The offseason conditioning and skill development and three weeks of basketball practice in November are over. Junction City High School boys and girls basketball teams host Dodge City tonight ( Friday night )  at the Shenk Gym.

Blue Jay boys head coach Nick Perez is ready for his team to play an opponent. “We’re excited. I think the kids are ready to play. I’m always nervous because it’s always the first one and what happened last year with Dodge, and all of a sudden it was 14-0 we had to use two timeouts.” Despite the early deficit the Blue Jays came back to win that ballgame.

The Lady Jays will have a young team this season with only two juniors and one new senior on the squad. Coach Derek Petty anticipates Dodge City playing mostly man to man defense. “They’ll pick up full court every now and then as a surprise, but I think mostly they want to be a half court man and offensive team.”

You can hear both games on KJCK AM 1420 and FM 107.9 beginning at 6 p.m.