The winter sports season gets underway today with league swimming meets, wrestling tournaments and a hefty schedule of non-league basketball games.
The top swim meet sends two of last season’s top three Wyoming Valley Conference girls teams against each other when Tunkhannock is at Dallas.
All four swim meets are boys and girls meets.
The other meets have Valley View at Abington Heights and West Scranton at Scranton in the Lackawanna League and Lake-Lehman at Wyoming Valley West in the other WVC meet.
Crestwood is in the DKI Wrestling Tournament in Bloomsburg, Delaware Valley is in the Kickoff Classic at Cumberland Valley and Hazleton Area is in the Top Hat Tournament in Williamsport.
The basketball schedules features 17 games each involving District 2 boys and girls teams in a mixture of tournaments, showcases and non-league games.
The Carbondale girls are the first to take the court, playing in the Lake Region Tip-Off Tournament at Wallenpaupack, a combined girls-boys event with four games.
The Chargerettes face Stroudsburg at 4 p.m., followed by the Wallenpaupack girls against East Stroudsburg North at 5:30.
After Monticello, N.Y. and Nazareth play at 7 in the boys opener, the host Buckhorns take the court in the last game of the night, playing Stroudsburg at 8:30.
The first boys game is Montrose at Mid Valley in a varsity only contest at 5 p.m.
The boys schedule includes the Susquehanna-Bradford County Challenge at Sayre, the Joe Nespoli Tournament at Berwick, MMI Prep playing in the Sullivan County Tournament and the Michael “Red” Wallace Memorial Scholarship Game.
Blue Ridge plays defending District 4 Class 2A champion Wyalusing Valley at 6, followed by Susquehanna against Sayre in the Susquehanna-Bradford County Challenge.
Delaware Valley plays East Stroudsburg South at 6, followed by host Berwick taking on Northwest in the Nespoli Tournament.
MMI Prep returns from a year off for COVID precautions to play Troy in the opener of the Sullivan County Tournament.
Elk Lake is at Carbondale in the 44th Wallace Game.
The game honors Wallace, a member of the original Boston Celtics, who played at Fell Township, now a part of Carbondale Area School District, and coached Elk Lake to two PIAA state championships.
Three defending champion and highly regarded girls teams leave the area to open the season.
Defending Lackawanna League Division 3 champion Dunmore opens the season as the No. 1 Big School girls team in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings on NEPABasketball.com, but first the Lady Bucks will test themselves on a national level.
Dunmore plays Riverdale Baptist from Maryland at 7:20 in the She Got Game Classic at St. James Sports Wellness and Entertainment Complex in Springfield, Va.
The She Got Game Classic is being held in four regions around the country and Dunmore is participating in two games as part of the DMV (D.C.-Maryland-Virginia) regional.
Abington Heights, the defending District 2 Class 5A champ, plays West Chester Rustin at 5 p.m. in the Jim Church Classic at Souderton in the Philadelphia suburbs.
The Lady Comets are ranked fourth among Big Schools in the Super Six.
Western Wayne, the third-ranked Small School and defending Lackawanna League Division 2 champion, plays the host team at 7 in the State College Tournament.
Also, Holy Redeemer is playing Blue Mountain in the Selinsgrove Tournament. The Lady Royals open the season as the No. 6 Big School team.
Wyoming Area plays Mahanoy Area in the opener of the Central Columbia Tournament.
Lake-Lehman, the defending Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champion and No. 3 Big School to open the season, is part of the Hazleton Area Tip-Off Tournament.
After Lake-Lehman plays Nazareth, host Hazleton Area takes on Williamsport.
The non-league boys schedule is highlighted by Crestwood at Scranton in a game between defending champions of the two biggest classifications on the district level and the top divisions of the two local leagues.
WVC Division 1 and District 2 Class 5A champion Crestwood closed last season as the top team in the Super Six. Scranton, the defending Lackawanna Division 1 and District 2 Class 6A champion, opens this season as the No. 1 team.
The rest of the non-league boys schedule is: Wilkes-Barre Area at Scranton Prep, Wyoming Valley West at Riverside, Lakeland at Valley View, Tunkhannock at Wyoming Seminary, Nanticoke at North Pocono, West Scranton at Dunmore, Mountain View at Holy Cross and Wyoming Area at Lackawanna Trail.
The non-league girls schedule has No. 6 Small School Wyoming Seminary at No. 5 Big School Wilkes-Barre Area in the first basketball game at the new Wilkes-Barre Area school.
The remainder of the non-league girls schedule is: Scranton at Holy Cross, Riverside at Hanover Area, Valley View at Montrose, Mid Valley at Mountain View, West Scranton at Old Forge, North Schuylkill at Nanticoke and Wyalusing Valley at Susquehanna.
