The Heyworth Hornets boys basketball team is ready for season number one under new head coach Micheal Mosley and they start the campaign by playing the toughest competition they will play all season. The Hornets come into the preseason ranked 12th, but rankings do not matter as the play on the court will matter in the end. The Hornets are returning many key players and hoping to compete in front of many scouts in Washington, Illinois. The Tournament of Champions is one of the more prestigious tip-off tournaments in the entire US, as it features many great teams and alumni who have participated in this tournament. The alumni include Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, John Wall, Alonzo Mourning, and the list goes on and on. The tournament features many teams from out of state including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, California, and many more. All of these teams from all around the US come together to compete in a tournament in a relatively small town which is pretty cool to see.
The first game is against the Morton Potters, the only Illinois team they will play in this tournament. They are out of the Mid-Illini conference, which is a pretty competitive conference in central Illinois. Last year the Potters 22-11, and some of their losses were pretty impressive. They only lost to 3A state champion Metamora by 6, and 4A state champion Moline by 20 but they were somewhat competitive in that game. Morton has some returners from their team last year and they hope to once again finish at the top of the Mid-Illini conference. The second game is against the Thayer Bobcats out of Thayer, Missouri. They finished in third place in Division 3 Missouri state tournament finishing the season 29-5, so they have experience playing competition. But Thayer is a very similar size to Heyworth, as their enrollment is just over 300 students. They will be making the 6-hour trip on Thanksgiving to play in this tournament. Lastly is North Tampa Christian Academy, which is a private school located in Wesley Chapel, Florida, which is a little over 17 hours away from Washington. They have a similar enrollment to Heyworth but since they are private they have many luxuries that a public school does not have, a major one being having no boundaries and controlling enrollment. The biggest name on this North Tampa Christian squad is Toni Bryant, a 4-star prospect from the 2026 class. He is currently getting looked at by Illinois, Iowa, Florida State, etc. Landyn Colyer is another player to look after for the Titans. He is a 3-star prospect in the 2026 class and he is a very athletic combo guard. They are by far the biggest team nationally that the Hornets will play in the tournament.
We interviewed Coach Mosley about the experience playing in the tournament. He talked about how this will be a challenge but it will help us in the early season. “This going to help us establish our identity, we usually don’t play teams like this so this will give us some exposure to some of the larger schools”. Coming into this tournament Mosley doesn’t have any expectations. “I don’t expect much, I expect us to play hard, I expect us to compete”. Being able to compete in a tournament like this would give Heyworth a lot more attention in not only the HOIC but the whole state of Illinois. The Hornets have one of the toughest schedules by any 1A school and they play in a very competitive small school conference. The dates and times for the games are November 21st at 4:00 PM, November 22nd at 11 AM, and November 24th at 9:30 AM. If you aren’t going out of state to eat turkey, I recommend taking a little road trip to Washington to watch the boys from Heyworth play in a national tournament. A new era in Heyworth is coming up.
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