Elaina Mack’s off-season training paved the way for her breakout season on the UAA basketball team

When University of Alaska Anchorage head women’s basketball coach Ryan McCarthy was recruiting King Cove’s Elaina Mack, he saw two potential outcomes.

At bare minimum, he and his staff believed she could be a useful role player. But Mack also had the potential to develop into more if she worked hard and sacrificed.

After being a key role player the past two years, Mack has emerged in a more prominent role and been integral to the 10-1 Seawolves’ start to the season. She leads the team in scoring with an average of 16 points per game through the first 11 games.

Mack credits her successful start to a summer of off-season work.

“I had a very dedicated summer this year to basketball, and I think that has helped me and my confidence tremendously,” Mack said. “I’ve got a great group of teammates this year and they’re about (winning) and want to win too just as much as I do.”

McCarthy said Mack’s game has advanced significantly since last season, evolving into the player he’d hoped she could become.

“There’s not too many players that I’ve coached that I’ve been as proud of as Elaina because she literally went from the outhouse to the penthouse in a summer and she put in a lot of work to be where she’s at right now,” McCarthy said. “I’m super proud of her and everything that’s happening for her on the floor is a result of what she did in the summer time.”

Mack says players have to be “really bought in” to what the program is all about to thrive and “just be a winner.”

“I think we have a lot of girls this year that want to be that, so it’s great to have,” Mack said.

She has been highly proficient shooting field goals and is especially lethal from behind the arc where she shoots at a 42.6% clip. Her ability as a sharpshooter is the skill that got her on the radar of McCarthy coming out of high school.

“She could really shoot it, and that’s something that we thought she could do at a high level,” he said. “That skill is not being taught as well as it used to be, and Elaina and a lot of the kids in rural Alaska take a lot of pride in 3s. Elaina did that better than anybody in the state and that’s what really attracted us to her.”

Mack’s 3-pointers don’t just help the Seawolves on the scoreboard but they elevate morale by hyping up her teammates and fans in attendance alike when she knocks one down, especially in times where they need a spark.

“In girls basketball 3s are really big energy boosting,” Mack said. “I love when I hit a good timely 3 that it gives my team just that energy to keep pushing forward.”

McCarthy compared long balls in women’s basketball at the collegiate level to dunks on the men’s side because there isn’t as much of a game above the rim.

“I think the two momentum-givers are blocks and 3s, and when you have someone who can knock it down at a 40% clip then you’re going to get a lot of energy from that player,” he said. “She’s a big energy-giver in the way that she plays, and I think our girls see her as a leader. When you have the lead dog doing that, it gives everybody else confidence.”

Mack hasn’t just stepped up her play on the court this year. Off the court and in the locker room, she has emerged as a core leader as well.

“I’ve been here for quite a few seasons now, and I got to see a lot of Alaskan leadership especially with (former players) Tennae Voliva and Jahnna Hajdukovich,” Mack said. “I looked up to those two specifically a lot so just learning from them and time and time again, they keep on checking in with me and the rest of the team too. Seeing it and learning from it has been the best part.”

She is still continuing to learn how to handle different situations on and off the court and believes all the time spent observing has helped mold her as a leader.

“Her leadership ability is a byproduct of the culture of our team and we focus a lot on leadership,” McCarthy said. “When you take pride in something outside of just the sport itself, you’re going to do all the little things, and Elaina does a really good job of setting the example of that and holding her teammates accountable.”

For the second year in a row, Mack is the lone Alaskan on the Seawolves roster.

The opportunity to represent not only her Southwest Alaska community but the state as a whole is one she jumped at coming out of high school and is a privilege she doesn’t take for granted now that she is in her fifth year with the program.

“It means a lot to represent my home state,” she said. “My family gets to come to all my games, I see my grandparents in the stands every home game and a lot of other family and friends get to come see.”

Mack knows she and her family wouldn’t have this unique opportunity had she opted to take one of the two junior college offers she received as a senior in high school. Since the Seawolves were the only four-year institution to extend an offer, she was happy to accept and stay closer to home.

“Once coach McCarthy messaged me, I took it up pretty much immediately,” she said.