Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 173
After missing out on a chance to compete at last year’s state tournament by a two-point loss at regionals, Wrangell Lady Wolves basketball coach Christina Good is ready for her team to try again this season. “We’re due again, so we’ll see how it goes this year,” she said. “Everything cycles in sports.” The season opens this weekend with home games against Petersburg. “As coaches, we want to say we’re going to go to state, but that depends on how our girls perform,” she added. “Overall, I’m always super optimistic. We have a lot of really fa...
Wrangell Wolves head basketball coach Cody Angerman watched from the bleachers as his players went through drills and practice shots in a midday session at the high school gym on Dec. 28 during the winter break. “I don’t want to say it’s a rebuilding year because we definitely have a good team,” Angerman said. But he acknowledged that a core group of seniors were lost after graduation, excellent ball players and starters who practiced diligently and, most importantly, provided leadership to the team. “Obviously, when that happens, you kind...
When high school cheerleading tryouts began in the fall semester, only three students initially signed up. Wanting to build interest in the sport, new head coach Tyla Nelson pushed school administrators to allow middle schoolers onto the squad. “We approach this season as a building year,” she said. “We have a great looking team.”New assistant coach Haley Reeves said there are advantages to having more kids on the floor. “You’re just able to do more stunts when you have more people,” she said. “You can do more formations. It just adds a dif...
The school board has offered a three-year contract extension to Schools Superintendent Bill Burr, effective July 1, 2024, pending further negotiations. “We just wanted him to know that we want him to stay,” said David Wilson, school board president, confirming that he and the rest of the board are very satisfied with Burr’s performance on the job. “He’s doing an amazing job, that’s why we offered it to him,” said school board member Liz Roundtree. The board voted at its Dec. 18 meeting to extend Burr’s contract. Burr said in an email on Dec. 2...
Senior wrestler Keegan Hanson's near-perfect season culminated in triumph, as he earned the title of state champion over the weekend. Hanson defeated all four competitors in his 152-pound weight class - expanding his season's record to 30 wins and only one loss - to earn first place at the Division II state championship tournament held at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15-16. The Wrangell Wolves earned 71.5 points overall, putting them in 12th place among...
After decades of helping people remember birthdays and anniversaries, the printed community calendar may be going the way of phone books. There will be no Wrangell Birthday Calendar in 2024. The chamber of commerce decided to drop the project from its work list. The last Wrangell phone book was printed in 2020. The chamber had used the calendar as a fundraiser to provide an annual scholarship to a graduating high school senior. Last year’s scholarship was $1,500. “It was discussed and we’re somewhat short-handed over the last few years...
The school district has pulled money from reserves and other accounts to cover a $46,000 accumulated deficit in the account that pays for students to travel to state competition. Covering this school year’s state travel expenses and future years is still unresolved. As students already have traveled to several state competitions this school year, including volleyball, cross country and wrestling, the account for 2023-2024 is back in a deficit until a consistent funding stream is determined. The school board voted Nov. 20 to take money from r...
Therapy dogs Cupid and Tia calmly waited with their handlers Margaret Griffo and Terry Yeomans, greeting arrivals before class in the high school courtyard on Friday, Dec. 8, after starting their morning with the coffee crowd at the Stikine Inn and Restaurant. The dogs had arrived in Wrangell the day before, coming to town from their Anchorage-area homes for a few days to help people coping with the tragedy of the deadly landslide and the stress of the search and uncertainty, the loss and the...
As two students on the far left of the stage narrated, fourth grade students silently enacted the scenes in front of a bright light and behind a white screen, allowing their shadows to tell the story of a young hero who takes his revenge on a fearsome cannibal for the murder of his older brothers. After the cannibal is killed and his body is burned, his scattered ashes become mosquitoes, inflicting painful bites in revenge. The fourth graders, with help from students in the high school Tlingit...
The Wrangell Wolves wrestling team took third overall at the Southeast Division II regional championship, with eight individuals coming home with first-place finishes in their weight classes. Wrangell Junior Della Churchill was voted Outstanding Female Wrestler of the tournament. Mt. Edgecumbe, with 202 points, won the Division II title in the Friday and Saturday, Dec. 8-9, competition at Juneau's Thunder Mountain High School. Haines came in second at 138, with Wrangell tallying 134.5 points,...
The holidays are upon us once again. Streets, shops and homes are festooned with garlands, wreaths and twinkling multi-colored lights as festive music is playing. Hallmark and other TV channels are programming Yuletide-themed movies all day and night. As a kid, I witnessed that kind of spectacle many times, often to the melodies of songs like Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” or Nat King Cole singing “The Christmas Song.” Back then, I could just about believe it possible that a plump, jolly old elf could drive flying reindeer to pull a...
The Wrangell Wolves hosted the Tom Sims Invitational Wrestling Tournament last weekend, coming away with 62 wins and 21 losses with 48 pins in the matches, including exhibitions. The wrestling team came in second to Ketchikan overall by just 2.5 points, but placed first as the group with the most pins in the least time and the best winning percentage over the two-day tournament Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2, at the high school gym. A large, cheering crowd of spectators gathered for the tournament on Saturday, and head wrestling coach Jack...
