In the immortal words of funnyman Bobby Bittman, how are ya!!!! (Bonus points to all five of my readers who actually picked up on the SCTV reference.)

After about a month of self-imposed exile following the 62nd annual Gold Medal tournament, the blog makes its triumphant return. Here’s a rundown on what’s happening this week:

We’ll be running a preview of the Juneau-Douglas High School softball team prior to its season-opening series in Sitka. The Crimson Bears return the bulk of last year’s state title team as they look to win an unprecedented seventh state championship.

At home this weekend, the JDHS boys and girls soccer team will host Service from Anchorage at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Field. The girls own a six-game winning streak while the boys are 5-0-1.

Meanwhile, on the road, the Crimson Bears track team will be in Sitka for a Southeast Alaska meet.

Also, in more administrative news, the Region V and ASAA meetings will take place in Petersburg. Among the topics for discussion at the ASAA meeting will be Juneau’s new Thunder Mountain High School. Don’t expect any big fireworks, however. It’s basically just an opportunity for the rest of the state to discover what Juneau’s already knows - that Thunder Mountain will not be part of ASAA in 2008-09, meaning students attending TMHS will be able to participate in sports and activities at JDHS. Check out the topics of discussion by clicking on the agenda link at the ASAA Web site.

Hey everyone,

The 62nd annual Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Tournament kicks off at 10 a.m. Sunday as the Southeast Warriors face Metlakatla in a Mighty B Bracket matchup.

Games will run all day Sunday as four  Mighty B Bracket and four Legendary C Bracket games will take place. The Master’s Bracket will kick off on Monday.

Also, the opening ceremonies will be performed at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Brackets can be found at www.juneauempire.com/goldmedal and will be updated nightly with scores and who plays who.

Hello everyone and we are live from the Juneau-Douglas High School gym, located right behind the scorers table for the Class 4A Southeast Conference Tournament final between the Crimson Bears and top-seeded Ketchikan Lady Kings.

We are about 15 minutes away from tipoff as fans are starting to fill the gym. The Ketchikan fans are lining up outside of the Lady Kings locker room as the Kayhi pep band plays. The Kings will be without the services of point guard Laci Effenberger, who is on crutches and in street clothes with an injured left knee. She injured the knee in Ketchikan in a win aganist JDHS.
The Crimson Bears are injury free and off the heals of a 30-point win over Sitka, where they held the Wolves to a scant 27 points.

We’ll have the starting lineups shortly….

7:32 p.m. — Outside of a some empy spots on the extreme edge of the gym, we are standing room only at the JDHS gym. Very loud.

Starting lineups
KET - Kathleen Reno, Kalli Kline, Crystal Blair, Alexis Edwardson, Kristen Peterson
JD (visitors) - Taylor Larson, Nicole Fenumiai, Brittney Fenumiai, Karli Brakes, Mahlet Tingley.

7:54 p.m. - End of 1st quarter. Ketchikan 11, Juneau-Douglas 5. This game isn’t a traditional high school game. It’s a frantic exhibition of intensity. Both teams will be bruised and sore afte rthis one. Kline with 5 points leads Ket while Brittany Fenumiai’s 3 points and Mahlet Tingley’s free throws account for all of Juneau’s points.

8;15 p.m. - Hafltime, JDHS 22, Ketchikan 14. Juneau-DOuglas outscored Kayhi 17-3 in the second quarter. Juneau’s man defense starting to come through as JD scores four points off turnovers and six off the offensive boards (all coming off missed free throws). Tingley playing another standout game. She’s got 3 points, two steals, two assists.

Programming note… (Well, publication note, but programming note just sounds better…)

We will be covering the Class 4A boys and girls championship games tonight and posting pictures and stories shortly after the games conclude at www.juneauempire.com. That way, you don’t have to wait until Sunday’s paper for results.

In the girls game, JDHS plays Ketchikan at 7:30 p.m. while the Bears and Kings boys follow at 9:15 p.m.

These two games don’t require much buildup — everyone who even casually follows Southeast basketball knows how intense these games will be and how loud the fans will be.

For the girls game, Ketchikan holds a three-game winning streak over JDHS but comes into the game a bit shorthanded. The Lady Kings will be without the services of starting point guard, sophomore Laci Effenberger. She suffered a knee injury in a Feb. 23 win over the Bears.

