Anchorage Day II: Huskies & Huskies

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The first thing that threw everyone off was the late sunrise. Our first instinct is to look out the window and if it's still dark, then you know you have a few more Zs to catch.

Not the case in Alaska, where the sun didn't come up until 10 a.m.

Other than that, everything is good in the Great White North. The Huskies had a productive day of study hall, an open practice at Sullivan Arena, a closed practice at Chugiak High School and film. There was also the banquet, where an improv group "Scared Scriptless" pulled Kristi Kingma and Coach Jackson onto the stage to take part in the show.

During the skit, Kristi and Coach J had a horn and a bell as props. Two actors were impersonating the coach & student-athlete. If what they said fit in with how the person was, you rang the bell. If it was wrong, you squeezed the horn and the actor would shift gears. It was quite humorous.

The banquet was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to mingle with players from every team. The coaches all got up and spoke to the crowd, sharing plenty of warm appreciation for the Great Alaska Shootout.

But the best part of the day was post-practice at Chugiak HS, when the Huskies had the chance to pet and play with a group of real huskies - actual Iditarod race dogs. This was an extra hour outside in sub 20-degree weather, but no one seemed to mind. Especially since Karen Gunderman in the equipment room hooked everyone up with warm parkas for the trip.

After the banquet was over, the Huskies had some scout film to watch. The team did take a few moments to catch the men's team and their impressive victory (jaw-dropping, actually) over Virginia.

All for now. We'll continue to provide tidbits and other material from the Great Alaska Shootout. Make sure you catch Kristi Kingma's blog for GoHuskies.com.