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TORONTO -- The holidays are a time for celebration.
This year, the Toronto boys' basketball team has another reason to celebrate as the Gem City school will once again be hosting a special event in tribute of one of its own.
The showcase was a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, but the Second Annual Todd Kalivoda Holiday Showcase is scheduled to make its return to the hardwood inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium. The showcase will begin Tuesday afternoon, and it will run through Thursday night.
"We hope people will come out, and we hope we will be able to put on the premier high school basketball showcase," Toronto boys' basketball head coach Sean Tucker said. "We think there will be a lot of talented teams for people to come out and see. We know there are a lot of basketball junkies who love going to high school basketball games. Fans will have something to do over Christmas break. We hope people will come out and watch the games. There is a lot of excitement going around. We are excited for our city and for our school. I think we have one of the nicest schools in the valley, and we want to show it off along with our city. We want to bring business back our city. We hope people will come out and support the kids."
The showcase is named in honor of Toronto graduate Todd Kalivoda who died Nov. 19, 2017 in Las Vegas.
The first year for the showcase was 2019, and by all accounts it was a success.
"We feel like it went extremely well," Tucker said. "I think the first year went better than we even expected. We know we needed to adjust some things. We talked to the other coaches, and we got feedback from them. We asked what they thought we could improve on and what they liked best about it, and there was a consensus from the other coaches.
hey thought this was the best event like this they had ever been a part of. We did get feedback from one coach on some things we could improve upon, and we are doing that this year. We are going to have extended warm up times. We want to make this the best showcase possible."
Toronto hoped to build off the success of the first year of the event last year, however, that was not to be the case as the showcase fell victim to COVID-19.
"It was crushing," Tucker said about not being able to have the event last year. "It was absolutely crushing. It was a very difficult time for everybody. Unfortunately, events like this could not be held. You couldn't have sponsors or fans. As a result of the pandemic, everything was shut down. It was disappointing for the sponsors and the fans. There were a lot of concerns. Teams were being shut down every day. A team could have been shut down the night before they were scheduled to play, and if you had a team traveling five hours to play a game what do you do?
"It was crushing. We talked to all the coaches we had invited, and they were all receptive of coming back. They understood everything that was going on last year. Our goal is to put on a bigger and better showcase this season. This is a big event. We asked the coaches to come back, and they agreed to come back."
The showcase was a two-day event in 2019, however, due to popular demand the event will be a three-day affair.
"We looked at keeping it as a two-day event," Tucker said. "A day two-day event is good for us. There are a lot of basketball junkies in the valley. They love coming out and going to event like this. It doesn't matter how many games there are.
"We have it set up so teams will play proper teams. We have teams from the OVAC as well as teams from that are not in our area."
Twenty-one teams will be taking part in the event, and there will be a total of 14 games played.
"In November, we had 24 teams interested in playing here," Tucker said. "We looked at the math. To do that, we would have to start earlier and end later. With the amount of kids who will be participating and all the travel involved, we thought it was best to go to a three-day event. The number schools we have is a great number for this event."
There was discussion about when the showcase should be held before, but ultimately it was decided having it Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best for everyone involved.
"I came up with the idea three years ago," Tucker said. "If people watch college basketball, why wouldn't they watch a high school basketball showcase? Toronto has a great gym, so why not show it off. We wanted to bring in teams in and play in a showcase like the CRC.
"I decided to name if after Todd. He was a Toronto graduate. He was very passionate about Toronto. He was extremely supportive of me taking the job and of the program. Todd was a true Red Knight. He loved Toronto. He showed what it means to be a true Red Knight."
Kalivoda's family has been very supportive of the showcase.
"I want to thank Todd's wife Carolyn and his dad Paul for their dedication and their support," Tucker said. "A percentage of the ticket sales will go to Todd's Scholarship Fund as a tribute to him."
People have been working all year to make this year's version of the showcase a successful one.
"My coaching staff has been absolutely wonderful," Tucker said. "They have spent countless hours behind the scenes that nobody sees. We have been working on this for a long time. We start in January, and we keep working up until the day it happens. We work year round on this."
The showcase is an important for the Toronto community.
"We really want to support our community," Tucker said. "Local businesses are struggling immensely from the past year due to COVID-19. Those businesses do a lot. They help us, and we want to be able to help them."
Many people have played a key role in the holding of the showcase.
"I want to thank the city of Toronto and our school for all their support," Tucker said. "I want to thank our superintendent Maureen Taggart. I want to thank our AD Mark Ferrell. He does an awesome job. I want to thank the school board and the athletic board. I also want to thank our parents and fans for all of their support. If we didn't have the support of everyone, we would not be able to do this."
Some of the sponsors for the event are Total Sports Connection in Martins Ferry as well as Trinity Health System and TEAM Automotive.
The cost of tickets is $10 for adults and $6 for students. The tickets are good for all the games each day. The price is the same for admission into one game.