Juneau’s girls played one of its better games of the year Thursday in a 30-point win over Sitka. The Crimson Bears received a terrific boost from their bench as Annette Highley, Kristen Dierick and Hannah Swofford stepped right in to provide scoring and some hustle points. Also, junior Kayla Harrison played well off the bench for coach Lesslie Knight. Harrison is a spark plug — providing 3-point shooting and very aggressive defense. I like her coming off the bench because if the team ever needs a jump start, she’s the perfect candidate to provide it.

The biggest part of Juneau’s win however was its limited amount of turnovers. JDHS coughed the ball up just eight times as point guard Mahlet Tingley had four assists to zero turnovers.

That should determine tonight’s outcome. Can JDHS protect the ball and execute against coach Melissa Johnson’s hyper-aggressive defense? Can’t wait for this one.

The boys final has all the makings of a heavyweight championship battle. Juneau-Douglas and Ketchikan tonight could be an Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward type of slugfest. The Bears and Kings split the season series two games each.

The Kings struggled for a half Thursday against Sitka. It took a while for Kayhi to adjust to Sitka’s 2-3 zone as the Wolves came out with swagger and confidence. The Kings turned it around on the defensive end, double-teaming and trapping Sitka’s point guards at every opportunity. Jase Scudero, Erik Pihl and Gunnar Farstad are solid defenders while Damen Bell-Holter is a reliable scoring and rebounding threat.

For Juneau-Douglas, the team needs to do what makes it most successful. Speed in the open court, patience in the half court offense and active defense. Defensively, Juneau needs to get DBH in uncomfortable positions. When he gets the ball, Juneau needs to make sure he receives it on the perimeter and not down low, where its almost an automatic two points. The Bears cannot neglect their other defensive duties, however, in playing DBH. Simeon Schum had 22 points in a win on Feb. 23, most of it came off the extra attention paid to DBH.

Offensively, Juneau is best when it moves the ball quickly and drives. It must resist the temptation to bomb away and try to fire up the crowd with a three. Juneau needs to play its game, and not try to play to the whims of momentum or crowd excitement. Coach Steve Potter’s favorite phrase is “Do the work” That sums up his style and the way the team plays when its successful. Nothing fancy, nothing dramatic — just a solid, honest effort.

We’ll be live from the JDHS gym at 6:30 p.m.

Hello and welcome to the JDHS gym for Saturday’s running commentary of the Crimson Bears’ senior night. In addition to the program saluting seniors Ryan Larson, Faifo Levale, Shawn Ibesate and Dominique Brinson, this game will be played for pretty high states.

If Juneau-Douglas wins tonight, it’ll advance to the Southeast Conference Tournament title game and will face either Sitka or Ketchikan on Friday, March 7 in Juneau. If Sitka pulls the upset, then JDHS will take on Sitka on March 6 for the right to play Kayhi for the region title.

Starting lineups to come……

8:01 p.m. — Senior night continues as about 70-80 people are on the court right now after being honored. There’s a lot of recognition going on.

8:10 p.m. — Starting lineups.

Sitka — Ulisses Diaz, Colby McCarty, Ryan Peters, Jeremy Espeleta, Connor Dunlap
JDHS — Shawn Ibesate, Dominique Brinson, Eric Gross, Ryan Larson, Faifo Levale.

8:35 p.m. — Juneau-Douglas leads 21-11 after the first qurater. JDHS doing a good job getting to the line and attacking the offensive glass. JDHS is 8 for 8 from the free throw line and has scored six points off turnovers.

Sitka showing patience on the offensive end, but struggling to get past Juneau’s traps and full-court man. The double-teamming is helping JDHS.

8:53 p.m. — Halfitme JDHS 49, Sitka 19.

Juneau-Douglas completely controlling the game thus far. Defensivley, JDHS sticking with a half-court trap and is doing well in attacking the rim. Ball-movement around Sitka’s defense has also led to a number of open shots. JDHS hasn’t taken too many quick or illadvised shots. JDHS also 16 for 19 from the free throw line.

Sitka struggling handling Juneau’s pressure as Dominqiue Brinson and Shawn Ibesate have racked up numerous steals.

Stats — JD Brinson 9, Grussendorf 7, Gross 9, Levale 4, Mahar 6, Craig 3, Ibesate 7, Larson 4. Sitka - Espeleta 4, Diaz 2, Dunlap 4, Hansen 5, Venneberg 2, Peters 2.

9:18 p.m. — After 3 quarters, JDHS leads 68-31. Still more of teh same. Juneau pulls its starters last 3:47 of quarter. Reinserted with freshman Colin Gozelski to start 4th.

7:43 p.m. Saturday “” We’re up and at them on Saturday, live and direct from center court about 20 minutes before Saturday’s game between the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team and Ketchikan.

