Two days until MaxPreps Holiday Classic: 2 gyms at one beautiful facility

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Two days until the MaxPreps Holiday Classic invades the Coachella Valley.

At one venue, beautiful state-of-the-art Rancho Mirage (Calif.) High School, there will be two gyms where 64 games, a thunderous dunk contest and 3-point shooting competition will be hosted.

For the first time this year, fans will be able to watch all 64 of those games online.

High School Cube, in partnership with MaxPreps, will produce live streaming coverage of the games, as well as the said contests, across desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

The live streams will be available on both MaxPreps.com and HighSchoolCube.com. Video highlights on-demand will be available on MaxPreps.com.

Additionally, all games will be live scored by Qwixcore, MaxPreps' live scoring mobile technology platform, and available to follow for free on the team pages throughout MaxPreps.com.

All of the top-tier talent at Rancho Mirage, along with strong, competitive squads among the other 116 teams and 13 divisions, combined with the contests, media coverage along mobile, streaming, video, internet, print, and television platforms makes the 12th annual MaxPreps Holiday Classic perhaps its most complete.

"Year after year, the community supports the tournament more and more," MPHC co-Tournament Director Wayne Merino said. "Year after year, the media coverage is better and we get great support from the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau. Not coincidentally each year the competition at all levels of the tournament gets better.

"With the growth to out of state and even international teams, the overall level of excellence of the MaxPreps Holiday Classic continues to rise."
Last year's Invitational Division — now called the Open Division — teams went on to account for three state titles and four section crowns in California. Sixteen of the 23 schools in the field won 20 or more games and eight surpassed the 25-win mark.

Defending high school basketball national champion Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) will join a cast of six state and section champions title winners from the 2013-14 season. Thirteen of the 17 teams in the tournament's Open Division won 20 or more games last year.

"The MaxPreps Holiday Classic keeps getting better. Last year's Classic was simply amazing with a brand new venue and great teams and fantastic games," MaxPreps Founder and President Andy Beal said. "This year is shaping up to be even better with defending MaxPreps national champion Mater Dei and top teams from throughout the country playing for the gold ball."

Past standouts in the event include twins Aaron and Andrew Harrison (Kentucky), Xavier Johnson (Colorado), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs), Katin Reinhardt (USC), Elijah Stewart (USC), Jason Todd (Portland), Kendall Williams (2014 NBA Draft hopeful) and Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall).

For additional information, visit MaxPrepsHolidayClassic.com, like us on Facebook, follow on Twitter @MPHolClass or Instagram @maxpreps_holiday_classic.