Su Valley Girls Win Conference Basketball Tournament, Head to State

CORRECTION: The original version of this story stated that the boys basketball team would not be going to the state tournament after finishing third. We have been informed that the Interior Conference is receiving an extra berth to the tournament this year, thus the boys have also qualified. We apologize for the error.

The Su Valley Rams girls basketball team is headed to the state tournament for the first time in decades after winning the Interior Conference tournament over the weekend.

The Lady Rams could have potentially qualified for the state tournament last year, but it was cancelled like so many spring events due to COVID-19.

Su Valley Athletic Director and girls basketball coach Jimmy Sickler is proud of the way his team performed.

“They had a great tournament.  On the first day they beat Tok, then in the second game took down Glennallen in a pretty convincing performance…”

Sickler says the Su Valley boys also played hardfinishing third at conference. The Interior Conference gets an extra berth to the state tournament this year, meaning the boys will also get a title shot. The girls and boys teams both took home the tournament sportsmanship award, in addition to a number of individual awards, according to Coach Sickler.

“We had two guys make the all conference team this year:  CJ Goodman, who’s a senior captain, and Bryson Jolley, who’s a junior and also a captain.  On the girls side, we were fortunate to get three girls on the all conference team:  Senior Kenna Grenier, junior India Roderick, and sophomore Emma Kehoe.”

There isn’t much downtime before the state tournament, which begins on Thursday.  Su Valley will take on Unalakleet (YOO-nah-LAH-kleet) in the first round.  Coach Sickler says Unalakleet is a strong team that could compete for the state title, but he believes that the Su Valley girls can win if they bring their “A” game.  The Su Valley boys will play Hooper Bay on Thursday evening for their first game.

While COVID-19 has not caused this year’s state tournament to be canceled, it has had a major impact on the season, including a mask requirement on the court.  Coach Sickler says playing with masks has been difficult, but necessary.

“Obviously they would rather be playing without masks on.  It’s a lot easier to breathe, et cetera, but we also possibly…wouldn’t be able to have a season.  So we’re willing to do what it takes to be able to play basketball.”

No matter what happens at the state tournament, Coach Sickler is optimistic for the team going forward, with most players eligible to return next year, when they can hopefully play without masks, again.

State tournament games will be streamed, at a cost, by the NFHS Network.