SUMMER CAMP

PALMER — While Frank Ostanik was part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks men’s basketball coaching staff, the program built its annual boys high school team camp into the biggest of its kind.

Ostanik — a former UAF player, assistant and head coach of the Nanooks program — watched as the camp ballooned in size and once included as many as 48 teams.

The Eielson High School graduate is no longer with the UAF men’s program. He’s now the head boys basketball coach and activities director at Monroe Catholic in Fairbanks. But he’s still busy building one of the top team camps in the state. And after a move to Palmer, Ostanik’s Alaska Basketball Academy Team Camp has once again grown to become the biggest in Alaska.

Forty teams from across the state hit courts at Palmer High School, Colony High School and the AT&T Sports Center for the week-long camp that ended Friday.

“We’ve got 40 teams going on seven courts. It’s the biggest team camp in the state,” said Jason Marvel, head coach of the Palmer High School boys basketball program. “It’s a pretty big deal for the community.”

Valdez High School housed the camp for the last two summers. But the camp simply outgrew Valdez.

“Valdez treated us great. It was a great situation,” Ostanik said during a break in action on Thursday. “(But Valdez) could only accommodate 26 teams. We had to turn away six or eight. Turning away kids who want to play is not good for high school basketball in this state.”

Knowing the camp had probably run its course in Valdez, Marvel suggested to Ostanik the camp be moved to Palmer.

“I told him Valdez is a great place, but what do you think about bringing it to the Valley?” Marvel said. “Really make it special, get it back to the number of teams you had in your last year at UAF.”

Marvel and Palmer High took the lead to host the camp, working cooperatively with Colony High and the AT&T Sports Center.

Ostanik, who is hosting his camp for the 14th year, raved about the efforts by the local schools and the AT&T Sports Center to make the event a success.

“I’m blown away by the administration at Palmer High School and Colony, their willingness to open up and let us use their facilities,” Ostanik said. “And to have a facility like the AT&T Sports Center. We [in Fairbanks] don’t have anything remotely close to that.”

Ostanik said a priority has been to always keep the costs to attend the camp as low as possible. Teams from as far north as Nome and as far south as Ketchikan are participating. Ostanik said he does not want to compound high travel costs with exorbitant fees to attend.

“We’re very grateful for (the AT&T Sports Center) to work with us, keep the cost of their facility at a level where we can keep our costs down,” Ostanik said.

Crowley Fuel was a primary sponsor, and Larson Chiropractic supplied the camp with athletic trainers.

The format of the camp allows programs to practice, scrimmage and play in single-elimnation championship tournament throughout the course of the week. Marvel said the experience is extremely valuable as teams look forward to the next season.

“It’s a great opportunity for coaches to get time working with their teams — … work together on the team concept, getting better as a team, growing as a team,” Marvel said. “The team camp allows you to do that.”

Ostanik said he separates the camp into three classes — a freshman division, small school and junior varsity division, and large-school varsity class.

“It helped us grow, allowed more kids the ability to play,” Ostanik said.

Ostanik brings a head clinician to Alaska each year for the camp. This summer its Ryan Looney, the head coach of the Seattle Pacific University program. UAA assistant coach Ryan Orton as well as a number of former Alaska high school players who are now at the college level helped out during the week.

Ostanik said the camp is not only valuable for the players, but for the high school coaches.

“The best part of the camp for a coach is being around other coaches,” Ostanik said. “It’s a great fraternity. People here have been coming to my camp for 10, 12, 13 years.”

Programs from rural areas such as Aniak, Nome, Cordova, Petersburg and Ketchikan joined Southcentral Alaska teams from the Anchorage, Valley and Kenai Peninsula areas in the camp. Ostanik said schools such as Seward and Skyview attended for the first time, and he hopes to see more programs from across the 49th state participate. He’d also like to see the camp remain in the Valley.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.