We tried to get this up and running on Friday but the internet was down here at the gym and we were stuck.

We’re going to be updating this blog periodically throughout the game with stats and commentary. Feel free to comment and ask questions during the game. It may take a couple minutes for your comment to be posted because of the particulars here, but don’t let that discourage you.

In case you missed it, you can read it on our Web site at www.juneauempire.com, JDHS defeated Ketchikan 58-49 on Friday as Dominique Brinson, Geoff Craig and Ryan “Bubba” Larson scored 12 points each for the Crimson Bears. Damen Bell-Holter led Ketchikan with 25 points, 17 rebounds on 10-21 shooting.

The gym is filling up rapidly as the student section is pretty much booked. I had to park about 1 mile away from the gym due not only to the high interest in this game, but a production of “Les Miserables” in the auditorium. No report yet that Les Miserables is French for “The Miami Dolphins” But seriously folks……

Starting lineups to come.

7:47 p.m. “” Here are your starting lineups

JDHS “” Dominique Brinson, Geoff Craig, Shawn Ibesate, Eric Gross, Faifo Levale

Ketchikan “” Gunnar Farstad, Erik Pihl, Corey White, Damen Bell-Holter, Simeon Schum.

8 p.m. “” School song is going as the gym continues to fill with the late arrivers. Should be nearly a sellout. For Ketchikan, Jase Scudero doesn’t appear dressed for the game. He did come off the floor in the second half of Friday’s game with an injury. I’ll try to find out more later.

8:07 p.m. - Tipoff! Bell-Holter wins the tip. He’s guarded by Eric Gross.

8:12 p.m. - 4:22 left in the first quarter. Ketchikan’s Brian Lindgren getting minutes early, going with Levale. 7-1 Juneau-Douglas lead with Gross on the line. JDHS looking a little quicker in transition as Gross has a fastbreak layup.

8:21 p.m. - Juneau-Douglas 16, Ketchikan 14 at end of first quarter. JDHS raced to 10-1 lead but ketchikan fought back by going to the calss. Phil and Farstad score layups while Bell-Holter and Schum convert offensive rebounds. Sean Bavard’s 3 at buzzer pushes JDH back up.

DBH line - 2 pts, 2 reb, 2 fouls, 1-2 shooting.

8:31 p.m. - Ketchikan calls timeout with 3:06 left in 2nd Q. JD leads 30-20 and inthe middle of a 14-0 run. Juneau-Douglas finding success by going around the weakside of Bell-Holter. Larson scores two straight layups in run by driving on Schum and Bell-Holter occupied in post. Larson then hits transition 3 to make score 30-20 and force a timeout.

JD finding success when it controls the boards, but Schum and Farstad are working hard underneath.

8:35 p.m. - 1:15 left in 1st half, 30-27 JD lead. Just like that Kayhi is back in it. With DBH on the bench, Kayhi goes to work inside. Farstad and Schum convert offensive rebounds, with Farstad making his a 3-point play. Briand Lindgren then scores inside off Paul Manabat’s penetration and assist.

8:39 p.m. “” Halftime. JDHS 31, Ketchikan 28. DBH sits final 2:51 of half, probably getting him rested for teh fourth quarter.

Looking to be a pretty tight game, but Juneau-Douglas must find a way to negate Schum/DBH on the offensive glass. Also, Paul Manabat is giving Kayhi a boost off the bench. He’s shown some speed in the open court and caught JDHS flatfooted a couple times.

For Ket, its getting hurt a bit inside as Craig scored inside and Larson’s found success driving. JDHS shot itself in the foot a couple times late in teh first half with quick shots, but when its run its halfcourt set, Ibesate and Brinson have found the right guy insid.e Gross has five points while Larson leads JDHS with seven.

DBH line after 2q “” 6 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 2 fouls. 2-3 shooting, 0-1 3-pointers. All two field goals came off of offensive rebounds.

Farstad leads Kings with eight points.

8:49 p.m. - Second half about to start. Lineups

JD-Faifo Levale, Eric Gross, Geoff Craig, Dominique Brinson, Shawn Ibesate
KET - Paul Manabat, Erik Pihl, Gunnar Farstad, Damen Bell-Holter, Simeon Schum

8:55 p.m. - 3:59 left in 3Q. 37-37. Faifo Levale finding success inside with six straight points inside. DBH getting active as manabat hits a 3.

8:58 p.m. - Timeout with 2:43 left in 3Q. 41-41. The subplot is becoming how JD can stop Paul Manabat’s speed. He’s given Ket a new dimension and is stretching Juneau’s defense. Big 3 by Cody Grussendorf ties game for JDHS.

