Seward native Daryl Simpson, an assistant athletic director at Middle Tennessee State, hadn't been home for Thanksgiving in 19 years before this year's Great Alaska Shootout.
That changed when Middle Tennessee State received an invitation to the tournament and MTSU coach Kermit Davis decided to let Simpson come along with the team.
"I'm just excited to be back," Simpson said. "It's pretty cool to be back. Our coach has been awesome this whole time, kind of letting me go away and hang out with some family too so I don't have too much to do while I'm here, but I'm still trying to help out while I'm here."
Simpson's friends and family can be spotted throughout the Alaska Airlines Center this week whenever the Blue Raiders are playing. The Seward crew provided some support to an MTSU team that played in a rowdy Alaska Airlines Center against upset-minded UAA in the Shootout's opening round.
The Blue Raiders edged the Seawolves on Thursday 75-72 in the tournament opener for both teams. MTSU played again in the late semifinal against UNC Asheville on Friday.
"You'll see a bunch of my family in Middle Tennessee shirts all here, so we got them out here to cheer us on," Simpson said. "It is a big crowd and we wanted our guys to have some blue out there. My family is pretty excited to watch the Shootout."
Simpson said he tries to make the 4,000-mile trek back to Seward from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at least once a year, but winter sports schedules make it hard to go during the holidays. He said he normally has to go back during the summer.
And like most Alaskans, Simpson said he loves the outdoors. One of his pastimes is fishing, even though the fish are much smaller in Tennessee.
"A lot smaller fish," Simpson joked. "There's a lot more bass fishing. You don't go catching a 300-pound halibut out there."
Simpson has been living in Tennessee for eight years. Previously, he went to college at Northern Arizona and spent time at MTSU and at North Texas' athletic department before returning to the Blue Raiders for his current associate athletic director position.
He said he tries to go out and enjoy the Tennessee outdoors whenever he has the chance.
"… They have some of the most amazing waterfalls," Simpson said. "Not as big as Alaska waterfalls when you kind of get on the railroad and stuff, but there's some really cool plateaus and a lot of lakes around there. When I'm not working, I try to get out and enjoy some of that."
Best and wackiest nicknames
If the GCI Great Alaska Shootout gave an award for the best nickname, it would probably go to the Drexel Dragons.
According to the school's website, there's no origin story for why the mythological creature is the mascot for the Philadelphia college, but Dragons are definitely fiercer than the "Engineers" or the "Drexelites" — some of the team's earlier names.
The Dragon nickname first appeared in a 1928 football article in Drexel's student newspaper, The Triangle.
There is a story behind Toledo's nickname -- the Rockets -- although it doesn't have anything to do with space travel. Toledo's website states the name originated at a 1923 football game against Carnegie Tech. Pittsburgh sports writers at the game gave the task of coming up with a nickname for Toledo to student James Neal after realizing the team didn't have one.
Neal chose the "Skyrockets" even though Toledo failed to light up the scoreboard in the loss. It was later shortened to the "Rockets," and the name stuck.
(Maybe someone connected with girls hockey in Anchorage can channel Neal's spirit. None of the three teams have nicknames, because each team includes players from multiple schools, including one with players from four teams. Chugiak-Eagle River-East-Service is a team in desperate need of a nickname, if only for the benefit of headline writers).
San Diego's nickname might be the most puzzling. What is a Torero, anyway? Turns out the word is Spanish for "bullfighter," coming from "toro" (bull) and "torear" (to fight bulls). Before 1961, San Diego was known as the Pioneers.
Loyola Chicago is the only college in the nation nicknamed the Ramblers, which according to the school's website originated in 1926 when the football team went "rambling" across the country playing games.
The football team apparently rambled itself out. Loyola Chicago dropped football as a varsity sport, but the nickname stuck.
Western Kentucky's Hilltoppers nickname makes the most sense of this year's Shootout teams because the university does, in fact, sit atop a hill.
A Sophie's choice for Dede
?Dede Allen, UAA associate athletic director, came into this week's tournament with inner turmoil.
She's a 1984 graduate of UNC Asheville, and she spent eight years working as an administrator at the North Carolina university. Since 1994, she's been an administrator at UAA.
So when the field for this year's tournament was announced and Allen saw that her alma mater was coming to town, she was conflicted. Momentarily.
"I know who's paying me," Allen said with a laugh. "If they wind up in the same bracket, I'll be cheering for the green-and-gold."
Sports editor Beth Bragg contributed to this notebook.