The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame welcomed four athletes and two teams into its 2016 Directors’ Awards Class Tuesday. Outstanding current athletes — musher Dallas Seavey, track and cross country champion Allie Ostrander and basketball star Laci Effenberger — were awarded alongside the University of Alaska Anchorage Women’s Basketball team and the Soldotna High School Football team.
Former Ketchikan High School King Effenberger received the Trajan Langdon award for leadership, sportsmanship and inspiration. Effenberger overcame seven knee surgeries to start at CCAA conference champion Cal State East Bay women’s basketball program where she holds the Pioneers’ single-season record for 3-pointers made (96) and the in-game record for 3-pointers (seven).
Soldotna native and Boise State University freshman Allie Ostrander received the Pride of Alaska Award for consistent excellence in atheltic competition. Ostrander recently placed second in the 2015 NCAA Division I national cross country championships.
Ostrander received the award alongside the UAA women’s basketball team, this year’s runner-up in the NCAA Division II championships.
2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner Dallas Seavey won the Pride of Alaska Award in the male category alongside the Soldotna High School football team. Seavey won his fourth Iditarod this year while Soldotna High School earned their fourth straight medium-school football championship in 2015.
Receiving the Joe Floyd award for significant and lasting contribution to Alaska through sports was former UAA hockey star and current Dimond High School head coach Dennis Sorenson. Sorenson has been coaching at Dimond since 1991, where he has accumulated 500 wins, almost twice as many as the second winningest high school coach.
