At 8 a.m. basketball games, wake-up call is literal rather than metaphorical

This was not the metaphorical wake-up call often referenced in sports. This was the real deal, though it wasn't an actual wake-up call from the hotel's front desk. Instead, Kelsey Callaghan's knuckles served as the alarm clock.

This was Thursday, and an altogether indecent hour — 6 a.m. — to arise and prepare to play the most meaningful basketball game of the season two hours later.

Callaghan, the coach of the Selawik girls, made her way down the hallway at the SpringHill Suites University Lake rapping on her players' doors.

"She knocks loud,'' junior Shaylynn Hingsbergen noted.

Sophomore Kali Howarth heard Callaghan knocking on her door and immediately thought: "Stand up! Get up!''

Time to rise.

And, hopefully, time to shine.

A curiosity — cruelty? — of the annual state high school basketball tournaments are the unfortunate 8 a.m. tip-offs. Now that's some March Madness.

[Photos: Day 2 of 2017 March Madness Alaska]

There's not much of an option, particularly in Class 1A, which includes Selawik, located just above the Arctic Circle in Northwest Alaska. Sixteen Class 1A girls teams and 16 Class 1A boys teams reach the state tournament and play a combined 52 games during four days at UAA's Alaska Airlines Center.

Throw in the accompanying eight Class 2A girls teams and eight Class 2A boys teams and the combined 22 games they play during three days, and you're talking 74 total games in a span of four days.

Games at the 1A and 2A tournaments start as late as 8:45 p.m., so there's really no pushing the schedule deeper into the night. Thus, 8 a.m. openers it is.

And for players, coaches, fans, referees, scorekeepers, public address announcers, national anthem singers, concession workers, arena personnel and, most assuredly, an aging sportswriter who fancies himself a night owl, that means waking up before there's a hint of light on the horizon.

Darkness reigned when Callaghan banged on her players' hotel-room doors Thursday morning.

She employed the same 6 a.m. wake-up drill Wednesday, when the Selawik girls had another 8 a.m. tip-off. The Wolves dispatched Gambell, 62-36, on Wednesday, so Callaghan figured there was no reason to change things Thursday morning.

"That's good — two hours before the game, enough time to wake up and be ready for a game,'' she said. "If it's not broken, don't fix it.''

At 6:30 a.m. Thursday, the Wolves convened downstairs at their hotel for breakfast. Callaghan let each player determine what to eat before a quarterfinal game against Aniak.

"I tell them, 'Eat what you want,' '' Callaghan said. "They know what they need better than anyone else.''

Hingsbergen kept it light — fruit. Howarth fueled up on scrambled eggs and sausage.

Hingsbergen said she usually wakes up around 8:30 a.m. on a school day — classes start at 9 in Selawik. Still, she said, a 6 a.m. wake-up call isn't too severe. Hey, after all, it's the state tournament.

"Once you start getting up, moving around, you're waking up slowly,'' she said. "By the time I got on the court, I was pumped.''

Besides, Hingsbergen noted, the Wolves sometimes on regular-season road trips play a Friday night game followed by a Saturday mid-morning game, so they are somewhat accustomed to early starting times.

Howarth said she figures an 8 a.m. game is just a variation on "open gym in the morning.''

Still, Callaghan said, the Wolves usually practice at 5:30 p.m. At the state tournament, she wants her team to follow a routine and be as well-rested as possible.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday night, Callaghan gathered her players' cellphones at 9:30 p.m. and asked them to be in bed at 10 p.m. If they could not fall asleep immediately, at least they were resting.

The coach figured less screen-time before bed would aid her players' ability to fall asleep. Teenagers aren't the only demographic that can fall prey to a cellphone time-suck, Callaghan recognized.

"You know how it is — you're looking at your phone and all of a sudden you go, 'It's 1:30, what am I doing?' '' she said.

The Wolves on both Wednesday and Thursday arrived at the arena at 7 a.m. At 7:30 a.m. Thursday, they conducted some light warm-up drills and then began shooting.

"I want them sweating and awake,'' Callaghan said.

Until Aniak took the floor for warm-ups, Callaghan had her players shooting at the basket they would be shooting at in the fourth quarter.

"I like for them to shoot at the hoop they'll be finishing on,'' she said. "Those are the money shots.''

Selawik beat Aniak, 66-57, to advance to the semifinals. Hingsbergen delivered 25 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and five steals, all game highs. Her younger sister Marjorie, a freshman, furnished 18 points. And Jia Ballot bagged 13 rebounds. All of that offset 21 points from Aniak's Shauna Koonuk and 17 from Kayla Morgan.

Perhaps Selawik benefitted from rest. Shaylynn Hingsbergen said she didn't fall asleep Tuesday night until midnight. But after playing a game Wednesday morning, doing some shopping with her teammates and getting in the half-hour of pool time Callaghan allowed players at the hotel, she and her teammates were ready for an earlier tuck-in Wednesday night.

"Everyone was knocked out,'' she said.

Selawik's victory over Aniak pushed it into Friday's semifinals against King Cove. That game is scheduled for 3:45 p.m., which the Wolves found to be exciting news.

"We finally get to sleep in,'' Howarth said.

This column is the opinion of sports reporter Doyle Woody. Reach him at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter.com/JaromirBlagr