Turkey Shootout loads up with local teams

While many will spend Friday morning shopping 'til they drop, local basketball teams will be dropping down the shots.

Kofa will host the first girl's basketball Turkey Shootout this Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The tournament will feature Antelope, Gila Ridge, Yuma High and Yuma Catholic as well as host Kofa against visiting 4A programs Prescott-Bradshaw Mountain and Tucson-Santa Rita.

The Turkey Shootout replaces Kofa's annual Holiday Hoops tournament that took place the Friday and Saturday prior to Christmas. Kofa coach Eric Krepps said the district's school schedule led to the change.

"We used to get off the Thursday before Christmas break so that set up the holiday tournament perfectly," Krepps said. "Then they changed the calendar so we have to go to school all the way through Friday. We decided to move it to Thanksgiving where we could play Friday and Saturday and everything could flow from there."

Krepps said he expects the change to be a permanent one, even if the district reverts to the past calendar. That's because in the past, tournaments like the Thanksgiving Shootout would count toward a team's power points. This season, only AIA games will count toward power points.

"That means I can play four games that will count toward my record only and not hurt my power points," Krepps said. "That was another factoring decision (in moving the event)."

The tournament will open with pool play with Antelope, Gila Ridge, Lake Havasu and Yuma making up the first pool. The second pool will feature Bradshaw Mountain, Kofa, Santa Rita and Yuma Catholic.

The event will conclude with a matchup of each pool's respective finishers, including a championship match between the No. 1 teams from the first and second pools.

Though school sizes and records factored into the matchups, Krepps said it was difficult using that as the only factor.

"We looked at it when we were making pools trying to put strong versus strong on different sides. But we played Yuma four or five times last year and we played Gila Ridge five times so we wanted to mix it up," Krepps said.

But Kofa's biggest competition may not be another team in the tournament. The Kings' coach admitted that he doesn't know how the tournament will compete with Black Friday sales.

"I haven't been able the last couple years to shop on the Friday, so it doesn't matter to me," Krepps said. "The sales are usually done by 10 o'clock, so nobody should have a problem getting to the gym."