There will be some net-cutting late Saturday night at the Goshen High School gym and Redskin basketball boys hope to be those brandishing the scissors.

The honors go to champions of the revived Goshen holiday tournament to be played on Friday and Saturday nights.

The opener at 6 p.m. Friday matches the 5-2 Lakeland Lakers and 3-1 Elkhart Memorial Crimson Chargers. Goshen’s 6-1 Redskins battle the 4-4 Michigan City Wolves at about 7:45.

Times are the same Saturday with consolation game at 6 and championship at 7:45.

This will be the 42nd holiday tournament to be played at the current Goshen gymnasium over the last 47 years.

The inaugural was during the 1961-62 season and it was an annual through 1999-2000.

A Northern Lakes Conference tournament was held over the holidays for five years, but never caught on with fans and was discontinued following the 2004-05 event.

That led to the Goshen holiday tournament being restored for the 2005-06 season and the new era is now in its third year.

The current Redskins haven’t played for two weeks, being idle since losing to Northridge on Friday and defeating Fairfield on Saturday, Dec. 14 and 15.

GHS coach Brian Bechtel said, “We took five days off just to get a mental break away from the every-day routine. But, the players did some workouts of their own.

“Now we have gone Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. It seems like the guys are fresh and I was pleased to see them so sharp the day after Christmas.

“This holiday tournament is among our progressive goals as the season goes along.

“We accomplished our first goal of having a winning record before Christmas. And now our next goal is winning this tournament. We want to cut down some nets Saturday night.”

The Redskins haven’t cut nets since the 1997-98 season when a team coached by the late Mike Sorrell defeated Wawasee and NorthWood for the holiday tourney crown.

Goshen players that season were Jon Swartz, Thomas Kline, Phil Mikel, Tom Hoogenboom, Josh Kurtz, Scott Defrees, David Rossi, Justin Kincaid, Josh Keister, Aaron Faulkner, Ben Penwell, Mitch Mast and Andrew Bushong.

“Our tournament field is tough, one of the stronger ones around,” said Bechtel. “Michigan City has the worst record, but is a good team and has probably the best player in the tournament.”

That would be 6-8 senior Jarrod Jones who averaged 18 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season for a Michigan City team which went 8-13.

Bob Buscher, formerly at Chesterton, is in his first year coaching the Wolves.

“Jones is mainly a post player,” said Bechtel. “The night I scouted Michigan City, there were a lot of Division I coaches there to watch him. We haven’t seen anyone with his kind of wing span.”

Other MC starters are 5-9 junior point guard Adam Harmon, 5-9 senior Stephen Ward, 6-0 senior Chance Nelson and 6-2 junior forward Brandon Pawloski. Three more seniors are top reserves for the Wolves.

“Ward and Nelson can hit outside shots,” said Bechtel. “Harmon is their primary ball handler and best all around player. Nelson is their only player to score double figures in every game.

“You can’t look at Michigan City’s record. They play in a tough (Duneland) conference which plays a double round-robin for financial reasons.”

Goshen has battled some sickness over the holidays, primarily 5-10 senior Josh Randall and 6-0 senior Ryan Bartley, But, both appear ready to go for this tournament.

“They will pressure us, so we must handle the ball,” said Bechtel. “We need to draw some fouls and utilize the free-throw line.

“We’re 6-1, but there’s plenty to improve on. We got stagnant that last weekend on offense. We have put in some new wrinkles and worked on our execution to jump-start us.

“We have played good defense, but you’re never perfect there and Michigan City will be a challenge with Jones in the middle.”

Bartley is joined in the Redskin lineup by 6-2 junior Ethan Hussey, 6-1 senior Cam Snyder, 6-6 senior Nathan Stegelmann and 6-2 junior Marshall Crawford.

Randall comes off the bench with 6-1 senior Brad Sink, 5-10 senior Jordan Short, 5-9 junior Alex Aguilar and 6-1 junior Brock Bender.

Goshen will be playing a Michigan City team for the first time in 33 seasons.

In 1971, Michigan City split into Elston and Rogers high schools. That didn’t last many years and now the town again has just one high school.

Long-time Goshen fans certainly remember some classic games during the 1960s when a pair of Hall of Fame coaches, Art Cosgrove of the Redskins and Doug Adams of the Michigan City Red Devils, were prowling the sidelines.

Michigan City came to town as the state’s No. 1 team in January of 1963 and was upset by Cosgrove’s Redskins, 67-64.

Randy Saal, Ron Miller, Fred Hostetler, Doug Smith and John Corporon started for that GHS team which was ranked as high as No. 5 in the state and finished with a 24-2 record.

The 1968-69 Redskins also defeated a highly-touted Michigan City team, 80-62. Goshen was 21-5 that winter, winning the program’s only regional crown in the last 78 years.

John Ritter scored 21 points for GHS that night 39 years ago, Dave Webster 18, Rex Lehman 16, Darwin Hoogenboom 13 and John Westfall 12.

Michigan City Rogers played in the Goshen holiday tournament in 1971-72, but didn’t face the Redskins. The Raiders lost to Wawasee and Fort Wayne Luers.