By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  Days after their third-place finish at the Capital City Classic, the Stayton Boys Basketball team were first to get into the gym Monday to prepare for the SCTC Tournament Wednesday where they’ll play the late game of the day versus 3A’s Scio.

Though still full from Christmas dinner, the Eagles put in a good day’s work on the court Monday morning.

“I think it went a lot better coming off a tournament that we beat ourselves in,” said Aidan Hill. “It’s good to come out and focus on the things that we struggled on during that three-day tournament and focus on what’s going make us come out and defend our home court when we’re hosting the holiday tournament and not let anyone take that top prize from us.”

For the Girls, who came to the court Monday night, it was a nice little break from competition the last week and a half due to weather and the Christmas Holiday; but now it’s back to work themselves as they too play host to Scio the game before the guys at 6pm.

“It feels so nice to get back into the gym, it gets me pumped up for this week’s game,” said Alexa Bender.  “That and it feels real nice to get back into the groove of things.  It’s super fun, it’s my favorite time of the year.  We’re really hoping to take the ‘Ship this year.”

There’s a sense of fun and excitement as on the guys side:  A resurgent Woodburn team comes with a tough Blanchet Catholtic team, a Amity squad that lost once so far, La Grande makes the trek from Northeast Oregon bolstering their 6-0 record.  Sweet Home and Yamhill-Carlton too are taking part of the guys bracket.

On the girls end, they too host tough teams in Amity and Blanchet.  Amity sits 4-2 and Blanchet at 4-1. Sweet Home, YC, Tillamook and Woodburn too are in the field.

Hill points to that it helps with additional Varsity experience with the youth that they have this year on the guys team.

“It feels good, it definitely gives you more experience on the Varsity level for Kaleb (Anundi), Riley (Nichol) and all those guys who haven’t had gotten a lot of Varsity minutes yet with not many last year,” said Hill.  “So it’s good to come out with a big crowd and a lot of more high-intensity teams that come and play a few that gives you a little more experience.”

For seniors like Cade Nau and Tess Hendricks, they know how much of a big deal it is as they play the Tournament one last time in the Stayton uniforms.

“Obviously I want to win the tournament, it’s been a long time since we won our own tournament, so going into it, it’s a pretty big deal to me,” said Nau.  “I’m pretty excited to play in it because this year I think we have a great chance of winning it and it’s a feeling that I’ve never had before, so I’m excited.”

Hendricks was a sophomore when the girls won it all and described that feeling as a great accomplishment as she enters her last go-around in the bracket play.

“It makes me want to go out there and win it,” Hendricks said about her last SCTC Tournament appearance.  “I mean we did it my sophomore year, so I don’t doubt that we can do it again this year.”

Both teams will squeeze in one more practice Tuesday before bracket play starts Wednesday morning at Stayton High School.

To view the Boys bracket, click here:  http://www.wvi.com/~dnielson/forms/2016StaytonBoysBracket.pdf

To view the girls bracket click here:  http://www.wvi.com/~dnielson/forms/2016StaytonGirlsBracket.pdf .

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Photos of Boys and Girls Monday Practice (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)