Staff stayed active with youth and adult basketball while continuing twice-weekly Elders fitness classes. Tuesday sessions for Elders focused on stretching, walking, and a variety of exercises, while Thursdays feature our weekly favorite, Elders Volleyball.

BASKETBALL SEASON KEEPS GYM HOPPING

Sports & Rec staff worked with youth of all ages during a fun and fast-paced basketball season, coaching about a dozen teams. The junior high girls league served double duty this winter, preparing players for their school basketball season. Their hard work paid off, with every participant making their school team.

Staff then moved into their busiest stretch, managing weekday and weekend games across two leagues. The Kitsap Peewee League included five teams: coed ages 5–6 (EE level), girls age 7 (E level), boys age 10 (C level), girls age 10 (C level), and boys age 13 (A level).

BIG WINS ACROSS THE BOARD

All peewee teams had strong seasons. From first-time players scoring their first baskets to returning athletes building new skills and sportsmanship, each team found success.

The E level girls finished with just three losses on the season, while all other teams advanced to the playoffs. The C boys and A boys each placed third in the county. The C girls advanced to the championship game, finishing second after a hard fought contest.

Four teams also competed in the Poulsbo Parks & Rec League, including 2nd–3rd grade boys and girls teams and 5th grade boys and girls teams. These groups focused on skill development and learning the game, with no playoffs or championships. All competed well and enjoyed their time on the court.

Several teams also participated in tournaments throughout the winter, including Girls 12U AAU, Boys 8th Grade AAU, and multiple tribal tournaments.

The winter season remains the busiest time of year, with practices and games five days a week, both at the Fitness Center and at gyms across Kitsap County.

Staff are proud of all youth who participated this season, from experienced players to those just learning the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, and shooting. Each athlete showed growth not only in basketball skills but also in teamwork.

By Jon Anderson
Suquamish News Staff Writer

Three hand-built and hand-painted Suquamish race canoes now hang high above the passenger hall of Seattle’s newly renovated Colman Dock ferry terminal, greeting travelers with imagery that honors ancestral water travel and the living canoe traditions of the Salish Sea. The installation, titled Traveling on the Water, was created by a team led by Suquamish tribal member and artist Kate kyʔk ̓ ablu ̓ Ahvakana.  

Construction of the canoes was completed collaboratively by Suquamish tribal members Tyleander Purser, Ryan Boure, Vincent Chargualaf, as well as tribal artists Toma Villa (Yakama) and Joey Holmes (Grand Ronde). Once built, the final painting, design work, and finishing coats were completed by Ahvakana and Villa.  

“These canoes represent how we traveled in the past and how we still travel today,” Ahvakana said, who also serves as the Suquamish Tribe’s Cultural Resources Director. “Canoe culture here in the Salish Sea is still alive and thriving.”  

Colman Dock sits within the ancestral territory of Chief Seattle’s people where Suquamish villages and canoe travel routes existed long before the city was established. “It feels great to have Suquamish artistic representation here in our own ancestral homeland in Seattle,” Purser said. “To have our work represented right here means a lot.”  

Traditional forms, modern adaptation  

Though the painted designs reflect ancient and contemporary Coast Salish styles, the vessels themselves are strip-built canoes — a modern method used when old-growth cedar suitable for dugouts is no longer accessible.  

“Strip canoes are our modern solution,” Purser said. “Logs that could become dugouts are harder and harder to come by because of how few remain.” The team built the canoes inside Ahvakana’s family longhouse workshop, where cold temperatures and humidity complicated the fiberglass curing process.  

“There were times we had three heaters going just to get the resin to set,” Chargualaf said. “We even built a smaller room inside the longhouse just to hold enough heat.”  

Setbacks required persistence. “Some fiberglass went hazy and we had to scrape it off and start again,” Villa said. “It wasn’t easy, but everyone stayed committed.”  

Three canoes, three realms  

The installation includes two single canoes and one double — modeled after Coast Salish race and war canoes still used throughout the region. Each canoe honors a different sphere of life:  

• Water – The first single canoe featuressalmonthat curve along the bottom of the canoe in a subtle shape of an S, for Suquamish.  
• Air – The second single canoe features a thunderbird and osprey
• Human – The double canoe depicts two human figures 

“These canoes each have their own soul,” Ahvakana said. “They’re girls — they each have their own spirit, personality, and feeling.”  

Painting took place both in the longhouse and in Ahvakana and Villa’s own living room, where the vessels temporarily replaced their dining table as the centerpiece of their household. “Our kids will always remember that we ate dinner on a canoe while we finished it,” Villa said, laughing.  

Carrying canoe culture forward 

The installation not only honors the past — it encourages viewers to understand that canoe culture is ongoing, not symbolic.  

Those wishing to see Coast Salish racing canoes in motion can do so in Suquamish.  

“If you want to see these types of canoes being raced, come to Chief Seattle Days on the third weekend of August,” Ahvakana said. “You’ll see them on the water — how they move, how they’re paddled, and how much pride there is.”  

Art, responsibility, and representation  

For the artists, the most meaningful part was contributing work that future generations — including their own children — will see, recognize, and take pride in.  

“It’s surreal,” Boure said. “This is my first major project, and to have it installed here feels amazing.” Ahvakana said the project honors both tradition and accountability.  

“This is for our people, our community, and our kids,” she said. “It shows that we’re still here, still traveling on the water.”