While the Regis Jesuit girls basketball team got denied the chance to play in the prestigious DICK’S Sporting Goods High School National Tournament by a Colorado High School Activities Association bylaw, Josh Perkins did not.
The former Regis Jesuit boys hoops star — who played three seasons with the Raiders, but moved to West Virginia for his senior season — plays for a Huntington-St. Joseph Prep team that is among the eight boys teams that have accepted invitations to play in the April 3-5 tournament to be played at Madison Square Garden and other venues in New York City and televised on ESPN.
Perkins — a Gonzaga signee — averages 8.0 points and 5.1 assists per game for Huntington Prep, which is 27-4 and ranked No. 5 in USA Today’s Super 25 rankings.
Huntington Prep had been kept out of the national tournament in years past because it wasn’t a member of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, but a bill sent through the West Virginia Senate Education Committee helped make it possible this year according to the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch.
The other seven schools in the DICK’s tournament are also ranked by USA Today: No. 1 Montverde (Fla.) Academy; No. 3 Rainier Beach (Seattle); No. 4 Northside Christian Academy (Charlotte); No. 6 La Lumiere, La Porte, Ind.; No. 7 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.); No. 8 Findlay College Prep, Henderson, Nev.; and No. 18 The Sagemont School (Weston, Fla.).
Without the Regis Jesuit girls, the four-team DICK’s tournament field includes two ranked teams in No. 10 Riverdale (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and No. 18 Miami Senior (Fla.), plus unranked Freemont (Utah) and Edgewater (Orlando, Fla.).
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel
