CHS coach named best in state

April 10, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Frontiersman sports editor

Colony High School has built a winning tradition in its boys basketball program.

The Knights won their eighth Region III championship in March, and last week Colony advanced to the title game for the second time in school history.

And the Knight coaching staff has an award-winning tradition.

After being named coach of the year for the Northern Lights Conference earlier this month, Colony's Jeff Bowker has earned state coach of the year honors.

"I was pretty surprised," Bowker said upon hearing about the honor. "It's not even something I was thinking about.

"I always say a coach needs some guys who can play and play hard," Bowker said. "And I have a great bunch of guys."

The Knights started the 2004-05 season a dismal 0-4, dropping three games in a tournament in Kentucky and their first game against in-state completion. But the Knights rebounded after the poor start and ended the season with just seven losses. At one point Colony won 11 straight.

Bowker said a turning point for his Knights was a three-game road trip to Fairbanks. The three wins against Interior teams was just the beginning of the 11-game streak, and while up north Colony knocked off West Valley, then the No. 2 ranked team in the state, and Lathrop, a perennial state power, with a buzzer-beating Cade Dickey shot. Bowker said it took time for Colony to get some of the rust off, but once the Knights figured out how to win, they continued to be successful.

"It was exciting, it was fun," Bowker said. "The wins weren't taken for granted."

Bowker is only the third head coach in the history of the CHS boys program, and all three have earned at least conference coach of the year honors.

Chuck Martin, the program's first head coach, won the conference award twice, and Phil Engebretson was named Region III coach-of-the-year after the 2002-03 regular season.

Bowker, the only CHS boys coach to earn the state coach of the year honor, began as an assistant coach on the Martin staff in the inaugural year of Knight basketball, 1992. Bowker said Martin was a major influence in his coaching career and he strives to continue building on the tradition Martin started at CHS.

"Chuck kind of started it all out," Bowker said. "A lot of the things I use now, I picked up from

Chuck."

Bowker also stressed the importance of his time during the Engebretsen era and the aid of his assistant coaches, Ryan Engebretsen and Tom Berg, in helping to maintain the tradition and success of the program.