Earning a berth in the state basketball tournament -- and the accompanying trip to Anchorage -- is still special for Alaska's Bush villages.
Television, the Internet and more frequent travel to urban centers may have in some ways homogenized Alaska's diversity and lessened the mystique of visiting its largest city, but the state basketball tournaments remain an important touchstone for community pride.
Particularly this year in the Yukon River village of Emmonak (pronounced ee-MAHN-nuck and meaning "blackfish," according to the Alaska Community Database Web site).
The Husky girls earned the program's first trip to state after winning its first district championship in 30 years.
"We made history," Huskies co-captain Sophie Hootch said.
Community pride swelled as both the Emmonak boys and girls went deep in the Yukon Delta Conference playoffs, with the boys narrowly missing out on a trip to Anchorage.
"We had a lot of support as we were leaving town," said fifth-year coach Jacob Waska, a 1993 Emmonak graduate who played in the state tournament for the Huskies. "We had maybe 30 or 40 people watching us take off."
A sizable chunk of the roughly 750 people who live in the town, one of the largest on the Yukon Delta about 10 miles from the Bering Sea, made it to town for the Huskies' first game against Buckland -- as did a fair number of Emmonak expatriates.
"Everybody's telling me we made history for the Emmonak girls," Waska said.
Just about every "road" trip is a plane ride and weekend stay for these players since there are no connecting asphalt roads between villages.
Snowmachines in the winter and boats in the summer take travelers along the Yukon to nearby villages, but even then, an overnight stay is necessary.
Despite the isolation, Emmonak is a growing community -- according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the population increased 28 percent from 1990 to 2005. The commercial fishing hub on the lower Yukon may move up to Class 2A after the 2007-08 school year.
The payoff for those lengthy weekends away from home arrived Sunday with a spring-break trip to Alaska's metropolis.
And even though every player had already visited Anchorage at least once, this time would be different -- experiencing what the city has to offer with lifelong friends and teammates.
"It's better with the team because you have all your friends here and that makes it fun," co-captain Micki Andrews said.
Said Hootch: "It's more fun with the team because I grew up with them and we're always together. It feels good to go to a big city with them."
At first blush, it may seem like a tired cliche playing out -- mall-obsessed teenage girls gone mad -- but the primary item on the Huskies' agenda this week was shopping. Aside from the basketball tournament, of course.
"I knew these girls would want to shop and shop and shop," Waska said with a chuckle. He was hardly immune from the pull, purchasing a digital camera at Wal-Mart on Monday morning and leaving the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall later that day with another shopping bag.
Really, though, what person from a remote village or town, regardless of gender or age, can ignore the consumer options of a big city.
And even though the Emmonak girls were occasionally awed -- like when they first saw how large the UAA gym is -- they were never overwhelmed.
Internet shopping has made blending in with the current fashion scene a breeze.
"We have a lot of them (on) the Internet," Waska said. "Just about everybody's got computers, and they're always online."
Were it not for the team sweatshirts sported by some players, it was impossible to distinguish the Huskies from the other teens wandering the mall.
But looking at images of clothes on a computer screen isn't the same as holding the real thing and trying it on. And with almost two full days to kill before their first game, the Huskies attacked the malls and shops of Anchorage with gusto.
Their lodging choice, the Dimond Center Hotel, provided a strategic launching point. After landing Sunday afternoon, the team devoured the Dimond Center and took in a movie, "Premonition."
Monday morning the team ate breakfast at the hotel's Inside Beach Breakfast Bar. A little before 10 a.m., Waska and a group of seven girls walked across the parking lot to Wal-Mart for a mini shopping session -- practice loomed at 12:30.
All eight left Wal-Mart's Caligula-like excess of consumerism toting shopping bags.
Back at the hotel, plans were made to go downtown after practice at UAA. Cory Stringer, an Emmonak math teacher along to help chaperone, disbursed the per diems.
At the conclusion of the half-hour workout, one of the players discovered she forgot to bring her money, so it was back to the hotel, then to the mall.
After arriving at the mall and getting instructions from Waska on when and where to rendezvous, the first order of business was food. Subway and pizza dominated.
Then it was time to shop. Two hours, five floors, dozens of stores.
The girls broke off into several groups and dispersed. Waska's only real admonition was that nobody could be left alone.
When it was time to head to UAA at 4:30, everybody -- Stringer and Waska included -- had purchases.
Earlier in the day many of the girls wanted to go to a Chinese buffet for dinner. But by the time the skills competition ended the consensus was to grab some fast food in the Dimond Center since the buffet cost too much and there was still another day of shopping.
This was not welcome news for the adults.
"I'm sick of fries," Waska said.
"And we've only been here a day and a half," Stringer said.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the basketball tournament, but Emmonak didn't play until the evening's last game at 8:30.
The team slept in a little and killed some time by going to see "Dead Silence" at Century 16.
A couple of hours before game time, the nerves kicked up.
"We're happy to be here and kind of nervous to play," Andrews said.
"This is the big show," Waska said. "It's the very first time the Lady Huskies are here. They're looking forward to running tonight. They're a little bit nervous, but I'm nervous too."
In front of scores of boosters from home, those nerves manifested into tenuous play against Buckland, and the Huskies lost big 64-24. In Wednesday's consolation game, Emmonak fell to Kalskag 61-41 to end the season.
Still, the whole of the experience mitigates the disappointment of losing, and the memories of spring break in Anchorage with close friends will remain long after the final scores are forgotten.
It's a theme played out among 31 other Class 1A and 2A boys and girls teams. Some will be memorialized as athletic heroes for their exploits this week.
Most, though, will return home and resume their lives, a little richer for their experiences. And a lot poorer for their purchases.
Daily News reporter Andrew Hinkelman can be reached at ahinkelman@adn.com.
