Inaugural Hoopfest coming to Jackson this weekend

High school basketball fans in West Tennessee have plenty of reasons to come to Jackson this weekend as the annual Dynamix Hoopfest presented by TN Report, an outlet that keeps track of high school girls’ basketball teams and recruits across the state.

“We’ve been doing this for a few years, and it’s gradually grown,” said Tim Lownsdale, an employee of Gibson County Special Schools District who coordinates TN Report and Hoopfest. “I’ve established enough contacts, and there was enough interest locally that I started reaching out to coaches about possibly putting something together for this weekend, and here we are.”

University School of Jackson and Trinity Christian Academy will host a handful of games on Friday night and an entire day’s worth of games on Saturday for a total of 30 teams coming onto the two campuses throughout the weekend.

“Last time I did a count, we’ve got 30 future NCAA Division I players and 15 committed to Power 5 programs that will be in town this weekend,” Lownsdale said. “And most of the teams are from Tennessee, but we’ll have three other states represented.”

Hewitt-Trussville is a larger school on the eastern side of the Birmingham, Ala., metro area that will drive up on Saturday afternoon to play against South Side and then go home after the game. Mercy Academy is a team from Louisville, Ky., who will be playing Westview.

Vashon High School is a team from St. Louis coming in to play Cleveland on Friday and East Nashville on Saturday.

Hamilton Heights in Chattanooga and Rossville Christian in Fayette County will also be a part of the event as independent schools.

“Some of our teams here in West Tennessee play in events like this, but they’re usually traveling to Memphis or East Tennessee or further away to play them so not a lot of fans are able to go with them,” Lownsdale said. “Now local fans can come in and watch all these teams here this weekend.”

There will be a few boys’ games too as both of TCA’s teams will play their counterparts from McNairy Central on Friday, and USJ’s teams will play Munford. Then on Saturday morning, USJ’s boys will play Gibson County.

“We’re starting to branch out and cover boys’ basketball too, and we hope to expand that in the next few years,” Lownsdale said.

TCA’s games against McNairy will be the only games Trinity hosts Friday, while USJ will host the Bruins’ games against Munford plus two games in the auxiliary gym and another game in the main gym after the boys’ game.

Then games will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday at both schools.

“We’ve got some big matchups that we’re looking forward to having here in town,” Lownsdale said.

Tickets are $10, and that will get a person in to see all games all day in both gyms. For a full schedule, check the Area Schedule.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news