It’s been a little less than a year since Holly Pond’s boys won their last county tourney championship.

For Fairview’s girls, it’s been a long 34.

No matter the difference in history, both programs will enter this year’s Cullman County Basketball Tournament as the top varsity seeds after finishing undefeated in county games with seeding implications.

The tourney brackets were cemented by the county’s coaches during a drawing session Wednesday. For the third consecutive season, seeding was based on the first meeting — tournaments excluded — between each of the seven county schools.

The annual bragging rights bonanza will go down Saturday, Jan. 16 through Saturday, Jan. 23 at Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum. Admission is $5 a day.

Holly Pond (6-0 seeding record) will enjoy a first-round bye on the boys side. Hanceville (5-1) clinched the No. 2 seed, followed by West Point (4-2), Cold Springs (3-3), Fairview (2-4), Good Hope (1-5) and Vinemont (0-6).

The Broncos secured last year’s championship from the second seed after coming up short from the top spot a few times following their last title in 2002.

“It’s great to be undefeated in your county and get placed No. 1. That’s great and wonderful … until the tournament gets here,” Holly Pond coach Mitch Morris said with a laugh. “Then the No. 1 seed has to wait all the way at the end of the week to play. That’s a drawback having to practice and whatever else.

“Irregardless, you have to go down there and play your game, whenever it is. We’re not going to try to look back at what’s happened in the past. We’re just going to go in and do our job and hope we do it well enough.”

Cold Springs and Fairview will jumpstart varsity boys action Jan. 18 at 8:30 p.m. West Point and Good Hope will tango Jan. 19, and Hanceville and Vinemont will take their turn Jan. 20, both at 7:30 p.m. The title tilt will be Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.

Holly Pond and Cold Springs were the preseason favorites to make the final for a third year running. With the Eagles falling to the Broncos, Hanceville and West Point, however, that sets up a potential rematch in the second round.

Though neither counted toward seeding, Cold Springs paid back Holly Pond in their second matchup and bested the Bulldogs for the Hanceville Thanksgiving Tournament championship.

“There’s three or four teams that could legitimately win this thing,” Morris said. “You get three or four of them on a good roll at the right time, they’re going to be hard to stop. It’s going to be a fun tournament.”

Fairview (6-0) will have the first round off for the girls, leaving Holly Pond (5-1) to vie for its fourth straight county crown from the No. 2 seed. Cold Springs (4-2), Good Hope (3-3), Hanceville (2-4), West Point (1-5) and Vinemont (0-6) round out the bracket.

The Lady Aggies will gun for their first county championship since 1982 on an expansive junior college court where they went 2-1 — the loss was in overtime to Class 7A No. 3 Thompson — over Christmas break. Holly Pond’s boys participated in the same tournament.

“The girls, they’re really excited about it,” Fairview coach Mary Hartline said. “This was one of our goals for this year. And they’ve been working hard for several years to get to this point. We were hoping that it would work out.”

Good Hope and Hanceville will kick off varsity girls play Jan. 18 at 7:15 p.m. Tammy West and Cold Springs will clash with John Welborn, her brother, and West Point Jan. 19. Holly Pond and Vinemont will close out the opening round Jan. 20. The latter games are slated for 6:15 p.m. The title will be decided Jan. 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Like the boys, it’s impossible for Holly Pond’s and Cold Springs’ girls to duke it out for the championship for a third straight year. Their opportunity to settle a split so far this season would come in the second round.

Hartline (formerly Mary Lauren Mills) would love nothing more for her Fairview squad to feel the same thrill of victory as she did when Good Hope won the county title 2004.

It didn’t come easy then, and she doesn’t expect it to now, either.

“When i played, we were the fifth seed,” Hartline said. “Nobody expected us to win, and we came back and won. So you never know. Particularly, this year is kind of the same year as something like that. You just don’t know.”

Fairview owns the top seed in four of the five divisions.

See below for seeding and first-round matchups for the junior varsity boys, JV girls and ninth-grade boys:

JV boys

Seeds: 1) Fairview 2) Holly Pond 3) West Point 4) Hanceville 5) Cold Springs 6) Vinemont

Matchups: Hanceville vs. Cold Springs, Jan. 16 at 2:15 p.m.; West Point vs. Vinemont, Jan. 16 at 4:45 p.m.; Bye: Fairview, Holly Pond

Final: Jan. 23 at 5 p.m.

Defending champ: West Point

JV girls

Seeds: 1) Fairview 2) Cold Springs 3) West Point 4) Holly Pond 5) Good Hope 6) Vinemont

Matchups: Holly Pond vs. Good Hope, Jan. 26 at 1 p.m.; West Point vs. Vinemont, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.; Bye: Fairview, Cold Springs

Final: Jan. 23 at 3:30 p.m.

Defending champ: Fairview

Ninth-grade boys

Seeds: 1) Fairview 2) West Point 3) Good Hope 4) Holly Pond 5) Hanceville

Matchups: Holly Pond vs. Hanceville, Jan. 16 at 3:30 p.m.; Bye: Fairview, West Point, Good Hope

Final: Jan. 23 at 2 p.m.

Defending champ: West Point