Adult basketball teams from Haines, Klukwan, Juneau, Hoonah and Whitehorse competed in Haines over the weekend in the 34th Annual Dick Hotch Memorial Tournament.
Many people who knew the Klukwan coach the tournament was named for were either playing on the court or watching in the stands.
“He had a pretty big influence on us young guys as we were growing up,” said Jeff Klanott. “He took us traveling from Metlakatla all the way up to Whitehorse just to play basketball.”
Klanott was adopted and raised by Dick Hotch. He sat in a far corner of the school gym bleachers Friday watching Round Robin games in the tournament named for his father and coach.
“If we didn’t play the game the way he thought we should be playing, he’d sit you down and tell you,” Klanott said. “Sportsmanship was a big part of the game to him.”.
The event has continued for more than 30 years. Some teams consider it a warm-up for the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in Juneau that follows a couple weeks after this one. Ed says the team he’s on is almost all family members – brothers and cousins.
The Dick Hotch Tournament ended on Sunday with a championship face-off between Whitehorse and the Haines Merchants – a team made up of Juneau and Haines players. The Haines Merchants beat Whitehorse 74 to 68. The Klukwan Chilkats came in third place.
