The Dublin High School Varsity Boys Basketball team is preparing to host the 17th Annual Don Nelson Classic (DNC), as eight teams from throughout Northern California will converge on the Sports Complex for 12 games taking place from December 15-17.
Dublin’s opening round contest will be against Fairfield on Thursday, December 15th at 6:30. Fairfield comes into the contest with a record of 2-6 overall, while the Gaels are 5-3. In last year’s DNC, the Gaels defeated the Falcons 90-67 and went on to win the tournament title. The winner of Dublin-Fairfield will play the winner of the contest taking place on Thursday at 8:00 between Heritage and Castro Valley.
In the other half of the bracket, East Bay Athletic League rival California will be playing Placer at 3:30, while Las Lomas will square off against Foothill-Palo Cedro at 5:00. All four teams come into the DNC with winning records in what is shaping up to be one of the deeper fields in the tournament’s history. The opening contest on Thursday is particularly compelling as Placer comes in with an undefeated mark of 9-0, while the much-improved Grizzlies have a 6-2 record that features a victory over a highly regarded Granada squad and narrow losses to very strong opponents (San Ramon Valley and Bishop O’Dowd).
The tournament is named after longtime Dublin High School P.E. Teacher, Athletic Director, and Coach Don Nelson, who worked at the school from 1968-2004. In addition, Don Nelson served as the Commissioner of the EBAL for nearly 25 years and also had a stint as Commissioner of the old Hayward Area Athletic League in which Dublin competed in the early 1990’s.
The Dublin High Junior Varsity and Freshmen Boys Basketball teams will also be participating in tournaments this weekend. The JV team will open up against Redwood Christian in the San Lorenzo Tournament tonight at 8:30, while the Freshmen team will play Gunn in the first round of the Washington Tournament today at 4:00. Both teams are off to strong starts as the Freshmen team captured the San Lorenzo Tournament last weekend while the JV Team were champions of the F
