Senior Trey LaForge. pictured here in a game last season, is among three football players who will rejoin the Blue Jay basketball team for the game against E. St. John on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

The Blue Jay basketball team, under the direction of head coach Chris Jennings, faces its toughest test of the early season on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Jesuit faces East St. John (6-2) in the opening round of the Newman Invitational at 6:30 p.m. The Warriors won the Allstate Sugar Bowl CYO Tournament last week by beating Brother Martin, 61-55.

Blue Jays back with the team are projected starters Trey LaForge, Foster Moreau, and Mark Beebe. LaForge and Moreau are seniors. Beebe is a junior. All were starters on Jesuit’s 2014 Division I State Championship football team, which defeated John Curtis, 17-14, in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Friday, Dec. 5.

Sixteen teams are scheduled to participate in the Newman event, which starts on Tuesday and runs through Saturday, Dec 13. District foe St. Augustine won the tournament last year and has taken the trophy home in five of the past six years. The Purple Knights open against Cohen. Among the other schools participating are Bro. Martin and a team from Melbourne, Australia.

The Jays finished 2-1 in the CYO Tournament, defeating Newman and John Curtis. The Blue Jays lost to Brother Martin in the semi-final round, 47-44.