By Tammy Curtis, Publisher
Highland School District learned recently they had won the bid for the 4A East Regional Tournament. This is the first time since the construction of the A.L. Hutson Center that Highland has hosted the tournament.
Highland Athletic Director Dennis Sublett made a presentation to the board of the Arkansas Activities Association that ultimately landed the tournament at Highland. “We were lucky to get that. It is great for our community and businesses where people will eat and be purchasing things throughout the community,” he said.
The tournament will be held Feb. 23-26 at the A.L. Hutson Center in Highland, beginning at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday with girl’s final play beginning at noon on Saturday and boys at 3 p.m.
The tournament will include the eight boys and eight girls teams in Highland’s conference, including Southside, Trumann, Blytheville, Brookland, Westside, Pocahontas and Valley View. Teams in the other 4A Conference will also play in the tournament. These include ESTEM, Forrest City, Joe T. Robinson, Lone Oak, Mills, Pulaski Academy, Stuttgart and Wynne.
Tournament play will be between the top four teams in each of the two conferences on both the boys and girl’s teams.
Sublett explained,.“In order to seed the state tournament you have to play the teams that lose on Friday. The girls will play at noon to determine the third and fourth seed in the state tournament.” The boys will play at 3. Then at 6 and 7:30 p.m., the championship games will be held. This will determine first and second teams going into the state playoffs.
The finals will be held at Magnolia High School the following week starting on Monday and Tuesday play through Saturday.
The state tournament finals will be held March 10-12 in Hot Springs in the Bank OZK arena.
Tickets for the 4A East Regional Tournament will not be available at the door. For the first time, everything to do with the tournament will be digital. All tickets will be sold online. Tickets will be purchased at gofan.com. The link for ticket sales will be up a few days prior to the tournament at Highland.
Sublett explained a person at the door will click on the ticket purchaser’s cell phone with a stylus to confirm the ticket purchase. For those who may not have a smart phone, a person at the door will be able to assist with the process.
“We are looking forward to it and excited about showcasing our area.” There is also a link to a YouTube video that instructs users on downloading tickets if needed.
The tournament’s program will also be digital with a QR code provided to scan to view players, stats, ect.
The games will be streamed on the website that will posted when it is active. The tickets can be purchased at :
https://sites.google.com/highlandrebels.org/4aeastregional2022/home
https://facebook.com/4aeastregionals22/