Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

Girls high school basketball will get underway next week with Centre Dufferin District High School entering a junior and senior in District 4 this season.

The senior team will host a senior tournament on Friday, October 4, and Saturday, October 5, in the gym at CDDHS.

Teams from around the region are going attend and it will be a chance for teams to try out some competition from squads they won't meet in the regular District schedule.

“They're coming from all over,” explained Royals head coach Matt Barlow. OE (Orangeville District) and Westside (Orangeville) are coming. Saint Joes from Barrie, St. Thomas Aquinas from Tottenham, and a team from Paris. There are eight teams coming. The only teams from our area are from Orangeville, which is good – we want to face some teams from other districts. It will be a round-robin and the top two teams will play for the gold and the second place teams will play for the consolation title.”

The Royals junior team is looking strong this year with the addition of some new high school players who are arriving with some basketball experience.

“There's definitely a lot of potential,” said second year junior player Tashlyn Jackson. “There's quite a few that look like they've got skills that can really impact our team. There's five of us on the team that played last year. We're working on the basics – our plays we run through an coming towards the net. In practice we're going to start doing more in depth stuff so we know specific things to do during a game.”

The senior team will be a tight squad this year with nine players on the bench.

Senior player, Shannon Bury, said she thinks the team will be a strong competitor this season.

“We have some strong players so we should be good this year,” Shannon said. “We're going to be practicing hard and making sure everyone knows what to do. We'll do a lot of cardio practice so we'll be in shape.

The District 4 schedule gets underway on September 25.

The Royals will play their first five games on the road.

They will play their first home games at CDDHS on October 16.