Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The McKinleyville Panthers celebrate their Niclai championship a year ago.

By Ray Hamill — The schedule for next week’s Dick Niclai tournaments are set, but it remains to be seen which teams will participate.

The McKinleyville boys, Arcata girls and St. Bernard’s boys and girls have all secured their spots after clinching conference championships last week.

The Panthers and Tigers sealed outright championships and are guaranteed a top seed and first-round bye, while both SB teams were crowned at least co-champions and should secure outright titles this week, which would also give them a top seed and first-round bye.

This year’s tournament schedule will feature a slightly different format than in recent years.

Instead of spreading out the first-round game over two nights, followed by two nights of semifinals, this year sees all four first-round games taking place on Monday and no games on Wednesday.

The semifinals will be played at College of the Redwoods on Tuesday (boys) and Thursday (girls).

As usual, both championship games will be played on Friday night at Lumberjack Arena.

A busy opening night on Monday will see the No. 2 seeds in the Big 5 (boys and girls) host the No. 3 seeds from the B5, and the No. 2 seeds in the Little 4 (boys and girls) host the No. 3 seeds from the L4.

Those games will be played at 7:30 p.m., unless a school is hosting a doubleheader of action, which would see them tip off at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

The boys semifinals on Tuesday night will be played at 6 and 7:30 p.m., with the action getting under way with the No. 1 seed from the Little 4 playing the winner of the Big 5’s opening-round game, followed by McKinleyville and the winner of the L4’s opening-round game.

The St. Bernard’s players celebrate their Dick Niclai tournament championship in 2025.

The same format will be used for the girls’ semifinals on Thursday night, although the specific matchups could switch in order to accommodate schools that have to travel farther, such as Del Norte, Hoopa or South Fork.

The girls championship game will take place on Friday night at 6, followed by the boys’ decider at 7:30.

Only H-DNL, North Coast Section and CIF passes (and not school passes) will be permitted for games on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, while only NCS and CIF passes will be permitted for Friday’s championship games.

Admission for the championship games is $10, with no admission for children 5 and under.

The field of teams will be finalized after the regular season is completed later this week.