Basketball Jamboree Off, But Wrestling Will Be On

The ice storm that closed area schools for three days last week has frozen out the annual All-Valley basketball jamborees, which was scheduled next week.

But season-opening wrestling duals, which will find the four Valley teams at University High School on Thursday, will go on as scheduled in the form of a jamboree.

By giving the matches a jamboree designation, wrestlers who have completed 10 of 12 scheduled practices are allowed six minutes of competition.

The schools will have more available bodies as a result. West Valley, for instance, would have had only six wrestlers eligible to compete, and Central Valley would have had eight. There are 14 individual matches per team competition.

“The nice thing is it doesn’t count toward match limitations,” said Central Valley activities coordinator Jay Rydell. “It would cost a school two matches and now it doesn’t cost anything.”

Wrestlers from CV and U-Hi will go three one-minute rounds each against West Valley and East Valley.

“Coaches might want to do it this way every year,” said Rydell. “If I were counting matches I’d think seriously of doing it.”

The basketball jamboree, which pits Valley schools against each other in 10-minute quarters, has not been particularly serious competition nor has it been a spectator-driven event.

“Trying to find a date to move it and get enough practices in was an issue,” said Rydell.

“Some coaches felt practice time would be more advantageous to them.”

First regular season basketball games are Friday. By then, teams will have completed the required number of practices.

, DataTimes