High school students, staff celebrate homecoming week with pep, spirit and wins

Homecoming at Wrangell High School began with Spirit Week and ended in three hard-fought wins and one loss for the varsity basketball teams.

Petersburg's varsity and junior varsity teams came to town to compete against the Wolves amid pep rallies, retirement ceremonies and the crowning of Wrangell's royal homecoming court.

A taco lunch and pep rally kicked off the run-up to last Friday's and Saturday's games by enlivening students and staff. Sophomore Mia Wiederspohn organized the Friday pep rally, starting it off by presenting high schoolers and middle schoolers with gift certificates for free hamburgers from Zak's Café and J&W's - made possible through her and junior Rylee Chelette's grant writing efforts and a donation from the high school's BASE program.

That led into fun and games such as musical chairs, with 15 boys and Wolfie, the school's mascot, vying for the last chair left by the end of the often-raucous game. Senior Rowen Wiederspohn dropped into the lone chair as the band abruptly stopped playing.

"Are you guys ready to make some noise," Mia Wiederspohn asked the students in the stands as the afternoon's festivities continued.

Both Wrangell and Petersburg had enough players to hold a boys junior varsity game before the boys and girls varsity basketball games. A one-period, 20-minute JV game was held each night in front of a packed crowd in the gym.

The JV Wolves scored within the first two minutes of play on Friday, with Petersburg finally getting points on the board at almost five minutes into play. The younger Wrangell team held its visiting competitors at bay, winning the first night's game 22-4. Saturday night's game had similar results with the addition of an exciting three-point basket made from junior Carter Hammer from downtown, landing nothing but net and firing up the crowd.

"We're pretty short in size, but the guys make up for it in talent and giving 100% effort all the time," said JV head coach Robbie Marshall. "As coaches we just try to do our best to get them to do what we're asking. They were definitely doing that, they were playing the passing lane, they were running their plays. You just got to let them loose and play basketball. We got the W in the end."

Between the JV and varsity games on Friday, longtime referees Jeff Jabusch and Fred Angerman Jr. were honored for their years of officiating. Their colleagues Keith Perkins and Bill Steinbach came to town to laud the two retiring refs.

"That's 70 years worth of officiating (between the two)," Perkins said. "There's a lot of years on the court at the state tournament from these guys because that's how well respected they were throughout Southeast Alaska, not just here in Wrangell."

The excitement of the games continued throughout the weekend between the varsity teams, with the boys showing a cohesive effort. Despite Petersburg's height advantage, the Wolves kept up a strong defense while plowing ahead with their offensive play on Friday. At first it seemed the Vikings would be able to put their height to good use by scoring first, but Wrangell answered with a three-pointer. They kept the buckets coming and won the game 48-31.

The girls varsity had a tougher time of Friday night's game, struggling to keep up with the Lady Vikings. A bevy of missed shots and struggling defense led to a 37-28 Petersburg victory.

Saturday's games brought more energy and roof-raising noise between the court, band, cheerleaders and onlooking crowd, at times making it hard to hear.

The girls took to the hardwood first with the Lady Wolves presenting a stronger front than the previous night. Senior Liana Carney scored the first point of the night at 2:30 into the first period. It would be another 90 seconds before Petersburg scored due to Wrangell's stepped-up defense. The first half ended with Wrangell ahead 21-15.

In the second half, the Lady Vikings started coming from behind, closing the deficit. It was tight in the last 10 seconds with the visitors only two points behind. Wrangell was able to hold them off, winning 35-33.

"I know our girls can do much better," head coach Christina Good said. "We seem to be a little bit flat on defense still. Defense, in my opinion is the key to winning games. Friday night we missed 40 shots, which hurt us offensively, and we had 20 turnovers. Tonight was better, but we still missed a lot of shots, and a lot of that is because we get going so fast. We just need to slow it down ... and let the game come to us."

The homecoming royal court was chosen between the final two games. Daniel Harrison and Aubrey Wynne were chosen and the prince and princess of the freshman class. Cody Eastaugh and Mia Wiederspohn were chosen as prince and princess for the sophomore class. Devlyn Campbell and Brodie Gardner were selected as prince and princess of the junior class.

The senior class royal court was comprised of Jake Eastaugh, Liana Carney, Ryan Rooney, Kendra Meissner, Rowen Wiederspohn and Jamie Early. Rooney and Meissner were chosen king and queen of the class.

Varsity boys continued their power-packed play on Saturday, scoring first in just over two minutes of play. The tension between the two teams was on display, with fouls piling up on both sides. In the third period, senior Ryan Rooney fouled out. Strong play kept Wrangell ahead of the visiting team, leading to a 30-23 victory.

Girls and boys varsity are scheduled to travel to Petersburg next week for another cross-water rivalry.