There is a hoop in a driveway of a house in Yakutat that local youth from not just the block, but across the town use at all hours with no permission needed.

This is not uncommon in many homes across America, but in this tiny town of roughly 500 this basket is one of the last links to a failing basketball tradition that once won regional and state tournaments.

This is the house of Rose Fraker a Yakutat alum with high school trophies, and a Gold Medal jump shot who is trying to revitalize the passion of basketball as families have moved away and school numbers have dropped.

The Juneau Lions Club honored Fraker with the Walter Soboleff Award at the recent Gold Medal Basketball Tournament presented to a GMT player that best personifies sportsmanship, leadership, spirit, motivation, and pride in their team, their village and their community.

“I’m shocked, absolutely shocked,” Fraker said at that time. “I had no idea. I usually know all the things that are happening around me and I had no idea this was coming.”

The award wasn’t just for a hoop in the driveway. Fraker is a local leader of her community in Northern Southeast Alaska in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska and dedicates countless hours to her community in youth activities and orchestrating community events.

Most notably she is recognized for her battle with local entities when striving to restart sports programs through the school.

At one point she nearly uprooted her family to a larger community due to these hurdles. Instead she faced them head-on and jumped through each hoop they placed in front of her.

“Everything started with COVID,” Fraker said. “Once COVID hit, everything shifted. The school administration was very reluctant to work with us in the community to reopen again per all the social distancing and masking and everything else that followed with ‘COVID protocol’…but we were all on the rise and ready to try and get back to normalcy. There was all of those excuses in the book, but then soon turned over to be money issues of course. That it had apparently gotten too costly for the gym to be open for a few hours a day to the public throughout the week. It got ugly there for a bit within the community and the school district.”

In small towns and villages of Alaska the schools are the heart of the community and basketball the sport of choice.

“If we didn’t have our gym, we didn’t have much of anything,” Fraker said. “Soon began the decline in interest, in kids and families moving away. Suddenly we were left to almost no kids and are currently still facing the issue today.”

The town had slowly been losing residents since before the pandemic.

Fraker is a customer service agent for Alaska Airlines. Getting in and out of Yakutat is another reason families decide to leave. The isolation doesn’t foster new job growth so graduating students don’t have the desire to return home after college.

The wilderness is what the families like Frakers with history there love. The wilderness and basketball.

Currently the Yakutat K-12 school numbers are at 55 students in the building and with the Homeschool Lead Program the total is at 77.

2012 was the last year a Yakutat team played in a 2A state tournament game. Both the girls (fourth) and boys (fifth) attended. The boys had won regions, the girls were runners-up. The prior year in 2011 the girls were state runner-up to Skagway after winning regions.

School population numbers dropped them down to 1A after 2012 and the classrooms continued to shrink.

2016 was the last time a 1A Yakutat team went to the state tournament, the girls placed seventh.

For Fraker those numbers burn. She had led the Yakutat girls to the state title in 2009 defeating Southeast conference rival Skagway 53-38 and in 2008 defeating Ninilchik 32-20. She was also on the 2007 title team that defeated Point Hope 51-44 and on the 2006 team that placed sixth. She had four straight Region V championships.

She of course was not alone. Teammates over those years included Justine Wheeler, Heidi Esbenshade, Cherise Ryman, Sharnel Vale, Heidi Esbenshade, Sylvia Schumacher and Hannah Esbenshade.

Before them were Samantha Johnson, Stephanie Johnson, Sheena Brantley, Jasmine James, Rebecca Widdows, Jacquoi James, Violet Sensmeier and Ashton Schmidt had played at state.

After them came Tina Esbenshade, Cyndal Klushkan, Kaitlyn Ivers, Sarah Newlun, Janie Jensen, Kasia Adams, Danielle Go, Amanda Israelson, Savannah Beckstrom, Nadine Fraker, Katrina Fraker, Ellen Esbenshede and Tina Esbenshede to name a few.

