Good news, sports fans, the Haines Glacier Bears high school basketball season has tipped off. Coach Ann-Marie Fossman is deep in preparation mode. “I’m washing all the shorts to make them white again and we’re heading to Whitehorse on Thursday (December 12).” The girls and boys varsity teams and the middle school boys team were headed off for a series of pre-season games against Whitehorse teams. The middle school girls recently returned from a similar barnstorming trip to the Yukon.
High school basketball practices in Alaska officially began on Dec. 4, the day coaches were allowed to begin meeting with their teams. However “D League,” an opportunity for players to get together and play ball in an open gym format, has been going on since October. “We played a lot more D League this year,” said Carson Crager, one of the core players on the boys team. “Five on five, five days a week.” Haines alumni and city league ballplayers have been showing up at the gym to scrimmage with the varsity squads. Former Glacier Bears standout and current teacher, Fran Daly, recently emerged from the gym, sweating and smiling after running the floor with the girls team. “They’re working hard!” she announced.
Junior Hailey Boron is one of those hard-working Glacier Bears. She is also the only member of the team with two years of varsity experience. “Practice is going great,” she said. “We have a really energetic team and a completely new team.” Joining Boron on the team are three tenth graders and six ninth graders. Coach Greg Brittenham joked about the youthfulness of his team. “The cumulative age of all the players on the team adds up to about the cumulative age of Luanne (his wife and assistant coach) and me.” He tells his players, “You’ve got kind of a clean slate. You’ll make it what it is. You’ll decide what the culture of this team is going to be.”
Both teams feature a youth movement. Of the 23 student athletes playing basketball for Haines High School this year, 10 are freshman. There is only one senior, Kirby Faverty. Faverty turned some heads last year with his breakout junior season. He has spent the last two summers with family in the Philippines. “I played basketball a lot in the Philippines. There was a high level of competition.” “Kirby’s got a lot of skills,” coach Steve Fossman said. He spoke about his team’s assets. “The guys’ retention is great. We are able to pick up right where we left off last year. We’ve got a core of guys with a lot of game experience and they’ve developed good instincts.”
By press time, the Glacier Bears will have returned from their preseason games in Whitehorse and will be preparing to open their regular season with home games against perennial powerhouse Metlakatla on Friday December 20th and Saturday December 21st. If you are unable to attend, sports fan, you can watch it on youtube at your convenience.
After the New Year, the teams head to Skagway for a pair of non-conference match-ups with the Skagway Panthers. The rest of January will be packed with home games, as Haines plays host to the rest of our Region 5/2A opponents: Craig, Petersburg, and Wrangell. In February the teams hit the road to pay each of their four rival teams a two-game visit. The regular season will set the seeding for the Region 5 tournament this March in Juneau. From there, the top two teams will move on to state.
After the boys’ late season surge led them to the state tournament last year, Faverty said, “We can do better next year.” When I reminded him of that, he, Crager and a few of their teammates within earshot immediately exclaimed, “WE WILL!” Faverty went on to say, “We’ve been working hard. This is going to be a great year for us. We’re excited!”