HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

For the 28th year, the high school basketball season in Lexington County will begin with the Lake Murray Tip-Off tournament.

However, a familiar coaching presence will be absent, at least at courtside.

Lexington’s longtime head basketball coach Bailey Harris retired at the end of last season. Elliott Pope has now taken the reins and he and former Wildcat and White Knoll boys’ basketball coach Devin Liferidge are now co-hosting the tournament.

It started Monday and will run through Friday for the 7 pm championship game at White Knoll High School.

“I played in this tournament as a student,” Liferidge said. “It was always at Lexington (High School), so Coach Pope and I were given the option to continue.”

For Liferidge, filling the role of Harris even in just this tournament situation seems like a passing of the torch from his life-long mentor.

“Coach Harris is much more to me than just a coach,” Liferidge said. “He has been a mentor to me through the best and worst times of my life and I have the utmost respect for him. He shaped me to be the man and the coach I am, and I seek his advice still either directly or just by thinking about what he would do in a particular situation.”

Entering his 4th season with the Timber-wolves, Liferidge has been quietly building a program with potential.

“We want to continue to grow the program this year,” he says. “What that looks like I don’t know, but last year we just missed the playoffs, which is a place we haven’t been in a while.”

Liferidge says he has no magic, no secret formula to success other than putting in the work.

“It’s a process, getting people to buy in to what you’re doing as a program,” he said. “After 4 years you can start to talk about your identity and culture, what expectations are for the program. Our foundation is laid, I’m excited to see what we can build on it this season.”

The Timberwolves and the Wildcats will be joined in the tournament lineup this year by Cross Creek, Fairfield Central, Lugoff-Elgin, Wilson, Fox Creek, and Richard Winn Academy.

Liferidge is not the only Harris protegee co-hosting a preseason ‘Tip Off’ tournament. River Bluff head coach Benjamin Lee and Chapin head coach and Lexington High alumnus Mark Snelgrove are working together to hold the Tip Off at the Dam that started Monday.

Summerville, Spring Valley, Silver Bluff, Goose Creek, South Aiken and preseason 7th ranked Dutch Fork are among the participants.

Both The Swamp and the Eagles Nest will serve as game sites for 2 games the first 2 nights. The tournament will conclude with 4 games at Chapin High School capped by the 7:30 pm championship game.

Visit www.lexingtonchronicle.com for updates on both tournaments.