Cordova High School will host the much-anticipated 2A Interior Conference playoffs beginning Thursday, March 7.
Girls and boys basketball teams from Glennallen, Effie Kokrine, Nenana, SuValley and Tok will join Cordova in a three-day, 18-game double-elimination, high-stakes shoot-out, with the winners and runners-up advancing to the State 2A tournament in Anchorage the following week.
Site of the tournament rotates through all the conference schools, which number six, so hosting the playoff is rarer than the Olympics, which take place every four years.
Cordova last hosted a District playoff back in 2014, when they were still in the 3A South-Central Conference. Neither CHS team made it to State that year.
Since moving to 2A in 2015, the Cordova boys have advanced to State all three years; the Cordova girls once. None of those teams made it to the finals.
Since the Alaska School Activities Association adoption of 1A through 4A competition back in 1982, Cordova has won only one State title. The Lady Wolverines, coached by Virginia Anderson, upset Delta to win the title in 1987. That same year, a Cordova boys team coached by Bob Lenz went into the State 3A championships a perfect 27-0, but was upended by arch-rival ACS in the semi-finals.
With several of the conference teams not finishing their regular season schedule until March 2, seeding to fill the tournament brackets based on conference won-lost records will likely not be completed until Tuesday, March 5. So, Cordova fans will have to wait until that day to find out when the Wolverines play, and make plans to savor a very special basketball weekend.
