With eight teams, 16 games and only one day, Morgan Academy’s Pepsi Classic will be full of jam-packed action from sun-up to sundown.

The Morgan Senators’ boys’ and girls’ teams open and close the schedule of the 2016 Morgan Pepsi Classic Saturday with games against Sparta and Marengo. The other five teams in attendance will be Autauga, Escambia, Kingwood, Southern and Evangel.

“I’m really excited about it because it’s eight schools both girls and boys,” said Morgan boys’ head coach Lee Tate. “So it’s 16 basketball teams playing in both of our gyms, so it’s going to be a lot of basketball everywhere you look and I feel sure that a lot of these teams are going to bring a fan base with them.”

The event is so big, both Morgan’s new and old gyms will be in use for the duration of the tournament. The day will start with the Morgan girls taking on the Sparta girls in the new gym at 9 a.m. Morgan’s boys will follow with a game against Sparta in the old gym at 10:30 a.m.

Both teams have a long break before the Morgan girls play the Marengo girls in the old gym at 6 p.m.

The Morgan boys play the final game of the day in the new gym against Marengo at 7:30 p.m.

Tate said his team looks forward to playing against and watching teams that aren’t in the same region as Morgan, but that are more than capable of making it far in the Alabama Independent School Association playoffs.

“There’s some good teams,” Tate said. “We expect several of these guys to be around in the first week in February playing for hardware.”

Tate said his team came out of the Christmas break a little out of shape, but conditioning early in the week allowed them to cut off any weight gained during Christmas. He believes his team is ready, and he knows this game will play an important role in showing what his team is made of heading into region play.  Tate encourages Morgan supporters as well as others to come out for the morning games, spend time in the city during the day when their teams aren’t playing and then go back to Morgan for the evening games.

While the games won’t ultimately decide who makes the AISA playoffs, they could be previews of potential playoff matchups down the road.

Tate expects his players to be just as competitive Saturday as they plan to be once region play begins.

“You know you’re playing good teams, so you’ve just got to really get after it and enjoy it,” Tate said.

Admission to attend the Pepsi Classic is $7.