NATCHEZ — While most area high school students are still playing with their new Christmas gadgets and awaiting the New Year while enjoying their holiday vacation, the girls and boys that make up those schools’ basketball teams are off competing in a variety of holiday tournaments.

The holiday break causes a lull in the high school basketball season, and coaches schedule tournaments to fill the gap created by the Christmas break.

“Once we start back after the break, we have about 90 percent district games,” Cathedral boys coach Peter Arnold said. “Tournaments kind of help you get back to full speed. The main reason (we do it) is what I call bridging the gap between Christmas break.”

Arnold said that the Green Wave was scheduled to play in the Harrisonburg, La., Tournament earlier in the month but those plans fell through. He said Cathedral was lucky to find a spot in the Wilkinson County Christian Academy Tournament this week.

“We lucked into it,��� he said. “Otherwise if you don’t have tournament games you get a few practices, but you are missing kids getting the quality of a game. A game is so much more intense than practice so having tournament games really help you cover the break, so we can be ready to go in January.”

Centreville Academy is also playing in the WCCA Tournament this week.

Natchez High School coach Mike Martin said holiday tournaments also allow his team to come together.

“It gives kids a chance when we are off for the holidays and don’t have to deal with class to stay over (at the tournament location) and bond and come together,” he said. “They look forward to it, and we have been very fortunate over the years to go all over the country.”

The Bulldogs are competing in the Sunkist Shootout at St. Thomas More in Lafayette, La., and Martin said the level of competition would make his team better.

“This tournament has teams that are very sound and very well coached,” he said. “There are 15 good programs.”

Martin said each team is guaranteed two games but in the past the Bulldogs have had enough success to play more.

“We have been fortunate to play four most of the time,” he said. “If you are playing in the Sunkist Shootout on the last day, you’ve done well.”

The Lady Bulldogs are playing a tournament of their own as members of the Mendenhall Holiday Classic.

Several local teams have players still out of town for the holidays, and many teams are playing without their full complement of players. But Adams County Christian School girls’ coach Melanie Hall said there are positives to go along with the negatives of not having every player.

“It’s hard because of course you are missing a member of the team, and it hurts you because that’s a member of your extended family,” she said. “But it gives everybody opportunities to play, and it’s always a blessing any time we can play and use what God gives us.”

Hall said each year her teams have some struggles during the holiday tournaments and each year it frustrates her, even though she knows it is going to happen.

“I don’t know why I would think after being off four days we would be as sharp as a tack,” she said. “That’s ridiculous, but I expect that. It doesn’t happen like that, and you would think after a while I would have learned, but I’m still learning those lessons.”

Hall said her team’s performance in the Simpson Academy Tournament this week would help define the team going into 2012.

“(Whether the tournament hurts or helps) depends on how we play the next couple of days,” she said. “If we can continue to get better and sharpen our fundamental things and stay healthy, we could have a lot of fun in the postseason.”

Trinity Episcopal’s boys and girls teams are both playing in the Brookhaven Academy Tournament this week. Vidalia and Ferriday are participants in the Sicily Island Tournament. Jefferson County is hosting its own holiday tournament, while Wilkinson County and Franklin County are both traveling to tournaments this week.