'Tis season for tourneys

They will play, they say, because playing beats practice.

That -- and a chance to see some different faces -- sums up why most of the county's eight teams will be competing in holiday tournaments. "It's hard to practice all through the holidays," said Bruce Nelson, who will take his Citrus girls to the LadyCat Invitational at Ocala Forest.

"It's hard to continue to play well and stay active if you just practice," he said. "This way they get to play teams they normally don't get to play. It's just a little more fun for the kids."

The LadyCat, Thursday-Saturday, is one of the better girls tournaments in the state and features two teams from the Virgin Islands and another from Tennessee.

Citrus, which was the tourney runner-up in 1994, opens with the winner of the Forest-Lake Weir game Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

"There are great teams from all over the place, and we get to see competition we don't see locally," Nelson said.

"It's good for us to see those teams and to try to execute against teams that are really quick and can jump. We're looking forward to testing ourselves against them."

How the squads find their way into their respective tournaments is an interesting story in itself.

The Hurricanes have been going to the Forest tourney for more than a decade.

Lecanto used to have its own tournament, then opted to attend competitions in nearby Pasco County. Crystal River, meanwhile, has taken an annual trip to Tallahassee Maclay for six years.

But this season, due to budget restraints at Crystal River, the Pirates were forced to give up their journey to the Panhandle.

So coach Norris Lightsey and Lecanto coach Ron Allan, a close friend of Lightsey's, agreed to switch tournaments. Now, it's the Panthers who will go to Tallahassee, while the Pirates travel south to the River Ridge Holiday Tournament in Pasco.

"Our school administration decided there would not be any more overnight trips for athletics," Lightsey said. "So, I asked Ron if he wanted to swap because I didn't want to go through two weeks without a ball game."

Allan jumped on the chance to help out a friend and give his girls a little holiday surprise.

"It's a little different deal for us," Allan said. "Usually, during Christmas, we don't really travel.

"It just so happened this year that River Ridge called us and wanted us to go down there," he said. "Then the thing happened with Maclay. We decided that if we could flip it, we could save both tournament directors a headache trying to find someone else."

Three of the four boys programs are in action during the break. Seven Rivers attended the Master's Academy Christmas Classic, Dec. 20-22 in Oviedo.

Crystal River will be going to Keystone Heights, and Lecanto will travel to Gainesville Buchholz for a four-team tourney starting Friday.

Citrus will compete in Orlando Bishop Moore's Hornet Holiday Classic, which features eight squads -- most from the Orlando area.

"I think it's a real good tourney," Hurricanes coach Jimmy Thomas said. "It's mostly larger schools, and we want to go over and play the stronger teams."

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