The Cedar Valley Christian School is located on Cottage Grove Avenue in southeast Cedar Rapids, but don't go there in search of any home basketball games this season.

The Huskies will play all of their "home" boys basketball and girls basketball games in Shellsburg this season at the Shellsburg Elementary School.

The basketball court at Cedar Valley Christian is only 74 feet long, which is 10 feet shorter than a regulation high school gym. It's long enough to meet legal requirements, but there is limited seating and the walls are close to the floor.

"We determined that is was too small," said CVC Principal Jeff Pospisil, who coaches the boys basketball team. "It's not a safe environment, so we were looking for a bigger gym."

Cedar Valley tried to find a gym in Cedar Rapids or Marion, but none were available. "They were all booked up," Pospisil said. "We were looking around and we tried a lot of different options."

The Shellsburg Elementary School has a regulation-size gym and offered to let the Huskies use it for home games. The boys basketball team is scheduled to play seven games in Shellsburg and the girls team is scheduled for five games.

Pospisil was happy to find a place to play.

"Unfortunately it's 20 miles out of town, but that's where we're going and that's where we're going to have our home games," he said.

The Shellsburg Elementary School is located at 203 Cottage Street in Shellsburg.

Cedar Valley Christian joined the IHSAA and IGHSAU last year for varsity athletics. The Huskies played a couple of games in their own gym last year, but most of their games were played on the road.

Pospisil said the Huskies would have faced a heavy diet of lengthy road games again this year if they hadn't struck a deal with Shellsburg.

"We couldn't find very many teams that wanted to come and play in our little gym, which we understand," he said. "We don't really like to play here either."

Cedar Valley Christian would like to build a new gym with a regulation basketball court, but the pricetag is approximately $2 million.

"We're still working on it, if we can find some donors to give us some money," Pospisil said. "We're still quite a ways away from that."

Cedar Valley Christian will play as an independent school this season before joining the Tri-Rivers Conference for the 2013-14 school year.

Pospisil is not sure what will happen next season.

"Plan A would be, some money comes in and we build a gym. That isn't likely, but we never know what God has planned," he said.

"Plan B is play our homes at Shellsburg, or if we can find a court in town, but probably not here in our building."

The boys basketball team is scheduled to open its season Nov. 29 against West Branch at the Shellsburg Elementary School. The other "home" games at Shellsburg are scheduled for Dec. 11 against Northeast Goose Lake, Dec. 15 against Dunkerton, Dec. 20 against Gilbertville Don Bosco, Jan. 18 against Valley Lutheran, Jan. 26 against Wapsie Valley and Jan. 31 against GMG.

The CVC girls basketball team will play its first game at Shellsburg on Dec. 11 against Northeast Goose Lake as part of a girl-boy doubleheader. The other dates are Dec. 15 against Dunkerton, Dec. 20 against Don Bosco, Jan. 26 against Wapsie Valley and Jan. 31 against GMG as part of girl-boy doubleheaders.