Holiday tournaments headed this way

With the holidays on the near horizon, so too is the long-standing tradition of holiday sports tournaments between Christmas and New Years. Hockey and basketball take center stage over the break, but there are also scattered wrestling meets and a few ski meets — weather permitting — during the break.

Following are some of the holiday highlights:

Hockey

The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team will open play in the Heritage Holiday Classic in Duluth against Apple Valley at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 27. Other teams in the eight-team Heritage Holiday classic include Duluth Denfeld, Irondale, Anoka, Mankato West, Park and Owatonna. Thursday and Friday’s games will depend on wins and losses during the tournament.

The Lumberjacks girl’s hockey team will not be playing in any holiday tournaments. The CEC girls finished pre-holiday tournament action Thursday against Pine City. They are off until Friday, Jan, 5, when they play at Osseo.

The Moose Lake Area boys hockey team will play in the three-day holiday tournament in Ely against St. Paul Johnson, Kittson County Central and Ely. The Rebel girls hockey team travels to International Falls on Dec. 28.

Basketball

Once again, Cloquet will host the annual Wood City Tournament on both the boys and girls side. The boys tournament will have Cloquet facing Cromwell-Wright Wednesday and then Pine City on Thursday. After playing Cloquet, the Cardinals will face Mesabi East Thursday.

The girls portion of Wood City will have Cloquet meeting Mesabi East Wednesday and Rock Ridge on Thursday. Cromwell-Wright will match up with Rock Ridge Wednesday and will face Mesabi East Thursday. All Wood City Tournament games will be played at Cloquet Middle School.

The Esko Classic basketball tournament will be held on Dec. 28-29 in Esko. The girls tournament this year will feature Esko, Foley, Hermantown, and Bloomington Kennedy, while the boys will see Esko, Duluth Marshall, East Central and Hinckley-Finlayson come to town.

The Barnum boys travel to Braham on Dec. 28 in a battle of the Bombers, while the girls team plays in the Chisholm holiday tournament along with Duluth Denfeld and Hinckley-Finlayson.

The Moose Lake/Willow River boys basketball team is in action during the break as they travel to Pequot Lakes to face both Pequot and Mora in the two-day Patriot Holiday Invitational. The ML/WR girls team will play in the Aitkin holiday tournament along with the host Gobblers, North Woods and Ogilvie starting Dec. 28.

South Ridge boys will take the court on Dec 29-30 in the Chisholm holiday classic along with Northwoods, Chisholm and West Lutheran. The Panthers girls will travel to Walker to play in a tournament against Warren-Alvarado-Oslo, Park Rapids, and the host Walker-Hackensack-Akeley.

The FDL boys team will be busy this Thursday and Friday. They will play in Sebeka in a pre-holiday tournament with Sebeka, New York Mills and Oglivie. The Ogichidaa will then play in Crosby Dec. 28-30 alongside Crosby-Ironton, Proctor and Deer River.