Knights ready for NLC season debut

PALMER — While their Valley counterparts have played through busy preseason schedules and participated in various holiday tournaments, things have been a bit quieter around the Colony Knights girls basketball programs.

Colony did travel outside compete in the Surf N Slam tournament in San Diego, Calif., but has played only three games against in-state competition. Whether or not that’s by design, Colony head coach Jeff Bowker said the Knights have aimed to take advantage of the extra practice time on their home floor.

“We had some issues. Games got cancelled. The schedule in January got moved around,” Bowker said.

Colony (2-1 against Alaska teams) has simply been working to prepare for its Northern Lights Conference schedule.

“I’m all about figuring out what the girls can and can’t do,” Bowker said. “We’ll figure those things out, and see how it all plays out.”

The Knights are also following the philosophy that Bowker has maintained throughout his long career as a boys and girls basketball coach at Colony High School.

Bowker’s teams have two dates circled on the calendar — the Saturday of the NLC tournament and the Saturday of the state tournament.

“Our goal is the 8th and 22nd of March,” Bowker said.

His goal is for his team to be playing in the championship game on each of those dates.

Colony graduated three seniors (Sadie Willardson, Mary Klapperich and Audrey Michaelson) from a team that finished third in the state tournament last season. Two of those players are now competing on the Division I level. Klapperich is playing Division I basketball at Southern Utah and Michaelson is a DI runner at Loyola-Chicago.

“Those are DI athletes, one way or another. Losing them left us with holes for sure,” Bowker said. “We’ve got some girls eager to try to fill them.”

That group includes seniors Izzy Tweed and Jennifer Solano; juniors Faith Farris, Ashley Turcotte, Sarah Brumbaugh and Sarah Bonn; and sophomore Chase Stevens.

With the loss of a 6-footer in Klapperich, there will be one definite difference between last year’s team and this edition of the Knights, Bowker said.

“We’re smaller than we were last year,” Bowker said.

Instead, the Knights will use different attributes to have success.

“We’ve got pretty good guard play. They’ve played together for a while,” Bowker said.

Colony’s first big test of the season comes Friday in its NLC opener against Soldotna at Colony High.

The Colony boys, who also make their NLC season debut against SoHi Friday, already have three tournaments under their belts. Colony won the Al Howard Tip-Off at Soldotna and Cactus Jam in Arizona in December, and also competed in the Alaska Prep Shootout at Dimond High School earlier this month.

Earlier this season, Colony boys coach Tom Berg said, he typically likes to start his season by competing in at tournament Outside, but was happy to accept the invitation to compete in the Soldotna tourney.

The Knights beat Nikiski, Ketchikan and Bethel en route to the Al Howard title.

“We were a little nervous coming down here. We were working with 13 practices. We like to be closer to 20 before we show ourselves,” Berg said during the SoHi tourney.

Leading Colony (which has started the season 7-2) is senior guard Damien Fulp, the reigning Northern Lights Conference Player of the Year. Fulp is off to a great start to his senior season. He was named MVP of the Soldotna tournament.

“Every year Damien has played for me, his role has certainly expanded and changed a little bit. This year is no different,” Berg said. “He’s been the point guard for the last two years. (Damien) will still play a lot of points, but playing Anton (Chamblee) at the 1 relieves him of his ball-handling duties. He can truly be a scoring threat all the time.”

Chamblee, a sophomore guard, and sophomore Bailey West will also help the Knights in the backcourt. The Knights also have senior Eric Nygard and junior Graham Dinkel.

Senior Antonio Bush, one of the top rebounders on the conference last season, is expected to make his season debut Friday. Bush suffered an injury during the football season.

Newcomer Robert Sonnengard has also helped the Knights inside.

** This is the final piece of a four-part series previewing the basketball seasons of the Palmer, Wasilla, Houston and Colony girls and boys basketball programs. For other stories, see frontiersman.com/sports.