LAKE COUNTY >> With the exception of the Upper Lake Cougars, Lake County’s high school varsity basketball teams are hitting the highways and byways beginning Thursday for the first of four big tournament weekends, the best indication yet that the winter sports season has arrived in full force.
While the Middletown Mustangs are still playing football and are competing for a sectional championship on Saturday, the sports spotlight is rapidly shifting indoors to that other sport with the round orange ball.
Upper Lake’s varsity boys and girls teams stay home this weekend for the Cougar Round Robin, a four-team tournament featuring Upper Lake, Geyserville, Ferndale and Potter Valley in the girls division and Upper Lake, Geyserville, Ferndale and Willits in the boys division. That’s the only basketball action in the county this weekend.
Hitting the road for tournaments that tip off Thursday are the Clear Lake boys at the Redwood Classic in Boonville, the Middletown boys at the Pierce Tournament in Arbuckle, the Lower Lake boys at the Yreka Tournament, the Clear Lake girls at the Colusa Tournament, the Lower Lake girls at the St. Bernard’s Tournament in Eureka, and the Kelseyville girls at the Gridley Tournament.
While a handful of Lake County’s varsity clubs have already participated in scrimmages or North Coast Section Foundation Games, which do not count toward a team’s win-loss record, the majority won’t play their first official game until Thursday in opening-round tournament action.
Looking ahead to the tournament weekend of Dec. 6-9, Upper Lake’s boys and girls are headed to the Potter Valley Tournament, Clear Lake’s and Lower Lake’s boys are entered in the Live Oak Tournament, Middletown’s boys and Clear Lake’s girls are participating in the Redwood Empire Invitational in Healdsburg, Kelseyville’s boys are headed to the Rose City Tournament in Santa Rosa, Middletown’s girls travel to the Antioch Tournament, Lower Lake’s girls hit the road for the Durham Tournament, and Kelseyville’s girls are entered in the Calistoga Tournament.
The tournament weekend of Dec. 14-16 features the annual Stokes Invitational at Kelseyville, which includes Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown and Upper Lake in the boys division, and Kelseyville and Upper Lake in the girls division.
The final tournament weekend of December (Dec. 28-30) has the Clear Lake boys competing in the Colfax Tournament, the Kelseyville boys and Clear Lake girls playing in the Fort Bragg Tournament, and the Middletown girls participating in the West Coast Jamboree.
By the time December ends all of the county’s varsity teams will have played nearly 50 percent of their 2017-18 regular-season schedule.
