Frank and Kay Woodruff have been traveling around the country watching their daughter, Amy, complete her senior season as a Lady Nanook basketball player
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Frank and Kay Woodruff have been traveling around the country watching their daughter, Amy, complete her senior season as a Lady Nanook basketball player at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, coached by Jenny (Lin) Benson, former Winston Redbird standout and sister of Gallatin R-5 girl’s basketball coach and math teacher Rick Lin.
In January, the Woodruffs flew to Washington to watch the Nanooks play two conference games. While in Bellingham, at Western Washington University, Jim and Jan Hiley, formerly of Winston and Trenton, introduced themselves to the Woodruffs and Coach Benson. The Hileys taught in northwest Missouri before spending 15 years in Alaska and retiring in Bellingham. Jim’s brother was Marvin Hiley, former GHS teacher. On Saturday game, Macy Brown, Frank’s cousin and a Gallatin native now of Huntsville, AL, was working in the Seattle area and came to the Seattle University game.
Amy was back in the lower 48 states for two weeks in February, playing three games in Washington and one in Idaho. During free time, Amy enjoyed her last trip to the Seattle area, where she and teammates visited the wharf and attended a Seattle Supersonics/Dallas Mavericks basketball game. After the game Amy was invited to shoot an NBA three-point shot, which she made. The group of players also enjoyed an evening meal in the rotating Skyview restaurant atop the Seattle Space Needle.
At the end of February, Frank and Kay met their son, David, of Key West, FL, in the Minneapolis airport and flew to watch Amy’s last basketball games and experience an Alaska winter. While in Fairbanks, they saw the active Northern Lights, several ice sculptures around town, the oil pipeline, and David got to play ice hockey and go sled-riding with some of Amy’s friends.
Everyone enjoyed Fairbanks’ nicer-than-Missouri weather sunny skies and temperatures up to 38 degrees. This was mild for Fairbanks in February, having been 25 below zero the week before. On the flight home, Kay and Frank saw the awesome Mt. McKinley (Denali), the tallest mountain in North America (20,320 ft.) that is covered in clouds two-thirds of the time.
The Woodruffs watched Amy in two games in Alaska. The Nanooks beat Seattle University, 65-47, and “played their hearts out”, as stated by the Fairbanks Daily News Miner at www.newsminer.com, but lost by one point to Western Washington University. The Vikings beat the Nanooks in Bellingham earlier in the season and were ranked 11th in the nation that week and ended up winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Saturday night was Senior Night and the four seniors and their families were introduced, presented flowers, balloons and hugs by Coach Benson and her five-year-old son, Michael. Other seniors on the team are Melanie Wagoner, Beaverton, Ore.; Sarah Wolf, Roseburg, Ore.; and Deanna Age, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
During the Senior Night festivites, Amy was recognized for playing in all 110 games of her college career and for holding the Nanook record for three-point goals in a game (7), season (66) and career (192). Amy’s 1,105 points placed her 10th on the all-time scoring list at UAF. It was also announced that a February 25 NCAA Women’s Basketball Division II Statistics Report listed Amy at number three for three-point field goal percentage (43.9) and at number 19 for three-point goals scored per game (65 in 25 games). She was also recognized for being named, along with 26 other women, to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Academic Team. To be selected, a player must maintain a 3.2 GPA and be in the second or later year at their university. Amy was the only player named with a 4.0 GPA for the 2001 fall semester.
On March 4, the GNA conference all-star team was announced. Heidi Arts, a 6’2″ junior from Valdez, Ark, was named to the second team and Woodruff, Wagoner and Wolf were picked for the honorable mention list.
Amy will graduate in May with a degree in news-editorial journalism and a minor in geography. She has been nominated by her academic advisor for the Marion Francis Bowell Memorial Award, given each year to the outstanding graduating female. Amy has also been nominated to be the student speaker at her graduation on May 12. Kay, Frank and David will be flying “North to Alaska” again in May for the commencement ceremony.