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VIDALIA — Even with the rain that has fallen across the Miss-Lou earlier this week, the 2021 Viking Classic hosted by Vidalia High School will take place this weekend at the Concordia Recreation District 3 Complex.

Eleven teams from across Louisiana are participating in this year’s tournament. Joining Vidalia are Monterey High School, Block High School, Harrisonburg High School, Mangham High School, LaSalle High School, Franklin Parish High School, Rayville High School, Jewel Sumner High School from Kentwood, and South Terrebonne High School from Bourg.

Vidalia head coach Forrest Foster said he is not surprised at the number of teams playing in this year’s tournament despite the COVID-19 pandemic still going on.

“No, not at all. Everybody’s over this pandemic. Everybody’s’ ready to get back to their daily lives,” Foster said.

However, Foster said this is not the toughest field the Viking Classic has ever fielded.

“It’s pretty much the same. They enjoy it so much,” Foster said. “It’s a nice complex. They enjoy coming here every year. It’s a repeat every year.”

And as young of a team as the Lady Vikings have, Foster said he hopes his team will have some success against good competition.

“We’re young and we’re going through some growing pains. Hopefully we’ll win two out of three,” Foster said. “We have a couple of senior starters and a couple of junior starters. We start five underclassmen. We have four freshmen in our starting lineup, which is good.”

Winning three out of four games would be even better for a Lady Vikings team that needs all the wins they can get if they are to make the postseason.

Vidalia started play at 5 p.m. Friday against Delhi Charter and then faced Rayville at 7 p.m., both on Field C. Delhi Charter and Rayville are two of three LHSAA District 2-2A teams who will play in the Viking Classic – the other being Mangham, who Vidalia played at 7 p.m. Saturday on Field C. The Lady Vikings also went up again South Terrebonne on the same field at 9 a.m. that day.