9:03 p.m. - 3 quarters gone, score is 46-46. We have a great one here at the JD gym! Grussendorf hits a 3 at the buzzer to tie score after Farstad drained a 3 of his own off DBH’s pass on the previous possession. Ketchikan’s speed creating problems but JDHS keeps finding an answer

DBH through 3 - 10 points, 8 reb, 2 assists, 1 block, 2 fouls. 4-5 shooting, 0-1 3 pointer. He’s making a concerted effort to attack inside and he’s teammates are coming through with big shots. Going to be a fun final eight minutes.

9:15 p.m. - Ketchikan leads 60-51 with 3:01 left. Ket on a 7-0 run and are asserting itself inside. Schum with 5 straight points. He had a layup off Manabat’s dribble-penetration, then converts a 3-point play after being fouled while scoring off an offensive rebounds. Schum, Manabat and Farstad are the difference thus far with their penetration and passing.

9:22 p.m. - 57.7 seconds left Ket up 64-53. Looking like Ketchikan has it in hand. Too much dribble penetration as JDHS struggled to stop Manabat in the open court. DBH been pretty solid. He’s pretty much played a true center position and stuck to the inside. He’s 6-7 from the floor for 15 points and 10 rebounds. Farstad’s also been solid in the open court.

9:33 p.m. “” IT’s a final. Ketchikan 72, JDHS 64. More later.

Hey everyone,

Well, we wanted to debut the live blog at Friday’s much anticipated Juneau-Douglas versus Ketchikan boys basketball game. We were all set up, popped open the computer, just one problem though. The internet was down at the gym so we could do nothing.
That being said, hopefully we’ll be up and running tonight.

A terrific game Friday, by the way. Friday was the best I’ve seen Juneau-Douglas play in person this year. Its man-to-man defense was pretty tight as Eric Gross, Ryan Larson, Faifo Levale and Geoff Craig all took turns against Damen Bell-Holter. Craig, who missed the series in Ketchikan, provided a terrific lift. He scored 12 points, but did a solid job against DBH, as did Gross.

Star of the game without a doubt was Dominique Brinson. As Ketchikan made a run to start the fourth quarter, Brinson found another gear to end it quickly. He had four steals, picking off a couple cross court passes, in the fourth quarter. He also drove the lane three times on fast breaks to provide some momentum and points.

As for DBH, he posted 25 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots that might have ended up in the Gastineau Channel. He was 10-21 from the floor, 0-4 from 3-point land and 5-9 from the free throw line. He had four dunks, including a monster one over Gross and Shawn Ibesate.

For the most part, however, JD did a solid job of not letting him get comfortable. He received the ball most of the time on the perimeter and not in a position where he could immediately turn and shoot or turn and dunk. That was due partially to DBH trying to get open and Juneau’s defenders pushing him to the outside and not letting him establish position down low.

That did open up some lanes for Simeon Schum and Corey White as Kayhi did grab a number of offensive rebounds with the extra attention paid to DBH.

Should be a good one tonight and hopefully we’ll be up and running live from the gym!

tim

Hey all,

On Friday a big ol’ story on mixed martial arts coming to town will be in the paper. The upswing of popularity for MMA has been amazing, partially because of its TV appeal and compelling athletes, also because of boxing’s complete self destruction with multiple sanctioning bodies, no heavyweight champion and aging stars (Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad are actually fighting this weekend, which would’ve been the 2001 of the year).

That being said, I’m a pretty big fan of both. I had the privledge of covering boxing with my previous employer, the Cecil Whig of Elkton, Md., as  we followed an entertaining and engaging local fighter Michael “No Joke” Stewart. Following his ascent to through the 140lb. ranks (he fought Sharmba Mitchell and Ricky “Hitman” Hatton) took us to Philadelphia Spectrum and Gershmain Y, different casino’s in Atlantic City, Dover Downs in Delaware. We also covered some toughman fights featuring “Precious” Frank Finnegan , the nicest 6-foot-7, 480lb blonde you’ve ever met.

I completely fell in love with the sport. The inherant drama and action of it, from a great Gatti-Ward brawl to even two mechanics going at in a toughman bout, the sport has something for everyone. The courage to enter the ring, the bravery to throw a punch, to stare fate down when being hit in the face.

With MMA, it took me a little while longer to get into it. My first experience with MMA came in the early years of the UFC  as my friends and I watched got the pay per view to watch Ken Shamrock and Dan “The Beast” Severn go at in 1995. In the early days, the bouts were hyped as barbaric bloodbaths where sumo wrestlers battled little kick boxers. It was barbaric. It was ugly.

