The road to Provincials starts with a road trip to Terrace, as both the Charles Hays Junior and Senior Rainmaker Boy's teams see action on this weekend.
The Caledonia gymnasium is the host venue for the season opening tip off with the Senior Boys in action tonight at 7:30 against Mount Elizabeth from Kitimat and on Saturday against the Kermodes as the Northwest season launch of the 2018-19 campaign gets underway.
The Senior Rainmakers will be looking to the Terrace trip to give them an evaluation of their work so far in the early stages of the basketball season, what they learn from the competition of this weekend, will come in handy in six days time when they head south to take part in the high profile Vancouver area, Quinn Keast No Regrets Tournament from December 6 to 9.
One night earlier on December 5th, the Rainmakers will tune up for the tournament with a game at Collingwood.
The Vancouver tournament makes for the first opportunity to put their skills up against some top end Lower mainland and Vancouver Island talent, and while a few years ago the Rainmakers might have arrived as a bit of an unknown, their past performances at provincials and other Lower mainland tournaments means that they come to town as a team that others look forward to measuring up with.
Add in some additional notoriety for the Rainmakers this year with Liam McChesney having recently made a splash in basketball circles with his commitment to Utah State and Ryan Bishop's squad won't be flying under the radar on those trips south anymore.
Hometown fans won't have their first opportunity to see the 2019 version of the Rainmakers until mid December, when Caledonia comes to town on December 14th.
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Over on the Junior side, Kevin Sawka's Rainmaker team is on the court this evening as they take on the Caledonia Junior Boys tonight at 5:30 at the Skeena Middle School gymnasium.
Like the Seniors, the Junior squad has created their own buzz over the last number of years with regular appearances in the Provincial tournament at year end and strong results at regional tournaments through the year.
There will be some additional incentive for the Juniors this year to go the distance to Provincials, last years team had their shot at a provincial title knocked out by winter weather, with a heavy snowstorm disrupting their travel plans to the point of having to cancel out of the season finale.
The Junior Boys will also have a lengthy road stretch ahead of them heading to Prince George next weekend and then Kitimat of the 15th.
They finally play on the home court at Charles Hays on December 21st when they take part in the Rainmaker Alumni tournament.
Both teams will be looking to make sure that when March comes around there is representation from the North Coast.
With a turn of the calendar page into December that trail to Langley starts anew and the road to Langley begins appropriately enough on the road.
As the season moves forward, you can find more notes on the Rainmakers and other Northwest schools from our archive page here.
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