When tournament time comes for Pike County area teams, the road is everyone's best friend. None of the eight teams inside Pike County will be playing at home in area tournaments that begin today.

In the Alabama High School Athletics Association, today is the start of area tournaments for girls' teams. Boys will start Saturday.

In the Alabama Independent School Association, everyone starts today. Boys and girls play area tournaments in the same gymnasium.

For Pike Liberal Arts School, today requires only a short ride to Greenville on the campus of Fort Dale. PLAS teams did not fare exceptionally well this season and both teams enter the tournament at the bottom of the bracket. The PLAS girls finished in third place in the area and will play in the day's first game against Morgan Academy.

The girls will have to wait a long time to see how their classmates perform, as the boys' team does not play until 8 p.m. against host school Fort Dale.

The second round of the 3A East Area 2 Tournament will be Saturday. The girls' championship game will be at 4 p.m. and the boys' at 5:30 p.m.

In public school action, the Charles Henderson girls' team will also be in Greenville. The Lady Trojans will tip off at 6 p.m. today against Wilcox Central.

Charles Henderson will not have the services of Mary Gilbert, the shooting guard who tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament a couple of weeks ago. However, point guard Annie Daniels is still available and will give her team a chance to win.

The Pike County girls' team and Wennica Foster will be in Clayton tonight to face second-seed Calhoun. The Lady Bulldogs play at 6 p.m.

The Goshen girls may have the toughest challenge ahead of them. They have to play top seeded G.W. Long in Skipperville. Long did not lose an area game this season, but the Lady Eagles played them fairly close the last time the two schools faced each other. G.W. Long won 41-38 in Goshen.

Goshen won the play-in game Tuesday night against Luverne to earn the right to play Long tonight.

The boys' tournaments begin Saturday and they are all over the state as well.

Charles Henderson travels the farthest of any team. The Trojans have to drive all the way to Camden on the campus of Wilcox-Central. Charles Henderson faces Escambia County in the first game of the tournament at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The Trojans and Escambia split the regular-season series as each team won on its own court. Trojan coach Carl Hollis said after a recent game that he though his team would be ready to play Escambia.

Pike County also has to travel a fair piece Saturday. The Bulldogs finished fourth in their area and will have to face host school and top seed Central Hayneville in Hayneville. The game will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Goshen will play in the day's earliest game. The Eagles will face Highland Home at 5 p.m. Saturday in Skipperville. Both teams finished the season 5-3 in area play.

The second round of the girls' tournaments will be Monday in all cases except Goshen. For Pike County and Charles Henderson, the championship games will be Monday at 7 p.m.

The Goshen girls' tournament will conclude Tuesday night at 5 p.m. because the boys' and girls' tournaments are both in Skipperville. The boys' final will be at 7 p.m.

All finals for boys' tournaments will be Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Tournament champions and runners up will advance to the subregional tournaments Feb. 13 and 14.