WALL — A year in the making, the Wall Eagles are set to host the inaugural Wall Classic on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at the high school gymnasium.

The Wall Classic will feature four games, two boys' and two girls' games, beginning at 1:30 pm.

Wall, who typically competes in the Parkston Classic at this time of year, said they were approached last year about hosting a basketball classic on the western side of the state, according to Activities Director Joe Martin.

While this is the first year of the classic, Martin said he's hopeful the people who organized it will make it an annual event.

“I believe that after this year, we probably will have more games in the future. You know, whether it be two more girls teams or even more boys teams,” Martin said.

Martin said the majority of the planning and organizing of the classic itself was handled by members of Sacred Hoops Basketball and Ambush Basketball.

This year's schedule will start with the Jones County and Pine Ridge girls at 1:30, followed by the Oehlrichs Tigers and Crow Creek boys teams. Then the Wall girls will face the Crow Creek girls, with the Wall boys playing Little Wound in the nightcap.

Wall and Little Wound boys just recently met in the Lakota Nation Invitational, with the Eagles defeating the Mustangs 78-70.

“The boys' game is against Little Wound, and we just had a great match-up in the quarterfinals (of LNI) with Little Wound with an eight-point victory. So it'll be good to see them again,” Martin said. “We don't normally see Crow Creek on our schedule. I'm happy to see them coming out.'

Martin said whenever possible, the Eagles do their best to host larger events. Those have included SoDak 16 match-ups in both basketball and volleyball, regional track meets and golf tournaments.

“People like coming, and I think that we will be great hosts, and the teams that do come will want to come back,” Martin said. “I commend the people who put it together and our coaches for setting up some of these really unique and interesting matchups. 

“In most cases, in classics, you see teams you haven't seen. In this case, we're going to see a team within two weeks that gave us a really good matchup and one that if fans didn't see it the first time, they definitely probably don't want to miss this.”

Tuesday’s schedule: 

1:30 — Jones County vs Pine Ridge girls

3:00 — Oelrichs vs Crow Creek boys

4:30  — Wall vs Crow Creek - girls

6:00 — Wall vs Little Wounds - boys