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Native American Players Looking for Recognition

by Charles Pulliam, Associated Press , July 10, 2009

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Less than four months ago, Wayne Holmberg scored 21 points to help lift his team to a small-schools Alaska state basketball championship.

It was as good as it gets for Holmberg, who had spent most of the roller-coaster season practicing in a makeshift cafeteria gym after his small western Alaska village of Kalskag had a fire burn the entire school to the ground.

All that daily struggle was over. Holmberg was on top of the world as a state champion.

The 16-year-old’s borders were dramatically expanded this week during his first trip outside Alaska.

Holmberg is in Phoenix for the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI), the only all Native American NCAA-affiliated basketball tournament in North America.

On Wednesday, Holmberg and his Alaska teammates opened the tournament by edging the Ballerz of Crownpoint, N.M., 66-62. Team Alaska was to play two games Thursday to determine if it advances into the final bracket and has a chance at the tournament championship.

The high school junior and state 1A player of the year is part of the first Alaska all-star team to appear at the seventh annual tournament, which began Wednesday. Holmberg is hoping his basketball skills could lead to a college scholarship.

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Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.



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