Basketball fans can cheer on the Country Day teams at Sleep Train Arena, home of the Sacramento Kings, when the Cavaliers take on Valley Christian Academy there on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Then on March 18, they can root for the Kings as they play the Los Angeles Clippers.
It’s all part of a two-for-one deal that includes tickets to the SCDS game and the NBA game.
Tickets are $75 for lower level seating and $35 for upper level.
Matt Vargo, basketball coach and athletic director, said he and the Valley Christian Academy athletic director worked out this arrangement together.
But Country Day must sell a certain number of tickets to the games in order to play at the arena, Vargo said.
While he said he does not know the number of tickets that need to be sold, he is “not really worried about it,” he said.
“I think we’re going to be just fine. (Tickets) are rolling in.”
Valley Christian has played at the Kings arena before, and hasn’t had problems selling the necessary number of tickets, according to Vargo.
He added that the Kings organization thought that Country Day would have no problem selling the allotted seats.
“It’s tremendous,” Vargo said of this two-game basketball deal. “What a great opportunity for our kids to play in an arena, a professional arena, against good competition.”
Brooke Wells, head of high school, said he sprang for the lower level tickets.
“If you’re going to do it, do it right,” he said.
Junior basketball player Brad Petchauer said he is “pumped” to play at Sleep Train.
“Imagining myself playing on the court is just exciting,” he said.
However, he said he is nervous, “because it feels like there’s a bit of extra pressure.”
But Wells pointed out that in many ways the professional court is no different from the Country Day gym, as he recalled from the “super cheesy and super good” movie “Hoosiers.”
In this movie, a small Indiana basketball team makes it to state championships. Similar to the Cavs, the team goes from their home gym to a state championship-caliber gym.
“They come into the gym,” Wells said, “and the kids are just starry-eyed.”
Then the coach has the kids measure the height of the basket.
It’s just the same as the team’s gym at home.
Vargo calls the game “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Sports Boosters is providing a spirit bus that will take fans to the January game and keep them from having to pay the $10 arena parking fee.
It departs from the SCDS parking lot at 4:30 p.m.
To reserve tickets for both games and ensure a seat on the spirit bus, fill out the form, and return it to Vargo.
