That much was clear Wednesday afternoon at a press luncheon at Skyland Pines Banquet Center heralding the inaugural Classic in the Country, a 3-day showcase that will take place at the Perry Reese Jr. Community Center from Jan. 17-19.  Thirty-two teams from around the state, and one from West Virginia, will converge on the rolling hills of Holmes County for 20 games over the three-day event.

The showcase will feature the Hiland Hawks in two games (vs. Marion Local and Copley), Wooster (vs.Toledo Scott), West Holmes (vs. Dayton Dunbar) and Chippewa (vs. Chesapeake).  It is being held in conjunction with the Maytag Hoover Classic, which will be staged at North Canton Hoover High School the same three days.  The Hoover Classic will feature three local boys teams:  Wooster (vs. Walsh Jesuit), Loudonville (vs. Toledo Start), and Hiland (vs. Sebring McKinley).

The Classic in the Country is basically the same tournament -- the All-Ohio Girls Prep Shootout -- that Hiland and other area teams have attended over the same three-day period at Pickerington High School in past seasons.  Hiland girls coach Dave Schlabach and Tom Jenkins, managing partner of Ohio Girls Basketball Magazine and Scouting Service, began brainstorming more than a year ago to have Hiland host the event.

"It was a year ago August when we first started talking about it, putting ideas together and working on the teams," Schlabach said.  "It's exciting and it's turning out exactly like we'd hoped.  To tie it in with the boys has just created that little bit of extra excitement as well.  It's going to be a tremendous event for high school basketball in Ohio.

"We wanted to create a venue where a lot of really good teams could come together in the middle of the year and test themselves against some of the best teams in the state.  There's some tremendous teams and tremendous players that are going to be there."

Three of the four defending girls state champions (Dayton Chaminade-Julieene, South Euclid Regina and Marion Local) will be in attendance, as will teams with championship pedigrees such as North Canton Hoover, Columbus Brookhaven, Cleveland East Tech and Wadsworth.

Wooster coach Mike Gallagher is looking forward to the chance to see and experience some different brands of basketball.

"It's a heckuva an honor (to be invited)," Gallagher said.  "It's like a who's who of girls basketball down there.  It's a great chance to showcase your kids and play against somebody different.  We're playing Toledo Scott... we don't know anything about them and they don't know anything about us and I think that's great.  I like that and the whole weekend is a nice thing for girls basketball."

Matt Voll has taken his West Holmes Knights to Pickerington each of the last two seasons for the Girls Prep Shootout, but is looking forward to only driving across the county to get the same kind of exposure for his team.

"It's a great opportunity for our kids," Voll said.  "We've been involved in the tournament for the last two seasons and now it's kind of neat to have it here in our own back yard.  Dave Schlabach and Tom Jenkins are going to be tremendous hosts and it's going to be a basketball festival.  It's a showcase for great teams and great players.

"We can't take this for granted because it's a chance for our kids to play in an exciting atmosphere that's different," Voll added.  "It's such a change of pace at the right time of the season.  You get a chance to play someone who you have no idea about and you get to watch all those other good teams.

"I don't want to compare it to the state tournament, but it sort of has that kind of atmosphere and feel."

Both events will benefit the Perry Reese Jr. Memorial Scholarship Foundation, named in honor of the late Hiland boys coach who helped lead the Hawks to a state title.  Reese died of brain cancer in November of 2000. Jenkins said that Reese's impact on the Berlin community, as an African-American in an overwhelmingly white community, as well as an opportunity to benefit his scholarship fund, was a primary reason for his decision to shift the Classic from Pickerington to Berlin.

"I just didn't feel comfortable without adding a social dimension since we have this event over the Martin Luther King weekend," Jenkins said.  "That's why we moved the event from Pickerington to Berlin and after talking with coach Schlabach and coach (Randy) Montgomery (of Hoover) we decided we would channel some of the money we make off this event to the Perry Reese Foundation as well as the Dr. King Habitat for Humanity Foundation here in Canton."

Schlabach hopes the weekend not only serves the basketball players and teams well, but also helps to make more people aware of Reese's sway in the Hiland area.

"Perry helped bridge racial barriers and was a great friend to our community," Schlabach said. "He showed that one person can change a community.  The more ways we can keep Perry's story alive, we're interested in doing that and anything else that will help the scholarship fund grow.  The fact that it's over Martin Luther King weekend provides an appropriate backdrop to do that.  We're excited to keep that alive."