With the start of the Junior Basketball season, there's a lot of excitement among the players, but also some nervousness in making the jump from elementary.  A preseason tournament was held on Monday night to give the kids their first exposure to the high school game.

The preseason tournament has been around for about five years now and it works as a way to get players accustomed to the pace of the game before the games actually count.  “As soon as these kids make the transition from elementary to high school, it's a different level of ball, so this will hopefully get rid of some of the jitters,” said junior league commissioner Martin Holzer.

Five of the six boys teams took part with Riverview getting the night off and all five girls teams were on the court at Peacock Collegiate for three boys and three girls games.

With the team's just starting to practice last Monday, it's hard to tell which ones would be favourites this season, but Peacock fielded a strong team on both the boys and girls side as the Toilers went 2-0 in both.

“There are some teams that are going to be stronger than others because of the amount of boys from the elementary schools that have come to them and it's the same

with the girls,” said Holzer.

He adds that the main thing teams need to work on right now is ball control, “There were so many turnovers.  My team (the Peacock boys) for example in the last game, were going 100 miles per hour and forgot to bring the ball with them, so it's just a matter of getting them to relax and play the game.”

The Peacock boys had a dominating two games, beating Caronport, 71-23, and Craik, 67-16.  The other boys game had Central knocking off Vanier, 51-28.  The Toiler girls also picked up two big wins, beating Central, 38-19, and Caronport, 48-8.  The other girls game had Riverview/Cornerstone just getting by Vanier, 36-35.

The regular season gets underway next Monday.