WORLAND – Having gone through the same routine each preseason and going to the same tournaments, playing the same teams – both the Warriors and Lady Warriors opted for something new this year.

New opponents.

New venues.

New level of competition.

Both Worland basketball teams hit the road to the Flaming Gorge Shootout in Green River and Rock Springs, a three-day tournament that draws competition from the 2A, 3A and 4A ranks in Wyoming along with schools from neighboring states Idaho and Utah.

The change of scenery is nice, but it also raises the bar as both teams will face a higher quality of opponents then they're used to in the early going.

"I think the kids are excited to take a trip to a different side of Wyoming," Worland girls basketball coach Mark Mortimer said Thursday. "They're excited to play some new competition – some teams we haven't seen as well as some of the other teams in 3A in a tournament setting."

Worland boys basketball coach Aaron Abel agreed.

"In 3A you've got 16 teams and you tend to play the other seven teams in your conference quite a bit during the season – two, three, four, even five times on occasion," Abel said. "It's nice to get out of our conference and see some new competition. Hopefully we'll see some quality teams that will really challenge the guys."

Worland – the 3A state runner-up last year – will start off the tournament with 4A Evanston today at 9:40 a.m. followed by a meeting with 4A Green River at 4:20 p.m.

The lone Saturday game will be against Manila, Utah at 3:10 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Lady Warriors will begin with Manila, Utah at 11:20 a.m. today and will face 4A Green River second at 6 p.m. Saturday, they'll face 4A Rock Springs.

The Warriors haven't faced a 4A school since playing Riverton in 2012. The last time Worland played Evanston was in 2010, a 67-53 loss in Warrior Gymnasium.

For Abel, the outcome of the games this weekend isn't the most important thing.

These games in the early part of the season are about creating camaraderie on the court and rekindling that chemistry the Warriors displayed on the hardwood all last year.

"Our line of thinking as far as the non-conference schedule goes is we want to play as tough of competition as we can get and if we lose that's fine. There will be a lesson there," Abel said. "We just want to get as much as we can out this non-conference schedule so we can be as prepares as possible when we get into league play in January.

"Hopefully we compete well and we can even win a few games while we're down here."

Mortimer and the Lady Warriors are taking the same approach, knowing the result of the games at the Flaming Gorge Shootout have little meaning come tournament time.

And he's hoping an extra week of practice before the first competition – as compared to last year – will help his team today and tomorrow.

"I hope we're kind of polished in some of the things we want to do. We have some differently looks offensively than we did a year ago and it's stuff we've had plenty of time to work on in practice," Mortimer said. "It'll only benefit (as we go through the season) to come to this tournament. I really hope against these 4A schools and the school from Utah really push us to the brink and we have some great games that we'll have to learn from.

"We'll be in situations that will make us better not only for our tournament right after Christmas break but for the rest of the season."