYO and its youth ministry mission, the tournament lost two of its mainstays in St. Augustine and two-time champion Brother Martin in 2016.

When the Louisiana High School Athletic Association voted to have separate playoffs for public and non-public schools in 2013, the Class 5A New Orleans Catholic schools were cast into a (Select Division I) bracket that included just 13 teams.

By doing so, the Catholic League schools found themselves playing each other twice during district play and possibly once in the CYO tournament and again in the Division I playoffs.

St. Augustine and Brother Martin decided to forgo the CYO tournament.

But St. Augustine, which also hosts its own tournament, chose to return to the 64-year-old classic, and CYO officials said they feel that Brother Martin will also rejoin the field in 2020.

This year’s tournament, which will be played at Jesuit, Archbishop Shaw, Holy Cross and De La Salle on Dec. 4-5, then move to Jesuit for the semifinal and championship rounds Dec. 6-7, was designed to assure that the local Catholic schools do not meet each other in early rounds.

Jesuit’s fieldhouse will bracket St. Paul’s vs. Long Beach and Jesuit hosting Central Lafourche.

At Shaw, St. Augustine will face Lusher Charter, and Northshore will face the host Eagles.

The doubleheader at Holy Cross pits Archbishop Rummel against Lee, and Holy Cross facing St. Thomas Aquinas.

Games at the John Altobello Athletic Complex will feature West Jefferson against John Curtis, and De La Salle hosting St. Stanislaus.

Game times are at 6 and 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 4. Opening night losers will face each other on Dec. 5 at 6 p.m., and the winners will play at 7:30.

Because the championship game may conflict with the LHSAA’s Division championship football games on Dec. 6 or Dec. 7, the CYO may adjust the championship game times for its finalists.

Admission to the tournament will be $5 for adults, $4 for students with identification and is free to ages 12 and under.