In early January 2013, it was hardly surprising the Alaska Aces owned the best record in the ECHL, a 23-team, minor-league circuit two rungs below the NHL on North America’s hockey ladder. That’s in part because the Aces savored the services of four NHL forwards from...
Level after level, league after league, Brian Swanson delivered points – a ton of them. The hockey center from Eagle River spearheaded Chugiak High to two state championships during a time when he also flourished on his club team. In two seasons with the Anchorage...
In middle school, Daishen Nix and Isaiah Moses spent endless hours on basketball courts in Anchorage helping each other work on their game. Then they went different directions in high school and figured they’d probably never face off in a high school game. But they...
Wasilla’s Brittney Kroon overcame a liver transplant in high school to become one of the greatest shot blockers in NCAA D2 women’s basketball history and the best to come out of the GNAC. The 6-foot-4 center played at Seattle Pacific University from 2002 to 2006 and...
The first Alaskan to play hockey in the Olympics, Eagle River’s Pam Dreyer won a bronze medal with Team USA as a goaltender at the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy. She also owns a silver medal from the 2004 World Championships, making her one of the most decorated Alaska...
One of the true coaching icons of Alaska high school football, Tom Huffer Sr. built the Chugiak Mustangs into a perennial powerhouse during his 19 years as head coach. He was there in 1969 when the program got off the ground and in 1984 and 1988 when Chugiak was...
American Legion Baseball is celebrating its centennial birthday this summer, and although the party didn't start in Alaska until 1953, seven decades is still worth commemorating as The Last Frontier has produced a plethora of MLB draft picks, no-hitters and walk-offs...
Palmer’s Jessica Moore was a winner at every level of her basketball career and in 2009 almost became the first Alaskan to win championships at the high school, college and professional level. The Indiana Fever advanced to the WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury,...
Eagle River’s Nicci Ward had it all working for the Villanova University softball team on April 20, 2008. The senior right-handed pitcher threw a no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Providence College in the Big East Conference. Ward, of Chugiak High fame, is the only Alaska...
In a high-stakes game of 5-on-3, the Koliganek Huskies defied the odds to capture the Class 1A girls basketball championship in 1986. The Huskies, a team with five players on the roster, defeated Klawock 29-26 despite losing two players to fouls in the final minutes....
Kotzebue’s Butch Lincoln broke down social and racial barriers with the same easiness that he used to break down an opponent’s press defense on the basketball court. More than just an all-star player in high school and college, he was a trailblazer for Alaska Natives...