An upcoming trip to California will provide members of the Grinnell College men's and women's basketball teams with much more than competition on the hardwood. The opportunity to head west will be equally, if not more important in terms of the educational experience and team bonding.

The Pioneers leave for the Los Angeles area early on the morning of Jan. 5. Both squads will be in action Saturday against Caltech, with the men's game slated for 1 p.m. local time and the women at 3 p.m.. A 5 p.m. reception with alumni, current students, and prospective students will follow the games.

After the Caltech game, the Pioneer men take on the University of Redlands on Sunday, Jan. 6. Game time is 3 p.m. local time. The Pioneer women close out the trip with a game Monday, Jan. 7 at Whittier College. That contest begins at 5 p.m. local time.

Greg Wallace, director of athletics and recreation, said the trip provides the perfect opportunity to implement one of the College's goals. "We attempt to give our student-athletes the best opportunity for competition as well as to participate in contests against like-minded academic institutions," he said. "My goal would be to continue this trend and have our teams take these types of trips on a regular cycle."

According to Andy Hamilton '85, the Pioneer women's coach, "Grinnell provides its student-athletes with experiences outside of the normal educational experience. For example, at Grinnell we foster diversity in many facets," he said. "A trip to southern California, where our student-athletes are going to compete against some of the other premier student-athletes in the country at schools such as Caltech, Whittier, and the University of Redlands, is a wonderful opportunity for us. It fuels the mission to expose our student-athletes to the diversity offered in this world."

The idea for a trip to California was born a few years ago. The match-ups with Caltech came through connections with coaching peers. "The Caltech men's coach (Roy Dow) is a fellow Colby grad" said David Arseneault, coach of the Pioneer men.

"I'd met the Caltech women's coach (Sandra Marbut) at the World-Scholar Athlete Games in the summer of 2006," added Hamilton. "We talked to each other about our admission standards and thought it might be a good idea if our teams played each other."

As for the game with Whittier, Hamilton said, "Ever since I've had the head basketball job at Grinnell, the Whittier coach has been in contact with me about tournaments they have that are typically filled by Midwest teams. When we knew we were going to California, Whittier was a logical contact to make."

The other men's game came through a relationship between Arseneault and former Redlands coach Gary Smith, who retired following last season and is now living with the Arseneault family and serving as a volunteer coach for the Pioneers. Under Smith, Redlands adopted Grinnell's run-and-gun system and won two of the last three NCAA Division III scoring titles.

Some of the mystique has been taken away from the match-up with Redlands, since the Bulldogs no longer run the up-tempo Grinnell system. "It's too bad, in a sense, since I'd like to see the system versus the system," Arseneault said. "But on the other hand, my instinct is it wouldn't be as aesthetically pleasing as some would be led to believe. I have a feeling there would be a lot of turnovers, and the flow wouldn't be as nice as you'd like to see."

"One of the unseen benefits of athletics is community building," Hamilton added. "By taking this trip to California, our student-athletes are provided a chance to bond together and build community in a somewhat unusual way. Trips like this allow for better connection between all the individuals involved."

Hamilton noted another benefit of playing in California. "It's important from a competition standpoint, since we don't resume Midwest Conference play until Jan. 12," he said. "We needed some games in early January so we wouldn't be idle for nearly a month."