Evening star., 1939-03-06
Biq Attendance Seen
For Games Tonight
On Tech h'sCout
Four Other Teams PIoy
Tomorrow; EIks Boys
Bond Pops Party
BY GEORGE HUBER.

The defending metropolitan cham
pion against the only undefeated
team in this area and the WASH
ington public high titleholder
against the best class A team In
Northern Virginia is the setup to-
night as The Stars annual met
ropolitan interscholastic basket ball
championship tournament opens at
Tech gym.
st. Johns, which only last Sat-
urday successfully completed the
defense Of It's parochial school title,
opens the fight to retain the met
ropolitan crown it won in a slam
bang finish last year by taking on
the dark-horse entry from Jeffer-
son High. Falls Church, Va, in the
first game at 7::30 pm. The Jeffs,
for two years champions of the
Fairfax County League, swept
through their 14-game schedule 70
become the only one of 20 high
school teams in and around WASH
ington with perfect record.
Other Four Play Tomorrow.
At approximately 8:45 pm. East
ern, runner-up to st. Johns for the
metropolitan championship last year
and for the second consecutive time
winner of the Washington public
school title, steps into the race op-
posite George Washington High of
Alexandria. the best Northern Vir-
ginia school in the Glass A Literary
and Athletic League. fastest scholas-
tic loop in the State.
Tomorrow night the other four
schols in the tournament swing into
action, Tech, runner-up to Eastern
for the local school crown, going
against Mount Rainier, for three
years undefeated in Prince Georges
County, and Gonzaga, which forced
st. Johns to a play-off for the
Catholic title, meeting Montgomery
Blair of Silver Spring, selected as
the best Montgomery County
quint.
Winners tonight and tomorrow
night go into the semi finals week
from tomorrow, and the final will
be played the following night. The
six-day interval between the opening
and final rounds was arranged to
avoid conflict with the South At
lantic scholastic championship tour
ney next Thursday. Friday and Sat-
urday at Lexington, Va, in which
st. Johns, Gonzaga, George Wash
ington and possibly Tech will COM
pete.
Big Gathering Expected.
Tech gym should be close to filled
tonight as interest in schoolboy bas-
ket ball reaches a climax in the
metropolitan championship tourna-
ment. It already has received a big
boost this season as the round
robin and play-of system originated
by Birch Bayh, head Of the Depart
ment of Health and Physical Edu-
cation, kept fans pouring into local
gyms all during the series and right
down to the final night. Then, too.
the competing schools share in the
profits of this years venture for the
first time, and big turnouts on that
score alone are expected. The ad-
mission fee is a quarter.
Arrangements being completed to-
day for the girls championship. St.
Patrick's of the Catholic Girls
League, George Washington, Mont
gomery Blair and Mount Rainier
have accepted bids as the outstand-
ing girls sextets, and they will COM
pete in a unit of the tournament
equally as important Cat least to
them as the boys games. A double
header will be played this week, with
the winners meeting in a prelimin-
ary to the boys final.
Bill Coyle, Star radio director, as
sisted by Jack O'Connell, will be
master of ceremonies at the tour
nament. Admiral Ross T. Mc1n-
tire, physician to the President,
heads a committee to name the most
valuable player and the best subur-
ban team. In the group are Bill
Reinhart, G. w.; Burt Shipley,
Maryland, and Forrest Cotton, c. U.,
all basket ball coaches.
Not the least important partici-
pants in the party will be the crack
Elks Boys Bands, directed by James
L. Kidwell.