Barrow basketball players suspended for the season

Published on February 22nd, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

Barrow High School officials have suspended five starting basketball players for the remainder of the season after they admitted to drinking alcohol on a road trip earlier this season, a major blow to the championship hopes of one of Alaska's top-ranked Class 3A high school girls programs.

It's not often such punishment is handed down against a team expected to compete for a state championship like the Lady Whalers, who have a 17-3 record and are one of the favorites at next month's ASAA state tournament.

But in this case, Barrow officials were following protocol, head coach Ryan Myers said Monday.

"A drinking infraction always results in a 10-day sports suspension," he said.

The suspension overlaps this weekend's homecoming games and next week's Western Conference regional tournament, a state qualifier. So the players could conceivably come back for the state tournament if Barrow advanced, but Myers shot down that possibility.

"They are done for the season," he said.

Myers, who in his first season led Barrow to the 2007 state championship and was voted Alaska 3A Coach of the Year, felt like it was important to make an example out of the five players who broke the rules.

"The point of athletics is to teach and promote qualities such as character, leadership, responsibility and teamwork, and when kids make mistakes the only responsible thing is to teach them that there are consequences," Myers said.

"In this case, the consequence for drinking and then trying to cover it up by lying is that none of them will play."

The incident where the five players were drinking alcohol happened many weeks ago during a trip to the Pepsi/ACS Invitational in Anchorage. Myers said he didn't find out until later and then he questioned his players and reported back to his administration. The process was longer than expected.

"There are rumors going around up here that I somehow swept this all under the rug in an attempt to win more games, which is simply not true," Myers said.

"We still have a fighter's chance to make it to state," he added, "but it will obviously be a much more difficult road now. We are optimistic and will work hard to try to get ourselves organized enough to compete at the level we know we need to get to be competitive."

Still, the reaction is mixed in the community about the decision to suspend the five starters, especially because the Lady Whalers were a serious state contender.

Some people want to blame the coach, while others point to the players. Some want to win while others want accountability.

"We hope that everybody involved will learn from it," Barrow boys coach Jeremy Arnhart said.

The suspensions were handed down on the eve of Barrow's two-game home series against Eielson, forcing the team fill out the roster with JV call-ups to play alongside varsity veterans like Melissa Gerke, Hilary Lowry and Mei Havea.

"Our remaining varsity players along with many of our JV team played their hearts out and we got two wins," said proud coach Myers. "They played really scrappy defense and got enough points when it counted."

The Lady Whalers won the first game in overtime, thanks to Gerke (19 points) and Lowry (12 points, including six in OT). They won the second game 30-18 behind Lowry's 14 points.

Myers was happy to see unsung bench players get rewarded on the big stage.

"It was a big confidence boost to the JV girls who many of which were playing in a varsity game for the first time," he said. "The wins were credit to the great work my assistant coach Jordyn Danner has put in with those JV girls."

Van Williams can be reached at 907-348-2452 or 800-770-9830, ext. 452.