16-year-old Tim was intrigued.

What we got, however, was Shamrock and Severn circling each other for three rounds and barely making a move. We were stunned and bored. What we didn’t know then, was, one false move would mean a one-way ticket to tap-out town.

Now that UFC is enjoying this reinassance, I’m into it more. I like the submission aspect of it and the counters and counter-counters involved. I like the Jiu-Jitsu. And i like the punches when they hit and the guy just collapses.

It’s not the same as boxing. it’s completely different. How Floyd Mayweather would do in UFC is irrevelant. It’s like saying would Peyton Manning be a great pitcher. Just because quarterbacks and pitchers both throw overhand, doesn’t mean both skills are the same.

What do you think. Is MMA ready to perminantly replace boxing or is the sweet science here forever. Also, post your thoughts, like I will, if your at the Marlintini’s card. We’ll have a story on Monday and video highlights of the bouts.

tim

My family and I have got a dog. A goldendoodle.

No, not the manliest name in the dog family. Husky! Malemute! Pit Bull! GOLDENDOODLE!  See, it just doesn’t fit.

Her name is Eily (pronounced eye-LEE. it’s a Welsh word meaning “light”), 1 year old (actually shares a birthday with our newborn daughter), about 50 pounds and just loves, loves the Southeast Alaska life of wind gusts, driving rain and snow. She also likes to bark at bears, but that’s another story. We had the dog flown to us from Kansas to Anchorage from a farm, where I picked her up as 2-month old. She was scared, but took to Juneau immediately. She’s also missing a front tooth, which makes her look a big like Bobby Clarke when she smiles.

A goldendoodle is a mix of a golden retriever and standard poodle, meaning she’s smart as Einstein but as hyper as 15 squirrels locked in an oil drum. She can sit, stay, jump, shake hands, shake off snow and fetch on command, but just a little bit of distraction and she darts like a heat-seaking missle that just locked on its target.

She loves her walks, which is good because I need to get my butt moving. I just need to be on the ball because she can zig and zag. She also loves people. She sees nothing wrong with trying to jump on everyone she sees for a hearty hello. I’ve gotten very good at the sheepish apology while trying to hold little Eily back. But we can walk for miles! I noticed i’m actually starting to get alittle more energy back after our walks down River Road and the trails. You have no idea what that means after days in front of a computer, on the phone or on the wooden benches covering games. She’ll drag me out, sometimes kicking and screaming. But it feels good after just a couple minutes. And Eily leads the way, pushing forward on her leash, begging to go even though she doesn’t have a clue where she wants to go. All she knows is Tim’s got the leash, time to get out!

I know this isn’t the greatest story of my dog, but we’ll get more in there. I’ll have some pics too. She loves my daughter and licks her little baby hands, she cuddles my wife when she’s tired and she always greats me with nuzzle after a full-speed run when I get home. I guess that’s more of a headbutt, but you get the idea.

It’s been a bit of a quest for me to get this Southeast Basketball Roundup back up and running.

It used to be a Juneau Empire staple back in the day, but in the last few years it’s fallen by the wayside. But now it’s back.

Every Monday, the Southeast Basketball roundup will be featured front and center on Page B1. We will strive to have Class 3A and 2A results and standings. Also, players, parents and fans are encouraged to send us pictures to run with the roundup. Southeast basketball can be confusing, and given how there’s no real warehouse for results or standings, trying to figure out who’s up and who’s down can be daunting. Hopefully, the Juneau Empire can be Southeast Alaska’s one-stop shop for all things hoops.

We can’t do this without the coaches and statisticians, however. So if any happen to be reading, here’s how you can be a part of it.

1. Please call me, sports editor Tim Nichols, at 523-2228 anytime to report your scores. You can also fax them at 586-3028. Also you can post them here or email them at sports@juneauempire.com.

2. Please include your overall record and conference record. We will use these for standings.

3. Our deadline is 8 p.m. Sunday for Monday publication. But don’t feel shy about calling in or emailing after your games are immediately over.

4. Feel free to name as many names as you want. We will have as much information in it as possible. If it’s between an extra 5 inches in the roundup, or a NBA game story that everyone’s already seen the highlights of on ESPN, the roundup wins everytime.

If you have any ideas on how to improve the roundup or how we can streamline it, please feel free to write back. I want this to work and give the high level of hoops here (Yakutat boys 2006 state champs, Yakutat girls/Petersburg boys 2007 state champs) the due it deserves.