Mark Feb. 9, 2013, on your calendar and get your tickets early for next year's Heartland Hoops Classic.

It could be a sellout at the Heartland Events Center.

The Hoops Classic has been a success in its first five years, but you haven't seen anything yet. Something big is coming next year. Maybe even big enough for ESPN.

Oak Hill Academy, the No. 1 prep team in the nation right now according to both espn.com and USA Today, will be in Grand Island to face Nebraska's top team right now in Omaha Central.

You could feel the buzz around the events center on Saturday.

Northwest coach Ryan Rathke informed his team of next year's game the first thing in the locker room after the Vikings had beaten Hastings St. Cecilia. Rathke said he should have held that information until the end of his post-game speech because the players were so excited about it that he doesn't think they heard another word he said.

St. Cecilia coach Kevin Asher put it this way: "That will be the biggest basketball event in the history of the state of Nebraska," Asher said. " This place should have 7,500 people in it. It will be a treat for the fans."

If you follow prep basketball at all, you have probably heard of Oak Hill Academy. Located near Mouth of Wilson, Va., just north of the North Carolina border, the program has turned out 55 Division I players since 2000, including Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse), Rajon Rando (Kentucky), Ty Lawson (North Carolina) and Nolan Smith (Duke).

But it takes two to tango, or play a basketball game, and Omaha Central is just the team to do it.

The Eagles been dominating in Nebraska largest class. They have won five state titles in the past six seasons and are the two-time defending Class A champions.

"I think it's going to be exciting," Hoops Classic organizer Tino Martinez said. "Not just Oak Hill Academy, but I think the people out here are going to love seeing Omaha Central play too. I think it will be great.

"Some of the names that have gone on from Oak Hill Academy are pretty big names, guys like Carmelo Anthony and Ty Lawson, some of those guys. They definitely have a rich tradition of NBA greats."

Martinez said the key was getting Omaha Central to commit. He said head coach Eric Behrens said he wanted to play in the Hoops Classic, but it had to be against a national opponent.

So Martinez went looking for that national opponent. He checked with a number of programs, including St. Anthony High school in Jersey City, N.J., and Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas.

"All of them were interested," Martinez said. "Oak Hill was just really aggressive in getting it done right away. I was very pleased to get that done in a quick fashion."

It won't be cheap. The promoter, in this case Martinez, is responsible for the team's expenses that include airfare, two or three nights stay in Grand Island plus all the meals for a traveling party of 18 people.

Martinez estimated the total cost for that one game will be somewhere in the range of $20,000.

"It's expensive to get somebody like Oak Hill to come, and even somebody like Omaha Central," Martinez said. "I'm hoping people have interest in it, come out and support the teams and the quality of basketball. Omaha Central is a great representative for the state of Nebraska.

"I think the average fan will want to make sure they keep that date open."

And this quite possibly won't be the last national team to come to the Hoops Classic. Omaha Central has signed on for the next two years, so Martinez is looking for a big-name national team to face the Eagles in 2014.

"We're looking at Findlay Prep, who is currently No. 2 in the country," Martinez said. "It gives me more time to maybe work something out with St. Anthony's. As long as it works out and financially makes sense for me, we'll try to get something like that every year."

Martinez also announced three other matchups for next year's Hoops Classic. Northwest will play Kearney Catholic, Archbishop Bergan faces Doniphan-Trumbull and Heartland Lutheran will play High Plains.

Martinez said he hopes to have Grand Island Central Catholic and Grand Island Senior High in the Hoops Classic as well.

"Hopefully we can find opponents for both of them that we can get signed here in the next week or two," Martinez said.

Bob Hamar is sports editor for The Independent.