Tuesday Gold Medal saw the first teams eliminated and tough action

Klas Stolpe
13 hours ago
9 min read

Physical play is the unique aspect that draws top talent and what fans like to see

Hydaburg's Ben Young (9), Kake's Derek Knudsen, Hydaburg's Darren Edenshaw and Kake's Dean Cavanaugh (33) and Rudy Bean react to Edenshaw's drive during their C Bracket game on Tuesday, March 24, at the Juneau Lions Club 77th Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

By Klas Stolpe

Juneau Independent

Bully ball, Cannery ball, Village ball, ‘Burg ball (homage to the 99833). Call it what you want, but this is the brand of Southeast basketball that excited tourney instigator Del Hanks in 1947. The southeast Alaska Boy Scout organizer saw more than the love and conversations about basketball among the communities he visited and with the support of the Juneau Lions Club in 1946, the play among the various hoops stars in the panhandle began with elbows and scraped knees and has morphed into the greatest game in town for a week every year.

“It is a lot of fun,” Klawock player/coach Nate Yockey said. “I told the kids before our game with Haines, ‘If you remember one thing that I say, this will be the most physical 40 minutes of your life.’ It defines how Gold Medal is and what makes the tournament special, it is its own brand of basketball. You go in there soft off one foot and whine to the referee, they will laugh at you. That is the brand, that is the way they play here. There is a lot of respect out there, but you have to earn it.”

Referees at Gold Medal have been officiating together for years and know each other’s calls. They “feel” the game, they want players to play and nobody to foul out and they know that border. If players cross the fence, the whistles come out.

Klawock was the first team to be eliminated on the third day of this year’s Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament, falling to Angoon 82-70.

“It was really fun, really physical and I loved the energy,” said first-year Gold Medal player Thomas Teal, a 2025 Klawock graduate. “It felt really good. It felt like I was in high school again. I really want to come back. What I am taking away from this tournament is just stay in the gym, stay ready and get in the weight room. I have really got to get into the weight room this year.”

Yockey is a 2018 Klawock graduate. He played at Highline College in Washington and Division III Aurora University in Illinois, earning a master’s degree and becoming a mental health therapist.

“Sports is life is a great metaphor and how you do something is how you do everything,” Yockey said. “The kind of person you are as an athlete is going to translate into who you are as an employee, who you are as a husband, who you are as a father and who your are as a community member. And so the program we are trying to build in Klawock to install those values that make good athletes but also make good people to share the community with, make good men. Because I think young men, especially in today’s day and age are really struggling and it is not addressed. Four times the rate of suicide and substance abuse, incarceration, all those kinds of things, especially from our small communities. So how you do something is how you do everything, we encourage them to be great athletes so they will be great humans.”

And officials know the young men want to play physical. No one came to Gold Medal to watch the officials “officiate.” They came to watch a flow of the game up and down the court, with limited whistles, but fair to both sides.

Mt. Edgecumbe's Aaron Porter (32) shoots against AML's Cody Grussendorf (13) and Kaleb Tompkins (4) during their A Bracket game on Tuesday, March 24, at the Juneau Lions Club 77th Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in the George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

The action in Gold Medal attracts young and old.

“My favorite team is Angoon,” Sebastian Nelson, 11, said. “Because my family plays on it.”

His family includes brothers Micah (Nelson) and Christian (Nelson) and uncle Aquino Brinson.

“He is my cousin, but I call him uncle,” Sebastian Nelson said.

His second favorite team is Kake, “Because my coaches play on it... Simon and Joe.”

Sebastian Nelson plays for Hoop Rats and is coached by Simon Friday and Joe Ortega. He likes the Gold Medal action. His third favorite team would be Hydaburg because “they are fun to watch and play physical and fast.”

After Angoon defeated Klawock, Nelson watched Hydaburg topple Kake 95-71 and then hung around to watch one of his favorite players, Kaleb Tompkins, in action for AML against Mt. Edgecumbe.

AML trailed big and with six minutes left in the game, it appeared they would open the Gold Medal A bracket with a loss.

But that is why favorite players play. AML fought back behind 32 points from Tompkins, who hit a shot at the buzzer to force overtime at 74-74 and his defense led them to an 89-79 win. The game was physical. Think of extreme combat and raise that a level.

“I feel like the more you play Gold Medal, the more you kind of get used to it,” Tompkins said. “So just playing hard, playing through all the physicality. I kind of enjoy it personally. I have dished it out, too. It goes both ways. You get some calls, you don’t get some calls. It is part of the game. I think it is just the passion that people play with and the fans. You hear the fans all week cheering their team on.”

Of the comeback, Tompkins said, “It was close the whole game. I didn’t know we would.”

The officials saw a lot of plays. They were aware of what they put into the game earlier and what each other had called. They have to keep that match going. They can’t have a “tacky-tack” foul on one end and not call it on the other because then they lose the fans, the players, the game because it won’t look even. It is a process that officials develop over years of experience. They show consistency, but fans are fans. They love their teams.

Now Nelson had a chance to sit with Tompkins and watch a classic battle between C bracket foes Hoonah and Metlakatla.

Hoonah would win 76-72 behind 22 points from Joseph Cornell Jr. and 18 from Travis Dybdahl. Metlakatla had 20 points from Mace Hayward and 16 from Apollo Marsden.

