ROANOKE, Va. – The high school hoops season is right around the corner. With that, William Fleming High School was the place to be Wednesday for the Adam Ward Classic Preseason Showcase.
The evening started out with an exhibition game featuring Twin Hoops with the nightcap featuring the Oak Hill Gold team and Massanutten Military Academy. Former William Fleming standout Jaron Walker is now part of the Massanutten team so it was a homecoming of sorts for him. The score reset after each quarter so no official final score for the game but as Grant Smythers explains, everyone associated with the event including the William Fleming community, is already a winner.
“We decided to do an event in October. So a few years ago we went to Patrick Henry High School for our first event, four years ago,” said Grant Smythers, co-founder of the Adam Ward Classic. “We’ve tried to rotate the event each year to be loyal and reward those schools that have played in our event each year. We wanted to do something to reward the William Fleming community because they’ve been loyal to us and they bring a lot of fans to us to our event we hold each year in February.”
The annual Adam Ward Classic tournament is held in February and raises money that goes towards the Adam Ward Scholarship Fund. Games are held every year in honor of Photojournalist Adam Ward who was tragically killed on the job. Ward was a Salem High School graduate.