Jeanie Arnold, who started work as the new director at the Nolan Center on Nov. 27, said she wants to "provide an overall sense of joy to the community of Wrangell through artistic exposure and historical storytelling." She replaces Cyni Crary, who is moving out of state. Crary had been in the job since July 2018. Arnold said some of her goals include broadening the scope of the center with new exhibits and events targeted at a wide variety of interests. She also hopes to collaborate with the...
The chamber of commerce board has chosen veteran media entrepreneur Tommy Wells as the organization's new executive director. "I'm excited about it. I think it's a great opportunity," Wells said in an interview before leaving Texas for Wrangell. He arrived in town on Saturday, Dec. 2. "He is a publisher and understands media and person-to-person communications," chamber president Bill Burr said in an email on Nov. 21. "He has experience in Alaska and really has a positive attitude to move...
High school and middle school principal Jackie Hanson wants to alert parents about a disturbing new trend around the country in social media in which students are encouraging each other to engage in self-destructive acts. Hanson sent a memo to parents on Nov. 10 about how some users of TikTok, a video-sharing social media platform which in the past has been at the center of controversy, are instructing their viewers to encourage suicide. “As of lately, the forum is encouraging viewers to use phrases such as, ‘Go kill yourself.’ or ‘Go kill yo...
Growing up in central Virginia and later moving to the Washington, D.C., area, natural disasters took the form of thunderstorms, hurricanes, floods, snowfalls and ice storms. I even experienced an earthquake in Silver Spring, Maryland in the summer of 2011. But until last Monday, my only personal experience with the word “landslide” was when I first heard it on Nov. 7, 1973, when reporters and political pundits used that same word over and over to describe Republican Richard Nixon’s overwhelming victory in the presidential election again...
Counseling and behavioral health services are available as the community comes together to help those in need after the deadly landslide. SEARHC has been providing counseling at no cost, and a private practitioner in Haines also is offering free assistance. Former Wrangell resident and therapist Riley Hall, who is offering free counseling to community members, was living in Haines in 2020 when a landslide killed two people there. The rain continued after the slide, adding to people’s anxiety. “It was really difficult for people to feel saf...
Several fundraisers have been started to provide aid to people affected by last week’s landslide. Tammi Meissner, Wrangell’s community navigator with the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida, said the Wrangell Strong Community Relief Group Facebook page that she and Jillian Privett set up to help coordinate relief efforts highlights various drives that are underway. Those include the 11-Mile Emergency Relief Fund, an account she opened at City Market and IGA, which will be used for food and paper products needed by those affected by the sli...
The community effort to bring in food and games, set up tables and chairs for a Thanksgiving meal at the community center was intended to help residents come together just days after the landslide tragedy. But it also provided solace for officials who came to Wrangell to help with recovery efforts. For Rhonda Butler, emergency operations specialist for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, it was a homecoming. Butler, who is based in Juneau, grew up in Wrangell wi...
Volunteers have come together to help Wrangell, particularly from Petersburg. A crowd of volunteers, which included Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson, Chris and Dixie Booker from C&D Deliveries and fourth-grade teacher Brian Merritt, gathered at the Reliance Dock on Nov. 22 to offload donated relief supplies delivered from Petersburg by Breakaway Adventures. The dozens of plastic totes were filled with food, water, blankets, clothing and other essentials - pet food, too. Written in...
Tables and seats were organized for students and guests along the walls of the elementary school gym, with "Happy Friendsgiving 2023" coloring pages scattered on the tables, ready for crayons. The main serving area was in the center, with long tables placed end to end full of ham, meatballs, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, rolls, casseroles and other foods. As the time drew near for the second festive lunch of the day to begin, Angela Allen, who serves on the boards of the...
As the Nolan Center community theater production of “Cinderella” prepares for shows the weekend of Dec. 9 and 10, director Haley Reeves has been delighted with the performance of cast and crew since rehearsals first began. “We’re miles from where we started,” she said, adding that everyone participating in the production has exceeded her expectations. Reeves expressed excitement to revisit this well-known musical this time as director, instead of as a performer. “It’s been 10 to 15 years since I’d been involved with a production of ...
In my 20s and 30s, in addition to relying on public transportation to get around, I did a lot of walking. I briefly owned a couple of cars at different times, but they were, for the most part, older and often in disrepair. Plus, I mostly worked in retail back then, so I was on my feet most of the day. Then in 2001, two events happened that changed my life: I moved from retail work to a desk job, and I got a reliable car that was only five years old. Thus began my shift to the sedentary lifestyle. While my ability to travel expanded and I could...
A vacant floathouse moored behind the Marine Bar at the Inner Harbor keeled over Nov. 14, around noon. An old boat tied up nearby also partially sank. Both belonged to an elderly resident who died several weeks earlier. A private contractor has been hired to handle cleanup of the wreckage. Tori Peterson, who lives near the floathouse, witnessed it turning over. She said it had been tilting more and more to one side for sometime before going down at high tide. "It just rolled right over and fell...
Multiple resources are responding Tuesday to help people affected by the massive landslide at 11-Mile on Monday night that killed at least one person, with five others still missing. The growing list includes food, temporary shelter, or just a warm place to spend the day with family and friends. Angela Stires, an evacuee and a nurse at Wrangell Medical Center, said she and her family were provided rooms at the Stikine Inn, which has been offering shelter to people displaced by the landslide....