The Ohio Valley Basketball Coaches Association, in an effort to further promote their student-athletes, held their inaugural Basketball Elite Showcase Sunday Aug. 3 in St. Clairsville inside the ECO Center. Featured were 39 players from OVAC schools that took part in a four-hour basketball event. They groups was divided into five groups and were at the ECO Center from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Doug Costain OVAC Basketball commissioner made the initial announcement last week.
“I think the OVBCA is looking to re-energize their organization with this showcase,” said Costain. “This has been in the planning for about a month or so. Steubenville Head Coach Mike Haney had the idea. He is the president of the association.”
“The OVBCA was the day-today contact.” “All we (the OVAC) did was use our email system to get the word out to the coaches. The coaches then submitted their nomination of players whom they think can play at the next level,” said Costain.
The showcase was for sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the upcoming school year. Of the 39 players selected to the showcase Harrison Central's Bryson Kamarec was among the group. Kamarec, a transfer student from Indian Creek was part of the Harrison Central basketball Husky's 2024-25 squad. During the season Kamarec presence on the team impacted the Huskies’ win/loss record in a positive manner. Through the season he would average 11.3 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, and carried a 1.6 assists per game.
“This was a great event,” Kamarec said. “I felt very honored to be nominated by the Coaches Association to participate in the showcase. The game was very competitive, and I was part of Team Pacers during the evening. We played a total of five games during the showcase. Early on we put up a record of 2 and 1, and we went on to play the undefeated day's current champions. We ended up defeating them and winning the event championship.”
Along with Harrison Central Kamarec, other schools that had players accepting invitations to the event were from Cambridge, Wheeling Central, Steubenville, Martin Ferry, Beaver Local, Bridgeport, Edison, Frontier, St. Clairsville, University, Caldwell, Toronto, Heartland Christian, River, John Marshall, Linsly, Wheeling Park, Shadyside, Union Local, Monroe Central, Buckeye Trail, Bellaire, Steubenville Catholic, Brooke, East Liverpool and Lisbon.
The members of the OVBCA Committee are Sean Tucker/Toronto, Donnie Cash/Bridgeport, Logan McCort/Cambridge, Michael Jebbia/Wheeling Park, Justin Clifford A.D./St. Clairsville, Costain, and Basketball Commissioner Donnie Giffin.
Giffin said that to this point, no girl's coaches have approached the committee about adding another aspect.
The Coaches Association partnered with The Ohio Valley Basketball and the OVAC to host the first ever Elite Showcase.
