Tri-County Fantasy Basketball

Fantasy sports are a big deal these days. You can't watch Sports Center, listen to sports talk radio or look on the Internet without stumbling across some mention of fantasy sports of some kind.

With that in mind, we've decided to hold our own little fantasy basketball tournament at Tri-County newspapers with the basketball greats of the past participating on all-star teams from the Tri-County area.

Here's how it will work. There are 12 basketball-playing schools in the Tri-County area - Mercy, Los Molinos, Hamilton, Corning, Orland, Princeton, Elk Creek, Willows, Maxwell, Williams, Pierce and Colusa. We'll pick a 10-player all-star squad from each school, selecting the greatest players in school history. You'll see Honker greats Steve Spooner and Daryl Adams on the same team. In Orland, Myron Erickson will share the court with Erik Nielsen. In Corning, Darren Nye will be feeding passes to Mark Acre and in Colusa, you just might see Leo Steidlmayer giving an assist to son Eric.

One the teams are selected, we'll set up a tournament bracket with Corning, Colusa, Willows and Orland, the four largest schools, each getting a first-round bye.

Then we'll write stories about each game. Mind you, it will be purely fiction, but we'll try and base our game action and final results on the abilities and the history of the players involved. Remember, it's all in good fun so you won't see anyone missing a last-second shot and turning the ball over at a crucial time. However there may be a game-winning shot or two.

The winners will move on until we've pared down the tournament to a Final Four. Thats where you, the reader, will join in.

Once the Final Four has been determined, our readers will be asked to go on to the Internet to the newspaper website and vote for the team they think should win the Tri-County Fantasy Tournament. The team that gets the most votes will win the tournament, but you'll have to buy the next issue to read about the semifinal games and the championship event.

The tournament begins on December 28 with the announcement of the starting lineups and the first eight games of the tournament. Voting will be held from Dec. 28 through Jan. 2 with the semifinal and final games to appear in the Jan. 4 edition of Sports Friday.

We'll even pick an all-tournament team and have box scores so that you can see how your favorite all-time greats performed.

So check out the Tri-County Fantasy Basketball Tournament starting on December 28 and go online then to vote for your favorite team.

Until then, have a Merry Christmas.