The 40th annual Kingdom of the Sun will be held Dec. 27-30 at Ocala Vanguard. A total of 16 teams, including locals Vanguard and Dunnellon, will be competing for this year’s tournament title.
Once again, it will feature some of the top teams and players in the Sunshine State and spanning the continent all the way to the west coast. Top-ranked Florida teams in Class 8A (Orlando Evans), 5A (Plantation American Heritage) & 4A (Tampa Berkeley Prep), along with teams from Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and California, gives the Kingdom a nice blend of tournament champion hopefuls.
College coaches typically flock to the four-day event because it’s always loaded with talent. It should be more of the same this year with Berkeley Prep’s Justin Gray (Texas Tech), American Heritage’s Drake Lamont (Western Michigan) and Tallahassee FAMU’s J.T. Escobar (Ole Miss). Plus, underclassmen like Louisville Trinity’s Raymond Spalding, the #1 junior prospect in Kentucky, American Heritage’s Keyshawn Evans, Cardinal Gibbons’ Jose Morales join an elite group.
Last year, the Bluegrass state took home the tournament title (Louisville Ballard). This year’s tournament should be wide open again.
For more information, please visit the tournament page:
http://www.kingdomofthesun.net/home.html
‘Live’ streaming video for all 26 games in the Kingdom of the Sun is available on a subscription basis. Mike Ridaught and Marty Pallman will be calling the games for the NFHS Network, the official streaming partner of the Florida High School Athletic Association. Here’s the link to the ‘Florida’ page:
http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/channels/florida
It’s $9.95 for a full day (24 hours) or $14.95 for the entire tournament (full access for 30 days).
