Jones: Bladen Offroad Christmas Tournament has become a holiday tradition

Travis Pait was sitting inside a bus headed for Southern Pines a couple of days after Christmas in 2011. It was the first day of three consecutive trips to Pinecrest High School to play in a postseason tournament.

“Why are we driving all this way?,” Pait, the West Bladen boys’ basketball coach, recalled last week looking out the bus window of an activity bus. “We’ve got a venue for it. People here love basketball.”

Thus, a high school basketball Christmas tournament in Bladen County — now sponsored by Bladen Offroad — was born in 2012.

“It’s kind of a destination tournament,” Pait said. “We get so many compliments on it.”

They should. It’s a well run and well organized tournament.

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Games times are appropriately spaced two hours apart and no game starts early. That’s important for spectators who shouldn’t expect a 6 p.m. game to start at 5:30 because previous games ended early. How frustrating is it to walk into the gym at the announced game time and realize it’s the beginning of the third quarter?

Staff is in place to make sure things run smoothly. It costs only $8 per day to get in whether you watch one game or all four games as long as you don’t leave.

The first tournament in 2012 featured four boys’ teams and four girls’ teams. Whiteville beat Lumberton 59-45 to win the boys’ championship and Lumberton defeated West Bladen 61-40 in the girls’ final. There also were four-team boys’ and girls’ tournaments in 2015 won by West Bladen and East Columbus, respectively.

The 11 other tournaments have been eight-team boys’ fields. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. West Bladen has won the tournament five times. The Knights lost in the championship game for the first time this season, falling to West Brunswick 83-81 in overtime.

“Most years we have anywhere from four to eight college coaches come,” Pait said. “We have a waiting list of teams that want to come.

“I think it’s a good thing for the community. We’ve had Bladen Offroad sponsor it for several years and (company owner Scott Gordon) has been so good to us. I think it’s just a prideful thing for the community,” Pait said.

The community has shown its support and the tournament has become a holiday tradition. If you’re a high school basketball fan looking to get out of the house after Christmas, then plan to be inside Ken F. Cross Gymnasium the last week of 2026. You’ll enjoy it.

• Did you know the Bladen Offroad Christmas Tournament isn’t the first high school basketball holiday event in Bladen County? I remember during my first stint at The Bladen Journal (1979-85) that the four Bladen County boys’ and girls’ varsity teams played a tournament at what is now the Samuel C. Boger Gymnasium at Elizabethtown Middle School. Bladenboro, Clarkton, East Bladen and Tar Heel squared off in, maybe, 1981 or 1982. I don’t remember which teams won and I don’t believe there was a second tournament.

If I remember correctly, coaches were Wayne Williamson and John Frazier for Bladenboro, Harold Ford and Raymond Marlowe for Clarkton, Sam Boger and Bill Horchler for East Bladen, and Ronnie Brown and Lee Roy Henderson for Tar Heel.

It was so long ago that reporters had to write down lineups and scorebook totals instead of simply taking a picture with a cell phone. Tough times, indeed.