<I>The Eagle</I><BR>Panther senior George Wickhorst takes the ball down court during Prairie City's win over Arlington on Nov. 30, 2007.

PRAIRIE CITY – The Prairie City basketball team will start the 2008-09 season this weekend.

The Panthers are hosting their annual Tip-Off Tournament Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5-6. Games begin at 3 p.m. Friday and 12 p.m. Saturday.

The tournament, which has been held for nearly 20 years, will include boys and girls teams from Prairie City, Grant Union, Burnt River and North Lake.

Grant Union’s junior varsity teams also will play. Prairie City’s girls face Grant Union at 6 p.m. Friday and the boys play at 7:30.

The Panther boys took first in the tournament last year, defeating North Lake 63-47 in the championship game. The Prairie City girls team finished in third place at the tournament last year.

Prairie City athletic director and boys basketball coach Ryan Gerry said he is excited about the tournament.

“The tournament preparation is going well,” Gerry said. “All the teams are scheduled to be here. The Grant Union JV kind of stepped in and filled a gap we had when Arlington couldn’t come.”

The Panther boys basketball team was 13-11 overall and 8-6 in the High Desert League in 2007-08. Gerry said his team should be ready for the coming tournament.

“We’ve actually had 13 practices, and we’ll have had 16 by the time the tournament starts,” Gerry said. “With football ending early we’ve had plenty of time to practice and prepare. We have a lot of good players returning, but we’re going to be a young team. We’ll have to see what we can do.”

The Prairie City girls lost two players to graduation last season, but have 12 players returning. The Panthers were a young team last year, and are expected to improve this season. They finished 6-17 overall and 4-10 in the HDL last season.

Penny Black will return as the lady Panthers’ coach in 2008.