Petersburg’s high school basketball teams struggled hard against one of Alaska’s top Division 2A teams last week. Metlakatla defeated the Vikings and Lady Vikings in all of their games. According to Petersburg’s coaches, the Vikings showed up to Metlakatla in rough shape, after having spent hours in transit on a small boat. 

The Vikings’ hardships started on Wednesday, when fog grounded their jet down to Ketchikan. So, they had to take the scenic route down the Inside Passage, in a 30-passenger breakaway boat. The trip took about 10 hours, and Lady Vikings coach Matt Pawuk said his team did not turn up to the court on Thursday particularly well-rested. But he said that that’s just basketball in Southeast Alaska.

“…You know, planes overhead, you get mechanical [failures], you have delays,” said Pawuk. “So, I told the girls: ‘Tomorrow is not going to be much fun for us.’ But we always talked about using adversity to grow stronger as a team and bonding and all that kind of stuff. But it was a pretty grueling trip to get down there.”

The Lady Vikings lost Thursday’s game to the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs 14-to-41. The Miss Chiefs also won Friday’s game 46-to-13. 

Pawuk said the arduous boat trip down south doesn’t completely excuse his team’s losses. He said Metlakatla is just a really fierce team.

“I told a few people, ‘That’s a team that comes around every 25 years,'” said Pawuk. “Like, they were the state runners up last year — they’re essentially the same team as last year. They start three players that are six foot or taller, and they’re athletic. It’s tough to play against a team like that, for sure.”

But Pawuk said his players made the Miss Chiefs fight hard for every point they scored. He said he was especially proud to see the Lady Vikings hold them to 20 points in the first half of Friday’s game. 

Metlakatla also defeated Petersburg’s boys in both of their games, but by a much tighter margin. On Thursday, the Vikings lost by just a point. The Chiefs won 46-to-45. Then on Friday, Petersburg lost 41-to-44, but scored four points in overtime. 

Rick Brock coaches the boys’ team. He said his players endured the boat trip fairly well — maybe even better than he did. Many of them have spent a lot of time on the water, fishing with their families. But they had to get on the court Thursday morning without hardly a moment’s rest. From there, Brock said, it was a mad scramble. Petersburg was ahead in the third quarter. But in the fourth, they lost by a final, fatal point. 

“[We] had a good look at the basket, the tough look there was in traffic and stuff,” said Brock. “The rim was not kind to us, so we lost by one. But [I’m] happy for how hard we fought, especially after a long day I think the guy showed a lot of character.”

Petersburg came up even shorter on Friday. But Brock said he was glad to see his players scoring more evenly that time around.

“Aiden Knudsen had four for us, Elijah Whitacre had four, and Logan Tow hit a couple big threes for us to get six points on the board,” said Brock. “I liked the way that we played balance-wise, offensively better, and all around on Friday.”

The Vikings are scheduled to return to their home court this week to face off against teams from Haines and Sitka. Saturday’s game is also cancer awareness night — a tradition Petersburg’s basketball teams have held for many years. 

“We bought some cancer awareness shirts that actually have a couple of different ribbons on them to recognize some other different cancer awareness groups — just for people that have been close to the basketball team,” said Brock.

Brock encourages audience members to come to that game wearing anything that raises awareness for cancer, including “Joseph Strong” shirts, which were made to honor Petersburg High School junior Joseph Tagaban. Tagaban played for the Vikings until he began treatment for ewing sarcoma, a rare but often curable cancer. He went into remission in 2022. He returned to class — and the court, as the Vikings’ team manager — in January. On Saturday, the Vikings will be accepting donations to Seattle Children’s Hospital, which is where Tagaban received treatment.