The tournament program for this week's state basketball championships isn't just a guide to who's who on each of the 64 teams that qualified to play at Sullivan Arena.
It includes 25-year-old newspaper stories written about the 1985 state championship games -- which, in turn, offer glimpses of the future.
The story about the Class 3A girls triple-overtime title game, in which Haines outlasted Wrangell 51-49, talked about the four points Ranee Swinton scored for Haines in the final overtime. Later, it mentions Sarah Olerud, who led Haines with 27 points.
Olerud went on to marry Swinton's brother. She's the mother and Swinton is the aunt of 6-foot-4 sophomore Tyler Swinton, whose nine points and nine rebounds helped the Haines boys to a 46-45 championship game victory over Nome in Wednesday's 3A boys finale.
The story about Service's 76-50 victory over North Pole in the girls Class 4A game mentions the leading player for North Pole -- Jeannie Hebert, whose outside shooting was worth a team-high 15 points for the Patriots.
Hebert went on to a stellar college career at the University of Miami, where she was one of the first Alaska girls to play Division I college hoops.
This week, she was back at the state tournament -- her name is Jeannie Hebert-Truax now -- as the head coach of the Wasilla Warriors, who lost to Juneau-Douglas in the 4A girls title match.
Finally, the account of East High's 69-46 victory over Bartlett in the 4A boys championship notes that the title was the eighth in 20 seasons for Thunderbirds coach Chuck White.
"Eight and counting," White was quoted as saying.
He wasn't kidding. Wednesday, West High beat Wasilla to win the 4A boys title and secure White's 18th career state title. The first 14 came with East and the last four have come with the Eagles.
White's 18 titles in 41 seasons as an Alaska coach -- he spent four seasons coaching a Washington high school team between the East and West gigs -- is a record that quite likely will never be improved upon. Unless White comes back next season and wins another one.
Of all the gin joints...
Two of the most imposing figures at the state tournament this week weren't players. They were former players who together helped the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1982-83 NBA championship.
Clem Johnson was at Sullivan Arena looking at players. He's the UAF men's coach.
Mark McNamara was on the bench as an assistant coach with Haines, the winner of the Class 3A boys championship Wednesday.
The 6-foot-10 Johnson and the 6-11 McNamara were teammates for a single season in Philadelphia, but, oh, what a season. Led by Julius Erving and Moses Malone, the Sixers won the NBA title that season.
Johnson spent 10 years in the league and McNamara eight.
Location alert!
Today's games for fourth place will be played at UAA's Wells Fargo Sports Complex. The 1A girls play there at 9 a.m., the 1A boys at 10:40 a.m. the 2A girls at 12:20 p.m. and the 2A boys at 2 p.m.
All of the day's other games will be played at Sullivan Arena.
A numbers game
Kivalina boys basketball coach Richard Sage must pay attention to two numbers during the season: the number of players available -- and the temperature.
The Qavviks -- or Wolverines -- qualified their five-man team for the state tournament despite playing only a handful of games.
"We had only nine games, a lot due to the cold weather. We couldn't fly," Sage said.
When they do fly, the Qavviks are limited to number of people they can take.
"We are only allowed eight players and a coach, or seven players and two coaches," Sage said.
In their state tournament consolation loss to Fort Yukon on Friday, the Qavviks finished the game with four players after senior Qatuk Wesley fouled out with 11.7 seconds remaining.
Playing 4 on 5, the Qavviks outscored the Eagles 3-0 thanks to a 3-pointer by freshman Shield Stalker.
With five players -- and sometimes fewer -- Sage looks for ways to keep everyone as fresh as possible for 32 minutes.
"I have them take the ball down the court slowly to conserve energy then hustle back on defense, that's the important part," he said.
More numbers
Boys and girls champions are being crowned this week in each of Alaska's four classifications, which are based on school enrollments:
Class 4A -- 401 students or more; Class 3A -- 101 to 400 students; Class 2A -- 51 to 100 students; Class 1A -- 5 to 50 students.
Some schools play up a classification, sometimes for geographical reasons, sometimes by choice.
Hydaburg, a Southeast school with a high school enrollment of 15, is one that plays up -- in 2A -- for geographical reasons. There are nine boys in the school and all nine play on the team.
Heritage Christian, an Anchorage school with 50 high school students, plays in 3A for competitive reasons.
The average enrollment at an Anchorage public high school is about 1,800 -- more than the combined enrollments of every school competing in the 1A and 2A tournaments.
As for those 1A and 2A schools ... if you wonder where they're located, the names of their conferences provide a clue:
Southeast (Skagway, Yakutat, Hydaburg, Klawock); Yukon-Kuskokwim (Chevak, Russian Mission, Tuluksak, Kwethluk, Akiak, Napaskiak); Coastal (Elim, Shaktoolik); Peninsula (Cook Inlet Academy, Ninilchik); Northwest/Bering Sea (Point Hope, Noorvik, Noatak, Alak, Kivalina); Interior (Northway, Tri-Valley, Fort Yukon, Nunamuit) and Aleutians (Port Lions, Newhalen).
By RICHARD LARSON and BETH BRAGG
sports@adn.com