“Gold Medal has always been a little more physical,” Hayward said. “On of the more physical tournaments. You look forward to it every year and going against some of these bigger guys, you know, they all moved up from the B bracket, but it’s good. They definitely let you play. There is a little more grabbing and shoving. The physicality is there for sure. It is one of the funner tournaments to play in. When the clock starts they are the enemies and then when the clock is over it is all just part of the game.”

FILCOM's Bryson Echiverri (0) and Sean Oliver (24) defend Metlakatla's Clay Olstad during their A Bracket game on Tuesday, March 24, at the Juneau Lions Club 77th Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

Tuesday box scores:

B - Angoon 82, Klawock 70 - eliminated

Angoon 16 27 26 13 — 82

Klawock 15 14 18 23 — 70

Angoon — Aquino Brinson 20, Gregory Bennum 15, Clayton Edwin 10, Isaiah Nelson 8, Duncan O’Brien 8, Kyle Johnson Jr. 6, Christian Nelson 6, Tajaun Jamestown 5, Jonathan Jack-Nixon 4. 10 3PT FG / 20 2PT FG / 12-21 FT / 13 fouls - Jack-Nixon 3.

Klawock — Nathan Yockey 34, Brody Bazinet 14, Emett Fairbanks 6, Trae Marvin 6, Jason Skan 5, Xavier Friday 3, Thomas Teal 2. 8 3PT FG / 15 2PT FG / 16-18 FT / 16 fouls - Marvin 4, Bazinet 4.

C - Hydaburg 95, Kake 71

Hydaburg 31 19 23 22 — 95

Kake 23 9 19 20 — 71

Hydaburg — TJ Young 30, Darren Edenshaw 24, Joe Young 14, Ben Young 8, Don Alander 6, Devin Edenshaw 6, Tony Peele 5, Anthony Edenshaw 2. 12 3PT / 23 2PT / 13-17 FT / 12 fouls - J. Young 3, B. Young 3.

Kake — Trever Rostad 20, Rudy Bean 19, Dean Cavanaugh 9, Shea Jackson 6, Derek Knudsen 6, Travis Aceveda 5, Deion Jackson 4, Kelly Brown 2. 9 3PT / 19 2PT / 6-12 FT / 14 fouls - Rostad 3, Brown 3.

A - AML 87 (1-0), Mt. Edgecumbe 79 (0-1)

AML 16 14 21 23 15 — 89

MT. Edge. 18 17 18 21 5 — 79

AML — Kaleb Tompkins 32, Chase Saviers 14, Will Gisler 9, Kolby Hoover 9, Cody Grussendorf 8, Tristan Ross 5, Ryan Lee 4, Mahina Toutaiolepo 4, Collin Ludeman 2, Ethan Kadake 2. 21 2PT / 9 3PT / 20-33 FT / 19 fouls - Hoover 5, Grussendorf 4.

Mt. Edgecumbe — Jacobe Friske 28, Jamal Alstrom 17, Tyrell Cromer 12, Andrew Friske 9, RJ Didrickson 7, Aaron Porter 4, Jaylin Prince 2. 15 2PT/ 11 3PT / 16-27 FT / 18 fouls - J. Friske 5, Alstrom 4.

C - Hoonah 76 (2-0), Metlakatla 72 (0-1)

Hoonah 19 18 26 13 — 76

Metlakatla 19 20 9 24 — 72

Hoonah — Joseph Cornell JR 22, Travis Dybdahl 18, Anthony Lindoff 14, Brian Koenig 11, Jon Torres 5, Jordan Coronell 4, Donald Dybdahl 2. 21 2PT / 6 3PT / 9-31 FT / 14 fouls - Torres 5.

Metlakatla — Mace Hayward 20, Apollo Marsden 16, Clifton Guthrie 13, Chris Booth 10, Brad Martinez 5, Jason Enright 4, Dan Marsden 4. 13 2PT / 12 3PT / 10-16 FT / 24 fouls - Martinez 5, Hayward 4, Marsden 4, Guthrie 4.

A - Metlakatla 86 (1-0), FILCO 75 (0-1)

Metlakatla 24 23 20 19 — 86

FILCO 17 21 11 26 — 75

Metlakatla — Nate Yockey 30, Archie Dundas JR 17, Clay Olstad 17, Kyan Scudero 8, Porter Nelson 6, Sebastian Martinez 3, Thomas Teal 3. 24 2PT / 12 3PT / 2-6 FT / 11 fouls - Dundas JR 3.

FILCO — Brady Caradang 28, Bryson Echiverri 20, Alwen Carrillo 7, Sean Oliver 7, Bryce Swofford 6, Samuel Lockhart 5, Tony Yadao 2. 17 2PT / 12 3PT / 5-10 FT / 14 fouls - Echiverri 4, Swofford 4.

B - Kake 86 (1-1), Metlakatla 58 (0-2) - eliminated

Kake 20 28 23 15 — 86

Metlakatla 17 18 8 15 — 58

Kake — Bryce Knudsen 22, Ethan Kadake 18, Keontay Jackson 12, Simon Friday 12, Dominic Ross 6, Tristan Ross 6, Dakwaneek Crookes 4, Joseph Ortega 2, Shawn Merry 2, Jonah Davis 2. 21 2PT / 13 3PT / 5-10 FT / 14 fouls - D. Ross 3, T. Ross 3.

Metlakatla — Brody Booth 15, Archie Dundas JR 14, Carter Marsden 13, Conrad Hudson JR 9, Elijah Casperson 4, Kyan Scudero 3. 20 2PT / 5 3PT / 3-11 FT / 11 fouls - Caspersen 3.