School association honors Wrangell's Archie Young

Humble and competitive.

That alone should be enough to justify a selection into any hall of fame.

Mt. Edgecumbe High School basketball coach and teacher Archie Young carries those traits and passes them on to his students, players, coaches and opponents. He was acknowledged for these integrities by the Alaska School Activities Association recently and announced as one of the 11 members of the Class of 2014 to be inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame.

"When I first heard about my nomination for the ASAA HOF I was shocked," Young said.

Wrangell principal Monty Buness called Young to tell him that he and Wrangell Coach Ray Stokes were nominating him.

"That was enough of an honor as far as I was concerned," Young said. "To have him and my high school coach believe I was worthy of a nomination really meant a lot to me. I never thought I would actually be inducted. Then when I received the phone call saying I had been selected, I was very humbled and extremely honored. I couldn't believe it."

The Hall of Fame was established to identify and honor, in a permanent manner, individuals who exhibited high ethical standards and integrity while achieving excellence in high school athletics and activities, as well as others who have distinguished themselves by virtue of exemplary contributions to the advancement of interscholastic athletics and activities in the State of Alaska.

"This honor is not just about me, though," Young said. "This is an honor I share with my parents, my brothers, Coach Stokes, cousins, friends, and the people of Wrangell. I hate to steal from Cris Carter, but they are all going in to the HOF with me. I look back at watching my oldest brother Guy play, and wanting to be able to jump as high as he did. My cousins Rick & Dino (Brock) and others in the housing project we grew up in chipping ice off the court in January so they could play outside. The Wrangell 3-on-3 tournament vs. Fred Angerman, Jeff Jabusch, or even Curt Birchell from Petersburg unknowingly motivating me to get better to beat them. Coach Stokes always pushing me to be better and knowing how to push my buttons. His first year in Wrangell was my freshman year...we were a perfect fit. All of these things contributed to motivating me. Without all of them and others this never would have happened."

That freshman year brought to light a special player in his very first varsity game.

Young was the starting point guard and the Metlakatla Chiefs were visiting. The Wolves had the ball, were down by two points with two seconds left.

Wrangell had very good seniors in Darin Floyd, Ben Graham and Jon Abrahamson. The inbounds play was in front of the Wolves bench.

Young curled off a screen, caught the ball and hit a 17-footer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime and the team to eventual victory.

"I remember all the guys screaming and jumping up and down," Young said. "Coach Stokes was trying to get us back to the bench because the game wasn't over."

The moments would increase as the seasons progressed.

As a sophomore Young helped the Wolves win the region tournament at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. Wrangell came in as the fifth seed and beat Petersburg by 50 in their first game. Next up was number one seed Mt. Edgecumbe, a team they had lost to twice the previous weekend on the very same court. The Wolves won by 6. Wrangell then played Metlakatla in the finals to go to state and won 73-72.

"It was awesome to come in number five (seed) and win the whole thing," Young said. "Then we lost to Kayhi by 40 in the crossover game... in like a lion, out like a lamb."

Young's 1991 senior season included averaging 33 points per game. Wrangell's run at the state tournament that year is well known among basketball circles, even if the final result was not a title.

The Wolves opened with a 76-36 drubbing of favorite Nome. Next up was a semifinal clash with Eielson.

"Their coach made the mistake of telling the newspaper we would have to play out of our minds to beat them," Young said. "Of course, Coach Stokes put that on the chalkboard for us. We beat them by double digits."

Houston would top Wrangell in the championship game by 12 points.

"That whole year was great," Young said. "Our team was the consummate team. People always talked about how it was me but we had a group of guys who battled and everyone understood their role. My best friend in high school, Frank Warfel, would always give me grief about stealing his rebounds. He was 5-foot-8 and couldn't jump but he boxed out like no other. I just happened to be a little taller and could jump a little higher. Lee Widerspohn hustled as hard as anybody I ever played with. Jeff Petticrew was a solid shooter who hardly ever took bad shots. Jorma Moore was a great competitor who always took it upon himself to make the other team's best player angry and then ask us to take care of it. Pete Koch ran the floor and played solid defense knocking down three's here and there. It was just a great group of guys and I have never played on another team who valued their role as much as those guys did."

