Bermudian basketball fans will get a sneak peak at some of the game's prospective superstars next month.

That's when the first annual Ballin-in-Bermuda Tournament comes to town from December 16-21, featuring teams from one high school and three colleges in the USA.

It's an initiative by President/CEO of Investment Atlanta Inc. Anthony Witherspoon "to bring together the youth of Bermuda and some of our young players in the USA in a festival-type basketball event".

"By doing this we hope to promote the game of basketball on the Island as well," explained the former college coach of 20 years.

For the American teams, there is the benefit of being together and maintaining their training during part of their Christmas vacation.

"Basketball coaches like to have their players participate in some holiday event. They don't like to have them disperse because guys tend to get out of shape.

"A holiday tournament of this nature is ideal and the teams and their alumni fans get to come to a great island also."

The visiting colleges are Morehouse, Fort Valley State University and St. Augustine, while Westlake High from Atlanta, Georgia, is the lone high school. The latter will oppose their peers from Berkeley, Warwick Academy, CedarBridge Academy and Mount St. Agnes but the American colleges will compete among themselves.

"It will be a classic format which means it won't be a tournament. This gives schools an opportunity to play other schools that have more parity with them; with their individual strengths and weaknesses.

"So we're going to have games with the American colleges playing each other and Westlake playing all the Bermuda high schools.

`We're going to at least do it like this for the first year. Our long-term objective however is to create a tournament format and bring over more American teams - girls as well," disclosed Witherspoon.

Many of the players who will be in action here, he noted, are earmarked for careers in the lucrative National Basketball Association (NBA) and are already showing their talent at lower levels.

Morehouse, for example, is among the top ten in the NCAA Division II and is a perennial powerhouse in college competition.

"They won their Conference championships for the last three years and they are one of the strongest teams in the USA in Division II. They definitely have a lot of potential professionals," acknowledged Witherspoon.

Westlake, he added, was the champion basketball team among high schools in Georgia in 2001 and has some top college prospects on its roster.

"The Bermuda schools can get an opportunity to see the level of competition in the USA and if their programmes are going to continue what they have to do to get to that same level of competitiveness."

Bermudian youngsters will also be able to find out the academic and other requirements for acceptance to the visiting colleges and what scholarship possibilities exist.

Witherspoon is also negotiating to bring an All-Star college team (of former All-Conference college players) to play against Bermuda College and Bermuda's national team.

As part of Ballin-in-Bermuda's developmental thrust, there will be a clinic for coaches on December 21 from 8.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. at Bermuda College Gym.

For more information call Ron Brunson at 239-4020.