With school close to letting out for the holidays, Tucson High  and Sabino High give area girls and boys soccer teams, respectively, solid tournaments to compete in heading to vacation.

Those tournaments are two in southern Arizona and the East Valley this week in a couple of sports worth keeping an eye on.

Girls teams entered in the Tucson Champions Cup hosted by Tuson High are are Canyon del Oro, Cienega, Flowing Wells, Ironwood Ridge, Marana Mountain View, Sabino, Sahuarita, Salpointe and Tucson High. The tournament opens with pool play Wednesday and culiminates with the title match on Dec. 20.

Marana Mountain View Is 4-1 in power-point matches to date and a quarterfinalist in the Brandon Bean Invitational after a loss to Sabino. Sabino is off to a good start, which includes a runner-up finish at the Brandon Bean  last month. Sabino (4-0 ppm) was the 4A-I runner-up last year and beat Ironwood Ridge in overtime last year to win the Tucson Champions Cup.

Ironwood Ridge, a state semifinalist last season in 5A-II and the winner of this year's Brandon Bean Invite for the second year in a row, is anxious to go for the top spot in this tournament along with Sabino and Marana Mountain View. Marana Mountain View handed Ironwood Ridge (2-1) its only power-point loss of the season recently. Tucson High is 3-1 in power-point matches.

Sixteen teams are in the field of the Sabino Chris Maier boys soccer Invitational, hosted by Sabino. Salpointe, a top contender for the Division II boys state title this year, won the tournament last season. The Lancers are 9-0- so far in 2011-2012 and won the Brandon Bean Invite last month. The tournaament begins Tuesday (Dec. 13) and continues through the Saturday (Dec. 17) with the semfiinals and finals. Other teams entered are: Amphitheater, Buena, Campo Verde, Canyon del Oro, Cienega, Douglas, Flowing Wells, Nogales, Palo Verde, Rincon, Sabino, Sahuarita, Sahuaro, Sunnyside and Tucson High. Top power-point records of entered team belong to Tucson (4-0), Salpointe (3-0), Nogales (4-1), Flowing Wells (4-1) and Sahuaro (3-1). 

One of the season's bigger wrestling invitationals is the Larry Faust Invitational, hosted by McClintock HS. Twenty-nine teams are entered including state power and defending Division I champ Sunnyside. Always-tough Highland (runner-up in D-I last year), Marcos de Niza (D-II runner-up last year) and  Red Mountain (top-10 D-I finisher) last year). Red Mountain finished runner-up to Mesa Mountain View last weekend at the Warrior Classic at Westwood. Westwood, which placed third in its tournament last weekend,  is also entered. Other teams the preliminary list of competitors of the McClntock field are: Basha, Campo Verde, Carl Hayden, Casa Grande, Cesar Chavez, Combs, Desert Mountain, Desert Ridge, Desert View, Gilbert, Higley, Maricopa,  Maryvale, McClintock, Mountain Pointe, Paradise Valley, Payson, Perry, Saguaro, Shadow Mountain, Tempe, Williams Field and Yuma.

One boys basketball team off to a hot start is Mountain Pointe (4-0). All four Pride wins are power-point victories. Mountain Pointe  plays Tuesday against Maricopa before going in as the tournament favorite at this week's annual Horizon Holiday Invitational at Horizon HS. That tournament takes place Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Horizon. Mountain Pointe opens tournament play on Wednesday with a 4:45 contest against Centennial.