NEW ERA BEGINS FOR GIRLS BASKETBALL

A week after the boys ran it, the gym belonged to the girls. Forty teams came from across Alaska for the 2026 Alaska Basketball Academy Girls Team Camp, and the names that carried last season weren't among them. The senior standouts have moved on. This was the first long look at the group lining up to replace them.

The turnover isn't only on the floor. Some of it is on the bench.

Wasilla has a new head coach in Jessica Kincheloe, who brings an edge and hundreds of games of comp coaching to the job. She takes over for Jeannie Hebert-Truax, who retired after 32 years with the program, the winningest girls coach in Alaska history. That's a hard act to follow, and Kincheloe has the miles to handle it.

Palmer brought in a new face too. Chandice Kelly, a former Wasilla player, went 43-14 at Colony and guided the program to a state runner-up finish in 2024. She played Division I and then professionally overseas before coaching, and the resume already includes AABC Coach of the Year and Frontiersman Female Coach of the Year. Palmer landed a proven one.

One program with a looming presence last summer wasn't there at all. Mountain City, the 4A defending champion, didn't make it to camp. Head coach Lonnie Ridgeway wasn't on the floor, and the roster that won it all has scattered. Brooklynn Ridgeway and Zoe Jones will still be Lions next season, just not Mountain City ones. The two are transferring to the Winston-Salem Christian Lions in North Carolina. Seniors Jasmine Schaeffer and Keelie Kronberger have graduated. For now, the defending champ is looking for answers, without a set coach or roster heading into the offseason.

Games ran all week, team against team, the kind of summer reps that don't show up in a box score but decide who's ready come November. The two-minute tournament, always one of the camp's biggest draws, is a sprint that shows in a hurry which teams keep their heads when the clock speeds up.

A wide-open field, new coaches on the sidelines, and no clear favorite. The season everyone's chasing starts taking shape now, and nobody owns it yet.