Siskiyou Youth and PremierWest Bank are sponsoring the 2008 Basketball Challenge for all varsity basketball teams that Siskiyou Youth covers: Yreka, Mt. Shasta, Etna, Weed, Dunsmuir, and Happy Camp. The winning team’s players and coaching staff will receive custom made “Team of the Year” T-shirts designed by Golden Grotto.

The winner of the challenge will be the girls or boys team that is most successful during the 2008-09 season, which is defined as the team that advances the furthest in the North Section CIF playoffs. The challenge will end at the finish of the section playoffs and does not include any state playoff games because Division-VI teams (Dunsmuir and Happy Camp) are not eligible for state playoffs. Tiebreakers also do not include state playoff games.

If two or more teams reach the same point in the playoffs, the tiebreakers are as follows:

1. Best overall record (winning percentage).

2. Least points allowed per game.

3. Biggest point differential per game.

4. Team with best record in its division (winning percentage).

5. Coin flip.

For instance, last season the Yreka boys, Yreka girls, and the Happy Camp girls all reached the section championship game and lost. Based on the first tiebreaker, the team of the year award would have gone to the Happy Camp Lady Indians with a .714 winning percentage (15-6). The Yreka girls would have been second (.696/16-7), and the Yreka boys would have been third (.308/8-18).

Please note that the Challenge is not meant to determine the best basketball team, only the team with the most successful season. It’s a rare day when any Division-VI team beats any Division IV team on the court. It can happen, but the odds aren’t good.

What the challenge does do is fill a gap. It’s not unusual for one of the teams listed above to have a very good season, but not win its league because they are playing against schools that are much larger and a division higher. Or, the team runs into a private school during the playoffs that has an unfair advantage in obtaining players. And, of course, there are the public schools that are pretty much sports “factories” that “attract” players from nearby cities. It’s tough to compete against those types of schools.

The Siskiyou Youth – PremierWest Basketball Challenge is a way for a successful team to get the recognition it deserves.

The standings for the challenge will be updated on the Siskiyou Youth website each Wednesday and Saturday (Sunday if games are played on Saturday), as well as by Rick Martin on NorCal Classic Hits radio 102.3/101.7 on Wednesday and Monday mornings. The first update will be Sunday, December 7.

Good luck to all the teams.