Tonight is the first of two meetings between the West Central Valley varsity girls basketball team and one of their league rivals in just over a week time frame. The Iowa High School Athletic Union last week released the regional brackets for the first three classes of girls basketball teams; the West Central Valley Wildcats found out they were put in the Class 2A Region 7 bracket, opening their playoff run against West Central Activites Conference member Earlham on Saturday, February 9 in Earlham. The only regular-season meeting between the Wildcats and Cardinals takes place tonight in Earlham. The Raccoon Vally Radio Network spoke with West Central Valley girls basketball coach Drew Stonewall about drawing Earlham in the postseason opener, and he says it’s always fun playing the Cardinals. “They’re a rival, 10 to 15 minutes drive (from Stuart), so that makes it fun,” Stonewall said, “There will be a lot of people there and I happy about that. It’ll be kind of weird playing them twice in eight days, but a few years we played them back to back.”

The stretch Stonewall is referring to came in February 2016 when the Wildcats topped the Cardinals twice in four days. West Central Valley closed the regular season on February 9 with a 64-40 victory and followed up with a 47-32 win in the regional opener February 13 in Stuart. Tonight’s West Central Activites Conference doubleheader between West Central Valley and Earlham starts with the varsity girls game at 6 p.m. and the boys’ contest to follow from Earlham High School.