Chester, Steeleville preparing for S-V Holiday Tournament

Now entering its 37th year, the double-elimination Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament appears to be as wide open as ever.

Perennial tournament contender Woodlawn, Goreville and defending champion Christopher were named as the top three seeds, while sixth-seeded Chester and seventh-seeded Steeleville will also strive to achieve some holiday hardware.

Other seeds are tournament host Sesser-Valier (4th), Cobden (6th) and Johnston City (8th).

Chester (7-3) will have to shake off the Christmas Day rust quickly, as it opens the tournament with a 9 a.m. game against unseeded New Athens on Tuesday. The winner would get the victor of Christopher and Galatia-Thompsonville at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 27 in the quarterfinals.

"The matchups seem to favor us in that particular bracket, especially if the point guard for Christopher is out," said Chester coach Brad Norman. "That being said, Christopher is still going to compete and play hard."

Norman was referring to 6-foot-5 Bearcat Jared Curry, who had an MRI on his injured knee on Dec. 15 that wasn't scheduled to be looked at by doctors until last Wednesday.

But before a potential matchup with its Black Diamond Conference foe, Chester will still have to deal with the challenge of a early game the day after Christmas at a place more than an hour's drive away.

The Yellow Jackets are scheduled to depart from Chester High School at 7:25 a.m. on Tuesday. New Athens's drive time is similar.

"The more we win, the later we'll start to play, so that may be the motivation factor to key on," Norman said. "Taking care of business is the most important part, to set yourself up to be more successful later in the week."

Steeleville (5-5) has a different challenge in facing Century at noon on Tuesday, with the winner getting either Goreville or Marissa-Coulterville at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 27.

The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dec. 29.

"It's anybody's ballgame," said Steeleville coach Aaron Fiene. "I don't want to look past Century, but I'll get a scouting report on Goreville."

The Warriors are coming off a loss to state-ranked Okawville, and also played a 7-1 Harrisburg team in their first contest of the season as part of the Murphysboro/Trico tournament.

"We're starting to gel right now, we had a tough loss to Okawville, but our guards are starting to handle the ball better," Fiene said. "The biggest thing is we're starting to establish the two big guys (Noah Valleroy and Eli Wittenborn) down low and once we do that consistently, I think we're going to be a handful."