*David Dawson, Rome News-Tribune Sports Writer*

Because they compete in a region that doesn’t include any of their Floyd County siblings, the Rome High girls sometimes feel as if they’re living in a vacuum.

But each year at Christmas time, Santa Claus brings the Lady Wolves a unique gift — the chance to compete against many of their neighborhood rivals during the Rome News-Tribune Holiday Festival.

The ballyhooed tournament, which opens Monday at Shorter and Georgia Highlands College, also provides the Rome girls with a window to showcase their skills in front of the hometown crowd who normally would not see the team play.

For those reasons and more, the Lady Wolves (8-2) view the Festival as a golden opportunity. And they’ve responded with a string of golden performances.

They’ve won the tourney’s Gold Ball trophy for a Festival-record five consecutive years, and will begin their pursuit of a sixth straight championship Monday against Woodland at Shorter in the opening round of this year’s event.

“The tournament is definitely special to our players,” said Rome coach Kevin Strickland, “because it’s one of the few chances they get to play against the girls they grew up with. That means a great deal to them.”

Seven teams will be attempting to unseat the Lady Wolves during this week’s tourney, which runs through Saturday night.

Five of the challengers are from Floyd County: Darlington, Model, Coosa, Armuchee and Pepperell. Trion, the lone Class A school in the tournament, and Woodland, from Class AAAA, round out the field.

“Almost all of our players have friends or even relatives that go to the other schools (in Floyd County),” Strickland said. “So there are a lot of bragging rights on the line during the tourney.

“And having those bragging rights for an entire calendar year is a big motivation,” he added. “Not just for us, of course, but for all the teams.”

Heading into this year’s event, the consensus among local fans is that Coosa, Armuchee, Model and Pepperell are each legitimate contenders to win the Gold Ball.

In reality, however, one of those teams is going to go winless during the tournament. And that’s not a prediction — it’s a guarantee.

By luck of the draw, those four Floyd County teams were lumped together in the lower half of the Festival bracket.

Two of them will lose in Monday’s opening-round. And on Thursday, one of them will be eliminated altogether … with no wins to show for their stay.

“It’s a tough bracket, and all you can do is hope you’re not the team that goes home the quickest,” said Armuchee coach Tammy Norred. “We know we’ll need to play extremely well.”

Armuchee (9-1) faces Coosa (6-1) on Monday at 6 p.m. at Georgia Highlands.

Model (5-1), which has finished as the Festival runner-up in each of the past two seasons, plays Pepperell (3-1) at 7:30 at GHC.

“Opening against Model is obviously a tough draw,” said Pepperell coach Jeff Rickman. “But it’s like I told the team — if we’re going to win the tournament, we’re probably going to have face Model sooner or later. So we might as well meet the challenge head on, and see what we can do.”

The Model-Pepperell match-up features two of the area’s top scorers: Model’s Kiara Smith and Pepperell’s Jordan Marsh.

Smith is the two-time Rome News-Tribune Player of the Year, and helped lead Model to its second straight 7-AA title last year.

The Coosa-Armuchee game will also have plenty of star power, with the Lady Indians’ smooth-shooting duo of Amanda Parris and Anna Catanzano squaring off against Coosa’s dynamic backcourt duo of Ieshia Alexander and Robyn Foster.

Alexander tore her ACL during last year’s Festival, and missed the rest of the season. She’s healthy now, though, and she and her teammates could represent Rome’s biggest challengers. The Lady Eagles lost to Rome by two points earlier this season in the Adairsville Thanksgiving tournament.

At Shorter on Monday, Trion meets Darlington at 6 p.m., followed by Rome High (led by reigning Festival MVP Tanisha Woodard) meeting Woodland at 7:30.

“I can’t wait for it to get started,” said Strickland. “The Christmas tourney is one of my favorite times of the year.”

The Festival is the state’s longest running holiday tournament, and the event has become the basketball hub of the holidays in Northwest Georgia.

Strickland said the overall environment of the Festival is what truly gives the event its unique feel.

“Our girls know that none of our other games — not even our region games — can match the energy of the Christmas tournament,” said Strickland, “and they enjoy it to the fullest.”

The Lady Wolves defeated Model in overtime to win last year’s Gold Ball and continue their unprecedented title run.

Prior to their five-peat, no team in tournament history (boys or girls) had ever won more than three consecutive championships.

“We’re glad to be in this position, and it means a lot to us to carry (the title streak) into this year’s tourney,” said Strickland. “But, at the same time, we don’t look at it in those terms. We look at it as trying to win one game and go from there.”