Southwest Florida’s most celebrated high school basketball rival will make its return as part of the 2023 City of Palms Classic.
Tournament organizers confirmed that Bishop Verot and Fort Myers will be the matchup for next year’s Hugh Thimlar Tribute Game. The meeting will be the first between the two programs since 2018 when school administrators opted to discontinue the series. For more than a decade, the games had been played before sold-out crowds at both Verot and Fort Myers, generating a raucous atmosphere as well as significant revenue for both schools’ athletic programs.
Since 2018:Fort Myers vs. Bishop Verot basketball, volleyball rivalry games halted by administrators
When Bishop Verot coach Matt Herting heard the City of Palms wanted the teams to rekindle their rivalry at next year’s tournament, it took about a millisecond for him to say yes.
“It was a pretty easy decision,” said Herting, now in his 24th season with the Vikings. “I’m super excited to be able to start it up again and hopefully it becomes an annual thing where we start playing every year again.”
During the height of the annual rivalry games, Bishop Verot and Fort Myers were among the area’s top basketball programs, which helped to make them must-see events. From the mid-2000s through 2018, the teams combined for 18 district titles and 28 state playoff wins with Fort Myers winning a Class 4A state title in 2010 under then-coach and Verot graduate Scott Guttery and Verot reaching a state Final Four in 2009.
“It wasn’t only for the bragging rights between two schools that are not that far apart in Fort Myers, it was kind of the bragging rights for who’s the best team in Southwest Florida,” Herting said. “For most of those years, it was the last regular season play date of the year. Your whole season worked toward that game which was right before the playoffs. That made it really special.”
Those rivalry weeks led to some memorable pranks, including in 2017 when Herting said Fort Myers students removed the tires from his truck and left it on blocks in his driveway, leaving the lug nuts in a neat pile. Undeterred, Herting arrived to the game at Fort Myers High in a yellow stretch limousine.
“To me, it was always my favorite day of the year, better than Christmas, better than Thanksgiving,” Herting said.
While the venue for next year’s game will be unable to replicate the claustrophobic conditions that existed at Verot’s Nevins Gym or Fort Myers’ ‘Wave Cave,’ playing at 3,500-seat Suncoast Credit Union Arean will allow for more fans beyond the schools’ student bodies to experience the rivalry.
“I think it’s going to be a huge crowd, especially because of the hiatus,” Herting said. “Hopefully that’ll be a catalyst for the game returning to our home courts. I think it’d be really good for basketball in the area, really good for both communities and for the rivalry, which was like nothing else around here.”
City of Palms vice president Donnie Wilkie, who secures the teams for the tournament, saw the matchup as a must-have for the 50th anniversary of the event.
“Resuming this rivalry is great for our tournament, the kids, the basketball and the community,” Wilkie said. “And making it the Thimlar Tribute game in the 50th anniversary City of Palms is the perfect way to honor the two schools who played in our tournament’s very first game in 1973.”
The score of that game? Fort Myers won 99-20, still the largest margin of victory in tournament history.
Connect with Dan DeLuca: @News-PressDan (Twitter), ddeluca@gannett.com.
Journalism matters. Your support matters. Subscribe to The News-Press and the Naples Daily News.