Tracking Caribou, Shooting Hoops, Winning Trophies

William Yardley & Erik Olsen:

Spring means murre eggs and bowhead whales. Summer is seals and salmon and berries. Fall and winter are a time to track caribou.

And then there is that other season here at the edge of the earth, the one that never seems to end.

It is called basketball season, and it, too, has become crucial to existence.

"When I leave school I don't have to think about it, I know I'm coming here," said Caroline Long, 18, a senior at Tikigaq School. "I know for a fact that this is where I'm going to be."

The "this" Ms. Long was referring to is this tiny village's magical redoubt from the dark and forbidding Arctic and one of the secrets of its outsize stature in Alaska sports lore: open gym.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 7, 2011 1:40 AM
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