Haines and Skagway middle school basketball teams compete in first tournament in two years

The Haines and Skagway middle-school boys and girls basketball teams met on the court over the weekend for a tournament in Haines. It was the first time the teams had met in two years. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.

 

The Skagway Panthers boys and girls middle school basketball teams traveled to Haines for a series of games against the Glacier Bears this past weekend. It was the first in-person games for Haines and Skagway since the start of the pandemic. 

Family, friends, and community members braved the first snowfall of the year to cheer on their hometown teams in a nine game tournament at the Haines high school gymnasium. This year both schools provide on-site COVID testing, and athletes test twice weekly, allowing them to travel and participate in sports without a mask. 

The Skagway middle school girls won all three games against Haines, showing strengths on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. In the last game on Saturday Skagway won 25 to 5. Lennon Jennings is 13, and in 8th grade

“First away game in about two years, since December of 2019, this is the first junior high away game,” said Lennon Jennings, 8th grader and Skagway player. “It felt good, it felt good to come over and win some games.”

The older girls have traveled for games before, but for the younger girls it was an entirely new experience. Millie Myers is 11 years old, and in the 6th grade:

“Yeah I didn’t expect to do that well. And I actually got a lot of rebounds, and I didn’t know I could do that.” 

Skagway coach Rori Leaverton – a Skagway basketball alum herself, 2008 – 2012 – says she was proud of the team in their first away game. 

“The fact that they were able to come out, not at home and be able to perform to that level, also only being junior high students is absolutely incredible,” Leaverton said. “I’m so proud of them, I can’t say that enough.”

Haines 7th grader Sophia Long said despite the losses they would be ready to play Skagway again in two weeks. 

“It was pretty fun,” Long said. “But we kind of got a little bit upset here and there with the girls, but they did really great. And we’re glad we got to play against Skagway.”

Haines’ girls maintained a positive attitude, and showed improvement in teamwork throughout the weekend, said Haines girls coach Lori Giddings.

“It was a great contest. I was very proud of our girls because they played hard, they didn’t give up, and we saw vast improvement in their play from Friday to today. So I think they did great,” Giddings said.

Haines older middle school boys won all three games. The final score of the last Saturday game was 44 – 21 to Haines. And were able to turn practice plays into reality, said Haines 8th grader Kruze Lund.

“I feel like we did really good,” Lund said. “We were all like, collaborating and we were able to make all the plays good and score baskets.”

In the three games played by the younger boys Haines won two games, and Skagway won one.Haines coach James “Gooch Éesh” Hart said it was surprising to see the amount of growth  in his players during the tournament. 

“The kids grew leaps and bounds over the last couple of days,” Hart said. “They showed a lot of discipline in different areas that practice was lacking, and they learned how to pick things up on the fly, and really surprised me quite a bit. I wasn’t expecting the growth that I saw during these games.”

Haines and Skagway middle school basketball teams play again in two weeks, this time in Skagway on the Panther’s home court on December 3 and 4.