Alaska high school basketball tournaments move venues

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska School Activities Association has said that the state’s high school basketball tournaments will be scheduled to take place in Palmer and Wasilla instead of Anchorage due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The city of Anchorage issued its most recent public health emergency order on Feb. 1. It prohibits any indoor sports team from outside of Anchorage to travel into the city to play games. The order will remain in effect indefinitely.

Association Executive Director Billy Strickland said he was not 100% certain the tournaments would be held at all.

“If we felt we couldn’t safely mitigate it or it wouldn’t be a good idea for the state of Alaska — well, we’ve shut them down before,” Strickland said.

The spring tournaments were cancelled last year due to the pandemic, which has killed almost 300 people and infected more than 55,000 residents in the state.

In 2019, about 32,000 people attended the tournaments, which were held across a two-week period.