Sports

Behind the scenes with the Seawolves

For a couple of seasons now, the UAA women's basketball team has been something to brag about.

Now it's something to blog about.

Led by journalism major and senior forward Hanna Johansson, who got the idea, the Seawolves are chronicling their season -- or at least parts of it -- on a blog at goseawolves.com.

The effort is off to a fine start, thanks to last week's trip to the East Coast, where the Seawolves toured the White House ("In every room there were fresh flowers and around a certain pillar there were real green apples of which T (Tijera), felt like taking a bite."), the Capitol, a sliver of the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum ("It is important to remember how human beings can treat each other terribly.") in Washington D.C. before heading to Richmond, Va. There, they visited to two sites synonymous with Thomas Jefferson -- Monticello and the Rotunda.

They also ate a lot ("For breakfast this morning, we had scrambled eggs that tasted like strawberries.") and they even played a little basketball, taking on Division I Virginia after scrimmages against Roanoke College and Liberty University, which has a dress code that took some of the Seawolves by surprise ("Sasha was speechless when a student told her that they followed a dress code that prohibited sweat pants. This is saying something if you understand that nothing can stop Sasha from talking.").

The Seawolves are back home now and will make their season debut tonight against Minot State in the first of two straight nonconference games at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

The blog has been silent since they returned, but Johansson said she and a handful of teammates will continue making entries as the season progresses.

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"I like writing to express myself," said Johansson, a 6-foot-2 All-American candidate from Gothenburg, Sweden, who said doing so in a second language isn't as difficult as you might think.

"You think languages are so different, but they aren't," she said, and then laughed. "Sometimes I want to create my own language -- take the best words from English, and the best words from Swedish."

Johansson recruited teammates Kylie Burns, Jordan Martin and Katie Richens to write entries. Former teammate and fellow journalism major Nikki Aden lent a hand by editing the posts from Anchorage.

Coach Tim Moser said he's OK with the blog as long as it doesn't give away any team secrets -- no Xs and Os allowed. Moser even contributed the final entry from last week's trip, which he characterized as the best in a long career as a player and coach.

"It was a tremendous trip," he said Wednesday. "It served a dual purpose. When you go on the road it really builds team camaraderie, and in the game (against Virginia) we saw some of our weaknesses.

"It was a lifelong experience."

While veterans got to know newcomers during the week-long journey, the coach still doesn't know what kind of team he has for his sixth season with the Seawolves.

Johansson and junior forward Alysa Horn give UAA an experienced frontcourt duo, and in the 69-57 loss to Virginia, senior guard Tijera Mathews showed versatility to go along with what appears to be an appetite for forbidden fruit, if the blog entry about those White House apples is true.

Newcomers Gritt Ryder, a freshman from Denmark, and junior transfers Haley Holmstead of American Fork, Utah, and Bruna Deichmann of Brazil combined for 25 points and significant playing time. They're all part of a big roster -- 16 players -- that has been the norm for Moser, who has nine new players.

"They're all sort of players that were the best players (on their previous teams). It's a real diverse bunch and we have a bunch of young kids for the first time," Moser said. "I don't have any idea what's coming out at 7 o'clock (tonight)."

You can probably count on one thing, though -- the Seawolves will play hard on defense. Defense has been the cornerstone of the program under Moser, who is 135-27 at UAA, a mark that includes last season's 27-7 campaign.

Reach Beth Bragg at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335.

By BETH BRAGG

Anchorage Daily News

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