Mainland wins both games, FPC goes 1-1 at Vince Carter Hall of Fame Classic

Mainland coach Joe Giddens and Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter hope to upgrade the field in the future with Hall of Famers sponsoring the trip for their former high schools.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 9:00 a.m. January 5, 2026
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Sports
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Sixteen high school basketball teams battled on Dec. 29-30 at Mainland’s Vince Carter Athletic Center for coach Joe Giddens’ annual holiday basketball tournament. After nearly eight years of organizing the event, Giddens’ tournament has evolved into the Vince Carter Hall of Fame Classic.

Giddens and good friend, Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter, have been talking about upgrading the event for a year. Giddens said in 2025 they decided to make it happen. In 2026, their goal is to get at least 10 Hall of Fame athletes to sponsor their high school alma maters for the tournament.

“So it can really be a Hall of Fame classic,” Giddens said. “We’re going to turn it up a notch. I’m excited about that.”

Top teams from across Florida, including Bishop Kenny of Jacksonville, Evans from Orlando, Santa Fe Catholic from Lakeland, Sebring High School and Dr. Joaquin Garcia out of Lake Worth, competed in the two-day classic. 

They were joined by a team from New York.

The event draws a lot of good teams because it is a good product, Giddens said. Santa Fe Catholic finished runner-up in Class 2A  last season, and Evans was the Class 6A runner-up.

Dan Fisher, the new head coach for Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York, reached out to Giddens in the summer. Giddens said they kept in contact which led to Fisher bringing his team down for the tournament.

“It’s about building relationships,” Giddens said. “[Fisher] said he is coming back next year. I’m just going to keep expanding the classic and keep bringing different people in.”

Other teams in the classic included St. Johns Creekside, Orlando Jones, Winter Haven, Apopka, Lake Howell, Bithlo East River, Palm Beach Gardens, Discovery High School from Lake Alfred and Flagler Palm Coast.

FPC coach Greg Shirley was a Mainland assistant coach in 2023-24. Shirley said he is good friends with Giddens and had talked a lot about the tournament with him.

“He offered the opportunity, and I knew it was going to be one of the best tournaments around,” Shirley said. “I wanted to give my players the experience in that type of situation.”

In FPC’s first match-up, Winter Haven was ahead by two with seconds remaining. In an attempt to send the game into overtime, the Bulldogs intentionally missed a free throw, grabbed the offensive rebound and scored. But the referees called a lane violation and negated the basket. Winter Haven won 62-60.

“Referees have a tough job,” Shirley said. “It would have been nice for the last play to have counted but we had many chances before that.”

The Bulldogs beat Apopka 38-32 the following day.

“The Apopka game was a huge game for us to come back and get,” Shirley said. “They’re in our region ... so that will help us in rankings. We’re 8-6. In five of those (losses) we had leads. Holding on and winning against Apopka was a very good one for us.”   

Mainland defeated Dr. Joaquin Garcia 69-48 on the first day. On Day 2, the Bucs (12-1) won 63-61 in the final seconds against Evans (11-4) with an alley-oop from guard Kade Manley to forward Davon Jones who put up a floater for the game winner.

Mainland’s Canyon Powers, who had 10 points and 6 rebounds in each game, said playing in the tournament makes the team better because it brings in quality competition.

“This game [Evans] was a dog fight,” he said. “We had to stay at it the whole [fourth] quarter. That’s a good team. If we weren’t firing on all cylinders, they were going to find a way to come back, and they did. We won by two points.”

Giddens said the Evans game is an example of why he makes his schedule tough each season. He wants his team to have the ability to compete against the top teams in every class.

“The energy was crazy — it was electric,” Giddens said. “I was coaching them hard and they were able to accept it. That’s what it’s all about. Like I tell them, it’s no grit, no grind, no greatness. It takes time. You got to build it. If we want to be great, we’ve got to continue to work. It’s brick by brick. It’s blue collar.”

 

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