With the cancellation of endowment games in Cordova vs. arch-rival Valdez this weekend, the Cordova boys will start their season in Juneau, at the Capital City Invite on Dec. 26-28.
Santa left their stockings full of daunting competition – for the Wolverines face a field that includes two Alaska 4A squads, and an even bigger out-of-state foe from Seattle, Washington.
Cordova plays 4A Juneau-Douglas (enrollment 560) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 26; Federal Way, Washington (enrollment 1640) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28; and 4A Soldotna (enrollment 720) at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 29.
Clearly, Cordova – a 2A school with 120 students in junior high and high school, combined – will have its hands full.
Veteran CHS Coach Jake Borst gave a very upbeat glimpse about this year’s squad.
“After losing five strong seniors last year, I feel we have a terrific returning class of seniors this year,” he said. “These guys have been playing together since elementary school; they have great chemistry and hold each other accountable without taking the criticism too hard.”
Borst added that he expects other players to rise to the occasion.
“Our supporting players will need to step up, and I trust they will, if we want to build upon our progress the last couple of years,” he said. “With this year’s conference tournament here in Cordova we have strong expectations to continue with those accomplishments from last year. And [we want to] go to State looking to improve on that success as well.”
Cordova’s schedule is full of “exciting and challenging tournaments,” Borst said, “including this upcoming Juneau tournament, an Anchorage trip to the Lumen Christi tournament, and a trip to Metlakatla. We have Alumni games on the fourth of January, and two weekends in a row after that [we’ll play] home games, including our Tipoff Tournament.”
“I have to give a special thank you to NVE who without their support, this season would not have been possible,” he added.
Both the Cordova girls and boys will play in the Alumni Games here on Jan. 4, and will launch conference play here against Tok on Jan. 10-11.
