By Ray Hamill — It’s been’s a difficult preseason for several local basketball teams, with sickness taking a toll on preparations.

And that includes the Arcata girls, who finally managed to have a full complement of players on the practice court on Tuesday after a few weeks of setbacks.

“We had our 21st practice yesterday and it was the first practice that all of my players were able to attend,” head coach Dough Oliveira said. “It’s been a bizarre preseason.”

The Tigers are off to a 1-0 start after a 65-45 win at Hoopa a couple of weeks ago and they will host their annual tournament this week, with the action getting under on Wednesday night and running through Friday.

The tournament is one of three here on the North Coast this week, with the McKinleyville boys and College of the Redwoods men also hosting tournaments.

The Arcata tournament will feature four local teams, including the host school, McKinleyville, Fortuna and Hoopa.

Hoopa plays McKinleyville at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by Arcata and Fortuna at 7:30 p.m.

Two Redding schools, Enterprise and Foothill, were supposed to join the action on Thursday, but will not be able to make the trip because of the expected storms.

Because of that, the tournament has been reformatted and will now feature three days of round robin action between the four local schools.

Last year, the Tigers placed second in the Big 5 with a record of 5-3 (17-10 overall), with two of their three league losses coming against league champion Eureka.

This year’s team features a core group of experienced returning players who will be expected to lead the challenge, including seniors Lily Rust-Kelley and Caroline Dieker, along with influential juniors Nora Talty, Alia Prentiss and Melanie Luh.

Sophomores Leitala Vainuku and Addison Wingate are also expected to have an impact this season.

The Tigers will also play at the Healdsburg tournament next week.