Nearly half of the area’s 50 head basketball coaches will vie for the inaugural championship of the Second Street Sideline Showdown.

Like a good chunk of the country, 22 coaches filled out an NCAA men’s brackets for the tournament that got going in earnest Thursday.

The coach left on top will win a gift card from contest sponsor Second Street Grill, and – perhaps more importantly, bragging rights throughout the Stat Hound footprint.

It didn’t take long, however, to make some of the coaches nervous.

Prosser girls coach Jessica Huntington, the leader as the final games of the opening day got going, has her champion pick – East No. 1 seed Duke – on the ropes against 16th-seeded Siena.

• Here is the list of coaches, who took the jump into the pool:

Raul Alvarado, Davis boys

Joel Barnes, Eastmont girls

Payton Bonny, Grandview girls

Anfernee Cortez, Wahluke boys

Steve Elder, East Valley girls

Rick Hartman, Naches Valley boys

Levi Hayen, Cashmere boys

Jessica Huntington. Prosser girls

Lorenzo Juarez, West Valley girls

Wayde Knowles, Eastmont boys

Chris McCallum, Sunnyside girls

Frankie Medina. Grandview

Ray Navarro, Selah girls

Darbi Pink, Connell girls

Curtis Pumphrey, College Place boys

Bruce Siebol, Sunnyside boys

Jordan Starr, Selah boys

Matt Strophy, Moses Lake girls

Farrah Wardenaar, Royal girls

Akil White, Davis girls

Tyson Whitfield, West Valley boys

Joel Yellow Owl, Zillah girls