<\/a>Michael Penn \/ Juneau Empire File\n Juneau-Douglas’s Cassie Dzinich, left, shoots against Ketchikan during the Region V Basketball finals at JDHS on March 10, 2017. Ketchikan won 41-39 to force a playoff game the next day.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Conversely, the Juneau-Douglas boys team was 1-3 against Ketchikan, but beat the Kings on consecutive nights in 2017, then again in 2018 to claim their second and third straight Region V championships.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The year Juneau-Douglas won the state championship in 2016, the regular-season series with Ketchikan was split, but JDHS won both postseason meetings, once at regions, and on a Kaleb Tompkins buzzer-beater in the state semi-finals.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“[After setting up the play] I never thought once that [Tompkins] was going to turn it over, but he almost did twice on that play,” jokes Casperson. “We had a lot of guys who really wanted it, really bought in, and really enjoyed their teammates. That group had taken a lot of lumps but hadn’t lost their focus.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Know your role<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Casperson says his role when he played was to “get the ball across half court then get the ball to someone else.” This understanding has helped him build the sporting cast and increase buy-in which improves the team’s chances to be successful.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“You have to be willing to enjoy that grind and maybe not find a lot of external rewards. You have to learn to be a good teammate and how to contribute.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Though JDHS has had its share of top-tier players, a program cannot simply wait around for the next one and suffer through the years in between.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Your star players come around once in a while. You’re most likely going to have a group of average, to above average players that you have to get to buy-in so everyone can be better.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
But when the star does come around, he or she might have the most important role.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Mt. Edgecumbe head coach Archie Young won three Region V titles in Wrangell as a player and was a state runner-up his senior year in 1991. He has guided the Mt. Edgecumbe boys team to four region titles and a third-place finish at state in 2005.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Our best teams were teams whose best player was also the hardest worker,” says Young. “When your best player is your hardest worker, the team will have success.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Casperson agrees.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Though the team his senior year was upset at state, the success the team enjoyed was thanks to their best player – Josh Lockhart – setting the tone.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We really enjoyed each other’s success,” he says. “Josh Lockhart enjoyed when I made a basket or someone made a really good screen and that was infectious. That’s also been a staple in our program. Our most talented players are often our hardest workers.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The Preparation<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
With this year’s tournament approaching, Casperson says he is prepping his players to have the right mindset.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Enjoy it, enjoy the build-up, enjoy the work that goes into getting prepared,” he says. “You never know how it’s going to end, so you just have to go out there and get after it. If you feel like you played as hard as you could, you can’t ask for anything more than that.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Typically, coaches have a chance to put in new wrinkles during practice in preparation for the tournament, but with this year’s schedule altered by Covid-19, teams have a flurry of games leading up to a single-elimination tournament format.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“With nine games left, it is still about trying to get better, simple as that,” says Young. “Are we playing as hard as we can? Are we doing the little things?”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Young says he focuses on getting his players to match the effort needed to be successful and to understand that the results are a reflection of attitude.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“One thing I have really tried to get players to understand is ‘earning the right…to play, to celebrate, or to cry’ at the end of the year. You can’t be mad if you didn’t put the time and effort in to be successful in March. You have to earn the right to be upset or disappointed, or even better, you have to earn the right to feel the satisfaction or happiness of victory at Regions.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The Legacy<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
My brother says he was only able to walk-on at George Washington University because we lost that region championship game his senior year. He was driven by the desire to have his career continue after that disappointment. He now has a much better memory of a championship winning shot – a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by teammate Shawnta Rogers to beat Xavier 77-74 and win the Atlantic-10 Championship in 1999.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Stories of great success and missed opportunities are hidden in the personal histories of all athletes. For some, the Region V tournament is the last time they put on a jersey, simple as that. For others, the tournament, or basketball itself, can be a catalyst.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Young says that his basketball experiences have impacted the way he coaches and the way he lives.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I wouldn’t say they have shaped me as much as revealed who I am,” says Young. “I believe that sports, success, failure don’t mold you as much as they reveal who you are.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Statistically speaking, hardly anyone ends their high school career with a win, which means there can be a lingering feeling of disappointment. But there’s a profound difference between a group of losers and a team that didn’t score enough points.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Carle’s son, Jaren, was a junior at Dimond when the Lynx lost in overtime to Ketchikan in the 2019 state championship game, and “next year never came” due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“He was crying in the car after the game, but I told him it’s going to mean so much to that community,” Carle says. “Those wins and losses, as much as they feel like everything, they are really not going to define whether or not you’re going to be a successful adult. It can define you if you let it, but it doesn’t have to.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
• Jeff Lund is a freelance writer based in Ketchikan. His podcast, “The Mediocre Alaskan,” is available on Spotify and Apple Music. He is, of course, on Instagram @alaskalund. <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For some, the Region V tournament is the last time they put on a jersey. For others it’s a catalyst. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":68299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":11,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[203,240],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-68298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home2","category-sports","tag-sportbasketball","tag-high-school-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68298"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}