Girls Jaycees Tournament ready to tip off

40 teams to begin play this Friday

Alejandra Garcia of Smith River during a game on Tuesday at Redwood School. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The Crescent Elk Cougar/ Crescent City Jaycees 8th Grade Girls Basketball Tournament will get underway on Friday as 40 teams compete in five divisions at locations throughout Del Norte County, from the high school to the gym at Foursquare Church.

Since the boys tournament, which takes place each March, started nearly 45 years ago, both events have grown into one of the elite tournaments for boys and girls in the region.

A number of local middle school teams  are taking part. It is quite a big deal for these players to play in their home area and to end the season at such a big and prestigious tournament.

One of the local teams taking part is the Smith River 8th grade team, which earned a No. 3 seed in the B division.

Karla Scott said the entire squad is quite excited to take part

“It’s going to be the last time we’ll play basketball together,” she said. “It should be fun.”

Smith River head coach Marshall Jones, a teacher at the school, said that the girls are certainly excited and anxious to play, and the event has been a top-ranked topic of conversation this week at school.

“It’s the big tournament for them,” he said. “It’s the culmination of the whole season.”

Coulter Mann, the athletic director for the local middle schools and dean of students at Crescent Elk, said this tournament is a great way to bring people to local businesses in the offseason.

“It brings money into the local economy for the weekend,” he said.

During the week at Crescent Elk there is spirit week, which gets the students excited for the event and to recognize the teams and players competing, Mann said.

It’s also nice for the local teams to be playing at a tournament like this and not having to go a long ways to take part, he said. “We do a lot of traveling so it’s great to play here,” Mann said.

Missing Arman

Things are quite different behind the scenes this year as event organizers deal with the loss of Arman Gunnerson, who helped with both the boys and girls tournament from the time both events began.

Gunnerson was known for being one of the main tournament organizers, often serving as tournament chairman and being a key component in making the events run smoothly year after year. The boys tournament this past March sadly turned out to be his swan song. Arman passed away in July at the age of 74.

John Phillips has been involved with the boys and girls tournament for a number of years and is one of the directors of the girls tournament this year.

Phillips said the loss of Gunnerson is immeasurable. “I miss him every day,” he said. “He’s not forgotten.”

Girls tournament chairman George Wilder said things have been quite hectic as they prepare for the event.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “Arman worked on this all year.”

After the girls tournament concluded last December, Gunnerson told The Triplicate he was already hard at work on the boys tournament.

“As a matter of fact I’m making phone calls right now,” Gunnerson said at the time. “It’s six months of preparation for these tournaments. It’s not just the days of the tournament for us.”

Wilder admitted it has been a trial-and- error experience not having Arman, who knew how to run the tournament inside-out.

Phillips and Wilder believe that although the first time out without Arman is quite challenging, once they get through learning the ropes, things should run even smoother the next time around.

“We never had to take the bull by the horns on this thing before like this,” Phillips said. “We had Arman.”

Wilder and Phillips said that there will be a moment of silence for Arman at the tournament.

Since Gunnerson helped start the boys tournament and was so involved with running it for a number of years, a more elaborate remembrance and celebration of him and his life will take place at the boys tournament.

“We’re going to make a very nice tribute to him,” Phillips said.

“We feel very strongly that Arman is watching us,” Wilder added. “We know we want this to continue. We feel he did an amazing job and our goal is to do as good of a job as he did.”

The most prestigious honor is the sportsmanship award, which is the honor all the teams strive to earn. Two years ago Smith River girls team earned the sportsmanship honors.

The award is given to the team that has demonstrated top-notch sportsmanship, which is what organizers say the event is all about.

While it’s taken an extraordinary amount of work to make the tournament a success this year, Phillips said it’s always worth it when he sees how much the players enjoy being a part of this tradition.

“It’s all about the kids,” he said.

Phillips commended Wilder for taking over as chair and making sure things continue to run well.

“He’s doing a bang up job,” he said. “If not for all the work he puts in the tournament wouldn’t happen.”

 Below is the list of local teams who are playing on Friday. The tournament concludes on Saturday. All the teams that take part play in three contests.

In the AA division, the No. 8 seed, the Crescent Elk A team, faces No. 1 seed Ferndale at 4 p.m. at the small gym at Del Norte High. At 8:30 p.m. the No. 7 seed, the Redwood Red team, faces Myrtle Point, the No. 2 seed, at the small gym at the high school.

In the A division, the Redwood 7th grade team, the No. 7 seed, faces No. 2 seed Cuddeback at 8:45 p.m. at the Foursquare Church Gym. In the B division, the No. 8 seed, the Crescent Elk B team, faces No.1 seed Grenada at 4:30 p.m. at the Redwood School gym. At 7:30 p.m. No. 3 seed Smith River takes on No. 6 seed Hayfork at 7:30 p.m. at Redwood. At 9 p.m. the No. 7 seed, the Crescent Elk 7th grade team, faces No. 2 seed Burnt Ranch at Redwood.

In the C Division, the Redwood B team, the No. 8 seed, faces No. 1 seed Freshwater at 4:15 p.m. at the Crescent Elk Gym. At 7:15 p.m. at Crescent Elk the Crescent Elk C team, the No. 6 seed, faces No. 3 seed Round  Valley at 7:15 p.m. At 8:45 p.m., the No. 2 seed, local team Uncharted Shores, takes on No. 7 seed Douglas City at 8:45 p.m. at Crescent Elk.

Reach Bill Choy at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it