Weather slows down the Crimson Bears again
- Klas Stolpe
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Anchorage road conditions postpone all school activities, including tourney JDHS is in
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
It appears that only nature can stop the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears boys basketball team from continuing their work on the court.
The Anchorage School District on Friday cancelled all ASD activities, sports, tournaments and community rentals due to extreme icy road conditions.
For the JDHS basketball team, currently playing in the East Anchorage T-Bird Classic, that means an extra day to go over Friday night's 80-60 loss to the Colony Knights, relax a bit more and prepare for Saturday’s game against the three-time defending state champion Bettye Davis East Anchorage Thunderbirds.
“Lots of time for the team to reflect on last night's game, but don’t dwell on the negative,” JDHS assistant coach John Sleppy said. “We will spend the morning watching film and later have a shoot around. Possibly visiting UAA men’s practice.”
Weekend and holiday sports, activities, and events from Saturday to Monday will continue as planned.
“We played poorly, but we were still in the game until the fourth quarter,” Sleppy said. “Our defense let us down and unforced errors helped our demise. Also, we need more pressure on the ball. Too many opportunities we didn’t capitalize on.”
Sleppy said the team was told, “It is only one game and we need to focus on the positive. Don’t obsess on the past move forward.”
East defeated Ketchikan 43-25 last season for the state title, toppled now defunct Thunder Mountain 60-34 for the 2024 crown, nipped West Valley 53-48 for the 2023 title (WV defeated JDHS 60-37 to open the tourney), and fell to South Anchorage 37-35 in the 2022 championship, in that tournament they opened with a 59-46 first round win over JDHS.
“East is an incredibly well-coached team,” Sleppy said. “Coach (Chuck) Martin has an athletic team this year and he always has them ready to play. We need to take care of the ball on offense and limit East to only one shot and it will be a game to watch.”
Assistant coach Sleppy is filling in while head coach Robert Casperson attends a Duke University game along with JDHS alum Carlos Boozer. Boozer’s sons Cameron and Cayden are freshmen starters on the Blue Devils.
JDHS had also been working with the Bartlett High School Golden Bears for an early game Saturday before facing East later in the day. East coach Martin and JDHS coach Casperson were working with the Bartlett staff to secure the contest and the Crimson Bears will now play the Golden Bears at 9 a.m. Saturday and play East at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Obviously you are worried about people and their safety,” JDHS coach Casperson said in a phone interview from California earlier on Friday.
A two-game day is great conditioning for region tournaments and for the state tournament, where games can be played as early as 8 a.m. JDHS also did that for teams at the Capital City Classic during this past snowstorm.
“Our guys are excited for the opportunity to go up there and play,” Casperson had said before the Saturday games were finalized. “We can’t do anything about the weather but playing two games in a day is a solution… for sure we play East... It is unfortunate as games are hard to come by for us and to lose one for things out of your control is a bummer. Morning games are not fun but you might play at 8 a.m. at a state tournament… East is very solid, very athletic, and is going to be a great test for guys to see where we are at this point of the year. We are almost half way into our season and I think this is East’s third or fourth game of the year…”
The revised scheudle for Saturday:
9 a.m. Boys - JDHS vs. Bartlett.
11 a.m. Girls - Colony vs. Lathrop.
12:30 p.m. Boys - JDHS vs. East.
2 p.m. Girls - East vs. North Pole.
3:30 p.m. Boys - Colony vs. Bartlett.
East opened the season with a 65-58 loss to Grace Christian and then defeated South 53-49 and Bartlett 85-28.
For Casperson the trip to watch Duke is a chance to catch up with Carlos Boozer but still give the Crimson Bears growth while he is away.
“Carlos is out golfing right now with his former Duke teammate Mike Dunleavy Jr., not Sr. (Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy),” Casperson said. “The guys in Anchorage are going to do just great. They will roll with whatever this is and make the most of it, get a little bonding time and watch ‘Hoosiers’ or some other classic basketball movie tonight or watch game film, something to work this to our advantage. With coach Sleppy and coach Carriker with them they are in a good spot and will be ready for tomorrow whatever comes… we had talked about it, that I would not be there… they actually seemed kind of excited for me to get to come down here and do this. And we talked about the fact that coach led teams can be good but player led teams can be great. And they want to achieve greatness, so they have to start taking on more responsibility for what we do and this is a good opportunity…”
The JDHS boys will play at Ketchikan next weekend while the JDHS girls travel to Barrow.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
