Instead of being content with being a perennial powerhouse at the 3A level, Grace Christian boys basketball coach Jason Boerger always sought out challenges and scheduled as many games against 4A opponents as possible.
From now on, the Grizzlies will be playing higher levels of competition predominantly after opting to get moved up to the 4A level during the offseason. Through the first month of the season, they already look like they belong.
“It’s been pretty much ideal,” Boerger said. “It’s hard to argue with 10-1 right now, winning three tournaments and it’s been a real pleasant surprise watching our young guys continue to see the fruit of their labor.”
They dedicated a lot of time during the offseason to build their chemistry and it’s paid off as the key to their hot start.
“I’m just really proud of their mentality, their effort and we just have a nice balanced team,” Boerger said.
While the Grace Christian boys program elected to move up to the 4A level, the girls team did not.
At the 3A level, the Grizzlies didn’t have to sweat and grind out games nearly as often as the one they played on Tuesday night against visiting Wasilla in a 71-67 victory. Boerger said the team is grateful for the experience that comes with being consistently challenged by higher level competition on a consistent basis.
“Going up from 3A to 4A, pretty much every game is going to be a battle the way we see it,” Boerger said. “There’s just not going to be gimmes. We have to show up every night and have that postseason feel. That’s where our mindset is at and we’re embracing the challenge of being at 4A and we’re here to win it.”
He acknowledges that there are formidable teams at this level but their expectation is that they can still be the best team in the state.
“We just have to keep improving and look forward to seeing what happens these next couple of months,” Boerger said.
The Grace Christian boys are now part of the Northern Lights conference where they play the likes of Colony, Wasilla, Palmer, Mountain City Christian, Soldotna and Kodiak on a regular basis.
“It’s super exciting, we always knew it was coming so I think it wasn’t super surprising when we got moved up,” senior guard Robbie Annett said. “I think it’s more of a challenge and we can grow more as a team when we’re up at 4A.”
The Warriors gave the Grizzles a tough fight on Tuesday night with neither team leading by more than a single-digit margin throughout the back-and-forth game.
“It’s good for us,” junior forward Bristol Tobin said. “It builds character, it makes us become tighter together and have a better bond and we’ll just become better as a team by playing in games like this.”
Filling the big shoes of program legend
Both Annett and Tobin are leading the collective effort to make up for the loss of losing 2024 Gatorade Player of the Year Kellen Jedlicka, who graduated last spring. Thus far, they’ve both proven to be more than up to the task as has the rest of the team.
“Kellen was kind of the center of everything as far as the main cog of our offense and everything kind of ran through him but it’s been really great seeing Bristol step up and fill that role and do a fantastic job at it,” Boerger said.
He believes that Tobin can finish at the rim as well as Jedlicka ever did and contributions from Annett as both a leader and playmaker on the court have been key to their success as well.
“I love his motor,” Boerger said. “He plays up and down the floor, is a beautiful athlete and he does a lot of great stuff for us. We’ve got a lot of different guys but those two have definitely been great this year.”
They are both captains on the team along with junior guard Ashton Clarkson.
“Together, we’re somewhat of the core of the team and I think that without the others around us, obviously we wouldn’t have anyone to lead and they’re terrific teammates,” Annett said. “It’s kind of easy to be a leader when you have good guys around you.”
Following a familiar script
Most of this year’s group got to play behind and learn from cousins Luke and Sloan Lentfer, who are former 3A Players of the Year. During their senior year in 2022-2023 season, the Grizzlies were one of the most dominant teams in the state, winning every tournament they took part in including the Alaska Airlines Classic where they defeated California power Heritage Christian and earned the apt nickname “Tournament Terminators.”
“We always felt that year, we were just as good as anybody else at 4A and now these guys have the opportunity to play and see if we’re just as good as anybody else,” Boerger said. “They’ve been really humble and worked hard and that’s made this process work.”
[Tournament terminators: Grace Christian pulls off upset to claim Alaska Airlines Classic title]
Annett was a sophomore on that team and feels like this team can achieve identical, if not greater, feats this year.
“It’s very similar and I think it’s kind of different just the group of guys,” he said. “We’re all a lot smaller than three years ago. We had a whole bunch of brutes on our team and I think our play style is completely different but I’m feeling the same thing.”
The Grizzlies avenged their lone 4A loss of the season already this past weekend when they won the Alaska Prep Shootout. They took down reigning tournament champion West Valley in the finals a couple weeks after narrowly falling to the Wolfpack 45-44 in their fourth game of the season up in Fairbanks.
Grace will host the regional tournament for the Northern Lights conference and hope to successfully defend their homecourt and qualify for the state tournament where they want to make even more noise.
“I think we’ve just been playing really good as a team and we’ve all been looking out for each other and trying to make the best play to help out the whole team in general,” Tobin said. “We’ve been successful that way and we’ll keep playing like that.”