Wrangell AAU girls team nets first-place at home tournament

While the high school state championship tournament in Anchorage was attracting a lot of hoopla, the Stikine Hoops Invitational was netting plenty of its own excitement back home, including a big win.

Team Wrangell Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Girls Basketball Club hosted teams from Petersburg, Ketchikan and Juneau and won first place in the A Team category over the weekend.

Three teams competed in each the A and B divisions, which were set up as a round-robin, double-elimination bracket. Wrangell and Ketchikan had teams in both the A and B divisions, while Juneau had a team in the A division and Petersburg had a team in the B division.

The tournament was originally planned for Thursday through Saturday, but travel delays kept Ketchikan from getting to Wrangell until Friday, condensing play into two days instead.

Wrangell's A team placed first in their division, with Ketchikan in second place and Juneau in third. Ketchikan's B team placed first in their division, while Petersburg won second and Wrangell won third.

The winning teams each received a trophy, certificate and shirt for the players and coaches.

Along with the tournament games, there was a three-point shooting competition, which was won by Lorraine Zapanta of Ketchikan. A free-throw shooting competition was won by Devyn Flint of Petersburg. Each received a medal.

An all-tourney game was played in each division, comprised of players from each team in the division. The members of the all-tourney A team were Alana Harrison, Sydnie Young and Alexis Easterly of Wrangell; Kanita Kaljisi and Lorraine Zapanta of Ketchikan; and Cassie Chenowith of Juneau. The B team was comprised of Evelyn Robbins, Rylee Lynch and Cereneti Buendia of Ketchikan; Cadence Flint and Mette Miller of Petersburg; and AJ Roundtree of Wrangell.

AAU team players are middle-school age girls, and each game is divided into two 20-minute halves.

Everyone that helped set up and work the tournament were volunteers and parent-volunteers, said Wrangell AAU coordinator Penny Allen.

"Between running the clock, keeping scorebooks, refereeing, running concessions, printing tournament shirts and manning the entry table, there were 184 time slots of an hour and 20 minutes each that were filled," she said, which equated to 245 volunteer hours. "And that is just for the game times. There were countless hours put into organizing it, and time spent by other community members involved in housing teams, getting the gyms ready, cleaning up afterward, and just lending a hand where needed."

Thirty-eight local sponsors helped support the event. Allen said the number of sponsors and people who turned out to help that aren't related to the players shows the community's strong support.

Wrangell's AAU teams are scheduled to compete at the Mike Jackson Memorial Tournament in Juneau this Wednesday through Saturday.