The calm before the (tournament) storm

It’s a quiet week this week on the local sports front, but many teams will return to action next week for holiday tournaments.

In basketball, Lakeland’s boys and girls host Cheney tonight, and St. Maries plays host to the Coeur d’Alene junior varsity.

On Tuesday, Coeur d’Alene’s girls visit Bonners Ferry, and the St. Maries wrestling team hosts Orofino, the Post Falls JV and the Lakeland JV.

On Wednesday, Lakeland’s boys and girls are home vs. Wenatchee.

Next week, Coeur d’Alene is home to three basketball tournaments, all running Dec. 28-30.

The Lake City Invitational boys basketball tournament features three days of pre-determined matchups at Lake City High. The local teams involved are Sandpoint, Lakeland, Post Falls and Lake City, and are joined by South Kitsap (Wash.), Mountain Home, Kentwood (Wash.) and Timberline of Boise. The schedule is such that the local teams don’t play each other.

Coeur d’Alene High’s girls basketball team host the CHS Women’s Winter Classic at Elmer Jordan Court. Local teams entered are Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Post Falls and Sandpoint. The other teams are Lyle-Wishram, Enumclaw, Lake Stevens and Bothell, all from western Washington. It’s a bracketed tournament, so local teams could meet each other on the second and third day.

North Idaho College is once again hosting the Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational, though this year it is a college men’s tournament; in the past, it has been a high school boys tournament, and sometimes also a high school girls tourney. NIC’s men will be joined by Northwest Athletic Conference teams Highline, Blue Mountain and Grays Harbor. Also in the tourney is San Jose City College, Miles City (Mont.), the NIC All-Stars and a Fairchild team.