There will be softball and volleyball tournaments going on throughout the weekend in Carrollton, with the Central High School softball team hosting the two-day Central Invitational at the Carroll County Sports Complex today and Saturday, while the Carrollton High School volleyball team is hosting the first-ever Carrollton Invitational Tournament on Saturday.

Second-year Lady Trojan volleyball coach Kasey Austin is looking forward to a solid turnout Saturday in the five-team competition that pits a pair of Carrollton squads in with Haralson County, Shaw and Callaway. The action begins at 8 a.m.

“It’s going to start off with pool play and everybody is going to play everyone. Then they’re going to get ranked from how they finished, as far as wins and losses and points scored against them. Right after lunch, we start our elimination round — a five-team, single-elimination tournament,” Austin said.

And after a successful start to the 2012 season, Austin is hopeful of coming out on top on her home court Saturday.

“Oh, yeah, they’re excited. They’re a little tired from getting back late [Thursday], but they’re ready. We’re entering one of our JV — we’re having two teams — and some of our JV girls are going to be stepping up and playing in the tournament. So they’re really excited about it and it being at home and being the first tournament we’ve ever hosted. So we hope we have a good home crowd,” Austin said.

Meanwhile, Central softball coach Jimmy LeBlanc will play host to a six-team round-robin showdown that includes Alexander, Douglas County, Chapel Hill, Shiloh, Bremen and the host Lady Lions. Action begins at 4 p.m. today and continues on Saturday morning at 10.

LeBlanc said the No. 1 thing he wants to see this weekend is some strong competition before getting back into Region 4-AAA play.

“Absolutely. You’ve got coach [Alex] Duhaime in Douglas County is doing some good things there. But you’re looking at Bremen, you’re looking at Alexander — both strong programs. You’ve got Chapel Hill and [coach] Mickey [Harper] does a great job over there. And then Shiloh came in here last year and won it last year. So that’s a big school coming from the Gwinnett area,” LeBlanc said.

“Just good, quality competition. I mean, that’s the kind of competition you’re going to see in the postseason and we need to see that to continue to improve. Hopefully, it’s going to get us ready for that stretch run in the region and the postseason.”