With a shortened and altered season behind them after the final regular season games being played this week, the Clinton County Lady Bulldogs and Bulldogs will put those games behind them and head into next week’s 16th District Tournament as post-season play gets underway across Kentucky.

This year’s 16th District Tournament will be played at Cumberland County High School and due to COVID-19 restrictions and precautions, tournament organizers went with extra measures to attempt to protect those attending next week’s tournament by holding only one game per day, thus stretching the tournament out into a six-day long event.

There will be no sales of admittance to the general public this year, again due to COVID-19 restrictions, with each player and the player’s respective families, receiving a small number of admittance allotments.

School officials have urged the general public to respect the special restrictions in place during this pandemic year, and have asked that players and families not be pushed to place them on their admittance allotment lists.

The tournament will begin with a Clinton County – Cumberland County boys’ varsity matchup on Sunday afternoon, March 14, slated for a 3:00 p.m. start.

Boys first round action will continue on Monday evening when Russell County, the No. 2 seeded squad in the 16th District, goes up against the No. 3 seeded Metcalfe County Hornets in opening round play set to get underway at 6:00 p.m.

The boys’ championship game will be played on Thursday, March 18, at 7:00 p.m.

Girls play next week will see the Clinton County Lady Bulldogs, seeded No. 3, taking on the No. 2 seeded team, the Lady Hornets of Metcalfe County in a Wednesday, March 17 first round game, set to start at 6:00 p.m.

In the other first round girls’ tournament game, top seeded Russell County will take on the No. 4 seeded and host team Cumberland County on Tuesday, March 16, also getting underway at 6:00 p.m.

The girls’ championship contest in 16th District Tournament play is set to get underway at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 19.

The general public can watch the games through a live-stream computer arrangement set up by Cumberland County High School.

Details of that live-stream link can be found on the Cumberland County High School Facebook page.

Clinton County games can also be listened to on local radio station WANY (100.9 FM) with play by play and color commentary by Sid Scott II and Lynn Scott Starnes.

Of course, all of next week’s 16th District action is the first tier to tournament play going on across Kentucky and leads up to the next level of competition, regional tournament play, in our case the 4th Region Tournament action.

This year’s regional play has also been altered somewhat due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with first round games being hosted by the four respective district champion schools.

Boys’ regional first round games will be played on Sunday, March 21, again at the site of the four district winner’s schools, then moving to Diddle Arena at Bowling Green’s Western Kentucky University on March 22, March 23, and a championship game on Wednesday, March 24.

Girls’ regional action takes a similar path, with first round games being hosted at the four district winner’s locations on Thursday, March 25, followed by a move to Diddle Arena for second round games on Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, with the championship game on Sunday, March 28.

COVID-19 has taken “March Madness” to an all new level, for sure, but in the end, we’ve at least reached a point in the year that many fans weren’t sure we’d even see in 2021 – the post-season tournament run.

Throw up the rock and Go Big Blue – it’s tournament time in Kentucky.