High School Sports

Colony boys basketball team thrives despite being left homeless by earthquake

The Colony Knights boys basketball team has put together quite the resume this season. The Knights are 17-2 and so far they have dismantled one of Oregon’s top high school teams in Oregon City and one of Texas' top teams in United High School from Laredo.

Their latest achievement was winning the Alaska Airlines Classic tournament at West High — a feat not accomplished by an Alaska team since 2010.

The Knights have done all of this without having access to their gym.

The Nov. 30 earthquake did a number on Colony High School — especially the gym. The boys and girls basketball teams have been without a home court since, forcing them to practice at various schools and rearrange their game schedules.

“We’ve basically been rotating (between) middle schools and high schools that have open gym time,” coach Tom Berg said. “Palmer Junior Middle (school) has been super accommodating to us (and) both Palmer and Wasilla high schools have let us slip in to play games.”

The Knights' schedule has been rigorous. Though they are nearing the end of a 12-day break between games, their first 19 games were packed into a 39-day stretch from Dec. 19 to Jan. 26.

During that span, they played in Phoenix, Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage, Soldotna and the Valley without ever getting more than four days off in a row.

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According to the team’s Twitter account, the Knights have flown 6,148 miles and driven 1,300 miles. They’ll add to the mileage this week when they head to Kodiak.

Through it all, Berg said the team has learned to become “comfortable with being uncomfortable.

But the lack of a home court and all of that travel has not come without downsides, senior standout Sullivan Menard said last week.

“It’s all mental," he said. “We’re getting a lot of stress now since this is our first weekend where we haven’t traveled. We have schoolwork piling up. ... (We’re) not seeing our families as much because ... we’re practicing 30 minutes away from our homes."

But there’s also an upside.

“(Our situation) has definitely grown us closer as a team because we’re spending more time with each other,” Menard said.

Menard, a 6-foot-3 guard, has been a stud all season. His most recent performance was a 27-point scoring outburst in Colony’s 63-34 blowout win over West in the championship game of the Alaska Airlines Classic, where he became the first tournament MVP from Alaska since Service’s Adam Klie in 2013.

The Knights have never won a state title, and they still need to get past their conference rivals, the defending state champion Wasilla Warriors, who have been in the last two state title games. But their 17-2 start gives them hope.

“I’m really excited to see what we can do," Menard said. “We haven’t won a region title in a couple years and the school has never won a state title, so we definitely have our eyes set on those two.”

While Berg hopes Colony’s gym will be renovated in time for Senior Night against Wasilla on March 2, the team will wrap up the season the way they started it -- on the road. The Northern Lights Conference tournament begins March 7 in Soldotna, where the Knights will battle for a bid to the big dance in Anchorage.

“The games that we want to win — the region title and the state championship — aren’t going to be in our house anyway," Berg said. “(They’re) going to be on a different floor ... and we’ve gotten a lot of practice doing that this year.”

Joey Carreon

Joey Carreon covers sports for the Anchorage Daily News.

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