DON McDERMOTT / PVT The Pahrump Valley High School girls basketball team includes players (from front, left to right) Courtney Salmon, Megan Meads, Brittany Orr, Brittney Lindgren, Ashley Humbert, Christine Gamble, Marie Taylor, Alyson Kunzi, Yaundee Otano, Ashley Lindgren, Stephanie Manley, Kristie Daffer and Casey Scheller, and coaches, from left, Lance Englund, Roy Goodell, Paul Brecht and Bob Hopkins. The picture was taken after PVHS defeated Las Vegas Faith Lutheran 53-34 in the Southern 3-A regional finals Saturday at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas. Advertisement

RENO -- If and when a second high school is constructed in the Pahrump Valley, Trojan athletic teams could return to Class 3-A.

That possibility is at least four years into the future -- longer if Nye County School District board members take an inordinate amount of time deciding when ... and where -- to build the estimated $66 million facility.

For certain, Pahrump Valley athletic teams, in the 2008-2009 school year, will be competing against Class 4-A Sunset Southwest opponents for division, regional and state honors.

Which means Nevada 3-A athletics will not benefit from the incomparable presence of Pahrump Valley boys and girls in league, regional or state competition. But all of that stuff is for future discussions.

Today, the only concern Trojan athletes, coaches and fans have is how the Pahrump Valley girls will fare in the Nevada Class 3-A State Basketball tournament.

At 11 a.m., coach Bob Hopkins and his team, 25-7 and winners of the Southern regional title, will play Truckee, Calif., 13-14, in the first game of the tournament, being contested in the Lawlor Events Center on the University of Nevada campus in Reno.

At 2:20 p.m., Northern champion Winnemucca Lowry, 14-14, will battle Yerington, 27-5 for the second spot in the finals, to be played at 3:20 p.m. Saturday.

For the seventh time in nine years, Pahrump Valley's girls are in the state semifinals. Twice, they won championships -- in 2004 and 2005, and in 2007, PVHS fell to two-time winner Spring Creek in the finals. In those nine years, the Trojans are a remarkable 198-44.

That record includes a 13-17 run in six years competing in the highly-regarded Lady Bulldogs Classic, hosted by 4-A state power Las Vegas Centennial. Pahrump Valley was, except for a couple years Spring Creek came down to Vegas, the only 3-A team in the tournament. Pahranagat Valley Alamo, a Class A giant, came down once, when it had the splendid Kalee Whipple -- now starring at Utah -- in its lineup.

This year, Hopkins' team has ducked no one, with games against Louisiana power Lafayette Thomas More, Vegas 4-A giant Henderson Green Valley, Reno title threat Galena, and Utah small-school toughie Hurricane on its schedule.

The Trojans were 2-0 against both Needles, Calif., a state 2-A semifinalist, and Alamo, which goes after the 1-A championship this weekend.

It will be game time in a few hours this morning in cold, snowy Reno. There will be more to say next week.