From left to right, Wrangell AAU players Grace Miller, Liana Carney, Julia Miethe, Emma Martinsen, Elizabeth Armstrong, Kendra Meissner and Jamie Early are triumphantly conveyed through town aback a fire engine after returning home Monday. The girls took first in their season-ending tournament in Juneau over the weekend.
Wrangell's youth Amateur Athletics Union basketball team took first in Juneau's Mike Jackson Memorial Tournament over the weekend.
The program is a gap-bridge for middle school students, giving them opportunity to play competitively and hone skills before high school. Wrangell's recent victory follows on the heels of last year's similarly successful AAU season, and bodes well for future classes of players.
But it was a long weekend for the eight girls. They had to arrive ahead of the games' start on March 22 and the ferry home not arriving until Monday afternoon.
The weekend hosted several A, B, C and D teams for boys and girls from around Southeast, and games consisted of two 20-minute halves. During the four-day tourney, Wrangell's A girls bracket faced teams from Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau.
"We got off to a little bit of a rough start," said team coach Penny Allen.
Seeded third, the girls lost their first couple of games but began to turn things around as the tournament progressed.
"When it really counted the girls really stepped up and played their hearts out," said Allen.
Playing Juneau in the semifinal round, Wrangell pulled out a surprise win. Elevated to the championships on Saturday against Sitka, the team trailed by 12 with seven minutes left in the game.
"We chipped away at the score by playing hard and not giving up," Allen recounted. "We pulled ahead and ended up winning by six for a final score of 30-24.
"All the other teams – the coaches, and all the players – they were great. They had great sportsmanship and were really competitive. It was just a great time," she concluded. "We had a lot of support at the tournament from our Wrangell friends and family who traveled and live or go to school there cheering our team on."
Allen said there were many community members who supported the team throughout the year and had volunteered for Wrangell's tournament. They were sponsored by Petro Marine and First Bank.
The weekend finishes off the program's season, which saw Wrangell host a 14-team invitational at the end of February. Though an annual tournament traditionally held in Ketchikan was unable to be held this year, kids from Petersburg and Wrangell were able to get in some additional games this month.
Wrangell's team will continue fundraising through the next couple of months, saving up to send players to a team camp in Anchorage this June, the Alaska Basketball Academy.
Reader Comments(0)