The St. Monica boys Tournament, which annually launches the basketball season locally, will begin Monday.
There will be eight teams playing in the St. Monica gym. Host St. Monica will play Monday at 3:30 p.m. against Environmental Charter of Hawthorne.
Win or lose, St. Monica will also play its Tuesday and Wednesday games at 3:30. Then the tournament’s championship game will be played Thursday at 8 p.m.
The six other teams in the tournament will be LACES, Bellarmine-Jefferson, Lennox Academy, Wildwood, Marshall of Pasadena and Whitney.
St. Monica, which reached the CIF 5-AA playoff quarter-finals last season, has been moved up to 4-A.
“We’ll be playing against schools with double our enrollment,” said Coach Tony Depa. “We would have been rated in the top five in Division 5. Now it will probably be the top ten, a greater challenge.”
The higher division includes Crespi. Notre Dame, and Oaks Christian.
St. Monica has three returning star players, four-year starter Ryan Capiro, all-league Richard Gibson and Ryan Festherston.
St. Monica will then play in the Redondo Tournament and has a non-league game scheduled against Brentwood.