The boys team also did well, including a state title in 2006, and players such as Stephen Adams, Shea Jackson, Clinton Ivers, Jack Klushkan, Kyle Dierick, Alin Vale, Sam Ferguson, and Tracy Jackson were known. Others followed including Jake Taylor, Kaleb Klushkan, Aedan Blazina, Robert Lekanof, Joshua James, Kelani Russell, Cody Jensen, Billy Brown and Robert Sensmeier.

Youth players grew up into a strong high school program in Yakutat.

“When I was my kids’ age it started with us,” Fraker said. “It just progressed and through high school we had a really good solid program, we did the things, we won regionals, I’ve never lost a regional game, been a champion in all those years and we went to state.”

Yakutat lost at state her freshman year but then won three state titles in a row.

“I had this sense of pride that was built up,” Fraker said.

Fraker said the last decade has been a devastating shift in time for Yakutat as the school system has struggled and along with it enough kids for athletic teams.

“Suddenly everything shifted and basketball wasn’t on the forefront in Yakutat and I wasn’t having it,” Fraker said matter of factly.

Her daughters are now nine, 10 and 12 years old.

“I just want them to have what I had,” she said. “And I want their friends to have what I had and it starts with them right now. It doesn’t start after and that has kind of been my goal. We are going to start from zero and if we don’t have all of the supporting cast we’re going to make it happen, even if it is just me or their parents or whoever. We don’t care. We are going to make it happen. And that’s what we are doing. That’s all.”

Fraker noted the help received from within the tribe from Rhoda Jensen, the Yakutat Community Health Center’s Health Director.

“She was a key player in helping get us our gym time back,” Fraker said. “Through the tribal clinic and the help of their wellness program, they were able to form an MOA with the school district leasing gym time for the community. It’s because of her support and love for us, the kids and the sport we love, that we were able to get back in there. Not only did she work and push to get gym time back for our community, they also purchased all new weight room equipment for the school’s weight room.”

It has been four years since there has been high school basketball in the Yakutat district, a coed team. But within the past few years youth ages 8-14 have taken to the Fraker hoop and have begun to attend youth tournaments.

“It began with putting a basketball hoop outside at the end of my driveway in our neighborhood for our girls and soon enough, we now have kids in numbers from 4-20 sometimes,” Fraker said. “They all meet up and have full-fledged games in the hood. It really is spectacular to see. Rain or shine even all the way into November they’re all out there. It was in these last few years that I realized it’s time to invest in these kids. If they’re willing to do this much, then I need to match that effort and give them every opportunity I can hence began my journey of finding kids tournaments, looking in to ball camps for them and raising money from all around to support them. Thankfully with the support of some fellow community members ready to match my eagerness, we have also been able to reignite our alumni’s nonprofit, the ‘Yakutat Alumni Association’ to begin raising and collecting monies to help give back to the kids financially in all sports we can. We’re still in the beginning fazes but it’s a start. Once we start we can’t stop. These kids deserve every opportunity they can if they’re willing to put in the work.”

When she received the Walter Soboleff Award, Fraker spoke of watching her first Gold Medal in high school, something that inspired her to play in the tournament for over a decade.

“I came down here, I saw it, I lived it, I was a part of it, watched everything that happened and now I’m just here to be in the moment,” Fraker said as fans cheered and surrounded her. “Now I want to make that possible for all our youth.”

Fraker’s daughters played at the adjacent youth basketball tournament during Gold Medal.

Kids sleep over every weekend and play ball in the Fraker yard and the street in front of the house.

“We have a hoop in my driveway and the kids from all over the community come and they shoot at that same old hoop and they ball out,” Fraker said. “They love it. So as long as they want it we’re going to make sure they have it. I don’t care how far I have to go, I don’t care who I have to ask for money or who is going to support it, I don’t care, I’m going to do it. For my kids and their friends, they are all my kids at this point.”

If all goes well Yakutat can field a co-ed team that includes eighth graders next season.

“They would be young,” Fraker said. “But at least brave enough to wear that name on their jersey with pride!”

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.