Ronan basketball program lands ‘Alaskan Nets’ trip

It was official as of Thursday, and then Saturday a Facebook post made it official-official.

The Ronan basketball teams are headed to Alaska.

The documentary “Alaskan Nets,” about the basketball program at Metlakatla, the last native reserve in Alaska, was released in 2021.

The film, executive produced by Chris Pratt, is available on Amazon Prime and follows the “Met” Chiefs as they chase their first state basketball championship in 30 years.

In conjunction Alaska Airlines introduced a contest last fall to bring a school from the mainland to Metlakatla, a fishing community of roughly 1,400 that sits on Annette Island.

“I got an email about it last fall,” Steve Woll, the longtime Ronan basketball coach, said last week. Alaska Airlines was asking schools to show the film — helping raise funds for their own programs in the process — and document the reaction.

Woll, the Maidens' fifth-year coach, and his squad showed “Alaskan Nets” on Feb. 12.

“We made a poster of our girls, and showed them a picture of our movie night,” Woll said. “Then we had to write a paragraph or two about what basketball meant to the school and community.

“They wrote back, ‘You guys knocked it out of the park, looks good, we’ll let you know.’"

The interval between February until now was long enough that it had slipped Woll’s mind.

“Monday night I got an email,” Woll said. “Out of 1,100 schools that entered, we had made the final four.”

There were more compulsories: Question and answer sessions with principal Kevin Kenelty, members of the team, Woll and boys basketball coach DJ Fish. Ronan put together a Thursday morning pep assembly that was carried via Zoom to judges.

“We were in the locker room first, and then we had our tech guy follow us into the gym,” Woll said. “We had the drum group, the band, cheerleaders and a big sea of orange and black. They liked us. Pretty sweet.”

Later that day, Ronan got word that it had won the High School Movie Night grand prize sweepstakes.

“It was so hard to pick a winner,” reads an Alaskan Nets post on Facebook. “We got to learn about so many special communities across the US and Canada. … We are thrilled to announce that Ronan High School in Ronan, MT is going to Alaska!!”

What happens next is to be determined. Exact dates and travel arrangements have not been announced, and it could be Ronan has to drop a couple of non-conference games in December to allow for this trip.

What we do know is Ronan, a Flathead Reservation town of 2,000, is going to be represented in Alaska.

“We might have to change our schedule,” Woll said. “What an emotional day for us, though. Pretty neat deal.”

A trailer for "Alaskan Nets" can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsFX46Mtci8.