After high school, Young played two seasons at Clark Community College, averaging over 12 points his sophomore year. He considered briefly giving up the game until watching brothers Keith, Kevin and Kurt play during their 1994 Wolves season in the state tournament, where they lost in the semis and placed third.

"It was just intense watching them play," Young said. "It is always that way watching family play or playing with them."

Young decided to play his final two seasons at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he redshirted a season and then scored over 500 points. The last two home games of that Nanooks season were against Hawaii Hilo and Young played in front of his parents. He scored 29 points and hit 7 three-pointers the first night, and scored 28 with 7 triples the next game. Young was chosen the GNAC player of the week and the tallies from beyond the arch were team records at that time.

"It really meant a lot to have my parents there," Young said. "I guess I should have had them come to more games."

After college, Young returned to Southeast to teach math and coach basketball and volleyball at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a boarding school formerly administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs before being transferred to the State of Alaska. Youth from across the state attend the school with students coming from more than 100 communities.

"When I first came to MEHS, I thought it would only be for a few years," Young said. "That quickly changed once I got to know the kids and how special this school is. I love coming to work every day and working with these students. I enjoy the fact that I get to know the students in the classroom and on the court. We also have extended families that we have dinner with every Thursday and just have 'family' time, so to speak. Teachers are often the ones the students come to with good news, bad news, or just to visit. In many ways we are like family to them, as we see them every day. I usually refer to the students/players as 'my kids.' I take pride in them and who they are. It is just a fantastic place to work because of them."

Young said he learns more from his students and players than what he teaches them.

"From a coaching

standpoint, it is an exciting challenge every year not

knowing what new students can play and which underclassmen have returned," Young said. "It is a blessing and a curse. I can never really plan for the upcoming season until I have seen who is on campus when school starts. Even then I have to be cautious as some kids come here and find out they miss home and are gone before the season even starts. But it is also exciting in the classroom for the same reasons ... I never know what we have until they are on campus. It is a fun

challenge each year to determine ways that each group can be successful and trying to get them to mesh, or build chemistry."

Young stated that growing up in Wrangell was a special time and one that shaped his life completely.

"The best thing about Wrangell at that time was the closeness of the community," he said. "I consider Wrangell to be the friendliest town in Alaska. From a sports perspective, it was great being able to play against so many former players. On any given night we would have 15-25 adults and high school kids at open gym...you either won or you sat for three games."

The Wrangell 3-on-3 tournament was well known in Southeast and consistently had 12-16 competitive teams from the community and more from outside. Young and his younger brothers would win that tourney 10 years straight.

"My senior year was the last year of City League Basketball and for a community of 2,500 people it was awesome having four good men's teams, guys who could still play and were very competitive," Young said. "Playing against those guys helped toughen you up, distilled pride in the community seeing how hard they competed, and taught you how to play versus different opponents."

Young will be inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame, along with 10 other selections, during a ceremony Aug. 3 in Anchorage at a location to be determined.

"I am so honored and privileged to join the ASAA HOF," Young said. "To have them believe I belong in the HOF is such a humbling experience. I think I am happiest for my parents because I know how proud this makes them and making my parents and family proud is one of the things I strive for most in life."

Young's bio from the Hall of Fame reads:

Arguably the greatest boys basketball player in Wrangell High School history, Archie Young averaged 19 points and double figure rebounds over his illustrious four-year varsity career. His career high was 52 points. At the 1991 state

tournament the 6-foot-4 small forward collected 46 points and 18 rebounds. He was named

All-State three times (1st team selection twice) and led Wrangell to a state runner-up finish as a senior. In college, he averaged 33 points in one season at Clarke Community College in Washington before transferring to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. At UAF, Young was a member of the 500-point club and once held the school record for most

3-pointers [7] in a game; and he did it in back-to-back games. After his playing career, he returned to Southeast Alaska and has been teaching and coaching basketball and

volleyball at Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka for the last 15 years.