The Heritage Christian boys basketball team got within 50 feet of grizzly bears and played three games all in one weekend.
Anchorage, Alaska, offered all of this during the Alaska Airlines Classic, which ran from Jan. 23-25. The Warriors were one point shy of winning the tournament two years ago, and head coach Paul Tait vowed to bring them back.
“I don’t think my wife or the parents understood what I committed us to,” Tait said with a laugh.
The Warriors returned to Anchorage to compete at 11,000 feet across three days. Not only did they face high-level competition, but players and coaches had a bonding experience unlike any other in America’s northernmost state.
“The cold, the weather, the climate,” Tait said of what his team took away from the weekend. “It’s another bonding experience, breaking up the monotony of the season with some quick change, some quick-paced stuff.”
The tournament is designed to showcase Alaskan teams but welcomed three out-of-state contenders in Heritage Christian, Columbia of Georgia and Hoover of Alabama, which is the No. 4 team in the nation, according to Maxpreps.com.
The Warriors lost to Hoover 51-45 in overtime on the second day of the tournament and secured third place with a 67-28 win over West Anchorage the following day.
Heritage Christian’s Tae Simmons was the tournament’s third-leading scorer with 50 points and second-leading rebounder with 20 boards. Dillan Shaw came up big defensively and was the top player in blocked shots with eight in addition to 49 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists.
Both players were named to the all-tournament team.
“Defensively and offensively we were pretty locked in on Saturday,” Tait said. “There’s scouting reports and film sessions against people we don’t normally see, so you’ve got to do it on the fly in less than 12 hours and get ready for the next game and move on.”
Tait and the coaching staff didn’t bring up the elevation change to the players in order to keep their minds on game preparation. There is only a one-hour time difference between Anchorage and Los Angeles, but getting into a routine quickly was critical for the Warriors.
Hydration, timely rest and getting in an evening practice on the day they flew in helped, too.
“We tried to get up as many shots as possible in an hour,” Tait said. “Break a sweat, and then you want to try and get them so tired that they actually go to sleep and get back on the schedule.”
Plans for a dogsledding trip had to be canceled because of warm temperatures — 40 degrees is above average for this time of year in Anchorage — so Heritage Christian headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
The team drove around a loop and made stops to see grizzly bears, wolves, bison, elk, deer and caribou in their natural habitats as temperatures dropped into the 20s.
“We ended up losing in overtime but it was still a cool trip,” Tait said. “It prepares you for playoffs and it was a lot of fun. No one at any point complained about being tired or fatigued.”