John Blasco suspected something was amiss when he was in the midst of announcing the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year winner and his mic was suddenly cut off.
“So I turned to the DJ to get them to turn the mic back on, and that’s when somebody else in the crowd had a mic and started talking,” he said in an interview this week. “And then that’s when I realized something was up. Yeah, they got me pretty good.”
Blasco, who as the chamber’s past president was supposed to announce this year’s winners of three awards presented at its annual gala, instead was himself given the Citizen of the Year award largely for his work with local students as the basketball coach at the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School. He took the Falcons to the championship game in the school’s final season in March — and named 4A Boys Coach of the Year by the Alaska Basketball Coaches Association in doing so — but the chamber’s award recognized his broader contributions.
“It wasn’t just about winning games,” said Craig Dahl, the chamber’s government affairs director, while announcing the award. “John constantly mentored his team and was the first coach in Alaska to adopt the ‘Choose Respect’ program — teaching his team to respect and have respect for everyone around them.”
Dahl noted Blasco has been part of Juneau’s sports scene from an early age, playing basketball in high school alongside future NBA star Carlos Boozer and starting to coach while attending college in Oregon. He was named the head coach at TMHS in August of 2009, one year after the school opened and the first year it was a member of the Alaska School Activities Association.
John Blasco gives a speech after being sworn in as the president of the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce during its October 2022 gala. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire file photo)
Blasco also has emerged as a business leader since graduating in 2004, working as a banker for several years during which he earned a master’s in business administration from the University of Alaska Southeast. He then worked for five years as business project manager for the Alaskan Brewing Co. until 2022, when he became president and CEO for Anchorage Distillery where he remains today. He served as the chamber’s president from October of 2022 to October of 2023.
Those business accomplishments got short mention compared to his coaching achievements during the awards presentation, Blasco said seems appropriate given the communitywide impacts that his work with students and emotional roller coaster of TMHS’ final year have had.
“The coaching has been a huge part of my life and my opportunity to give back to Juneau in one way,” he said. “Professionally there’s the chamber work and the Rotary and the CHARR (Alaska Carbarets, Hotels, Restaurants and Retailers), but those definitely aren’t as visible as something like coaching high school basketball in Southeast Alaska.”
Blasco has won other awards, including being named to the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s “Top 40 under 40” statewide leaders in 2016. But he said the two awards he’s won during the past seven months stand out as especially significant.
“In one year I’ve been recognized by my basketball peers across the state, and then I’ve been recognized by my community and business peers in my hometown,” he said. “It’s just something I never dreamed of. You know, we don’t set out to do these things for awards. It was never my goal to coach or volunteer to see what awards I can win. I just do it because I love Juneau, I love the kids and love business, and to be recognized by everybody for that is such a huge honor to receive both in the same year six months apart. It’s wild — how do I replicate anything like this?”
Lifetime Achievement and Business of Distinction awards
A different person’s name — not revealed by Blasco — was on the speech he was reading before the interruption that resulted in him being named the winner. The switch came after the evening’s two other award winners were announced.
John Blasco (left) congratulates Bruce Simonson of the Juneau Bach Society as he is presented with the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement award Saturday at Centennial Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The first to be honored was Bruce Simonson of the Juneau Bach Society, who received the chamber’s Lifetime Achievement award. Blasco said when the chamber’s board of directors made its annual request for award nominees this summer the letters for Simonson began pouring in.
“Somebody like Bruce, I think, is a perfect example (of the process) where he has no ties to the chamber,” Blasco said. “But reading the letters of nomination you know somebody like that has given so much to Juneau over his lifetime that we felt it was definitely worth recognizing and honoring.”
If the chamber’s board was surprised by the nominations for Simonson, he in turn was equally surprised when the award was announced. He founded the Juneau Bach Society when he moved to Juneau in 1988 and he said it “started a very rich, vibrant scene,” which performs a variety of its own concerts annually as well as collaborations with other local performing groups and visiting artists.
“I was struck by how strong the arts community is in this town, and I know that that is in large part possible because of folks like you — the chamber supports these institutions, these organizations,” he told the crowd while accepting the award Saturday. “I want to thank you for doing that because it’s part of what makes it possible for us to do the things that we hope contribute to the quality of life for everyone here.”
Mitch Falk (right), owner of Bullwinkle’s Pizza Parlor, offers a tribute to Bill Adair (far left on stage), the original owner who founded the company in 1973, as the pizza establishment was named the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s Business of Distinction for 2024 on Saturday at Centennial Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The Business of Distinction award — the second year the chamber has presented the honor — went to Bullwinkle’s Pizza Parlor, founded in 1973 by Bill Adair and purchased in 2007 by current owner Mitch Falk. The announcement of the award by Tom Sullivan, regional branch manager of First Bank of Alaska, highlighted Bullwinkle’s achievements far beyond just serving and delivering food.
”They’re passionate advocates of keeping kids away from drugs and supporting healthy lifestyles for our youth,” Sullivan said. “They also invest in their employees’ future by offering to pay for their college tuition, helping young people in Juneau build brighter tomorrows. It’s a business like this one that reminds us of the strength and compassion that’s in our community. Their contributions may not always make headlines, but they make real differences in the lives of so many people in our community.”
Falk, in accepting the award, offered an on-stage tribute to Adair by noting Bullwinkle’s today represents a decades-long growth on his original idea of offering “bowling with pizza.”
“We continue the tradition of family, community and trying to get as much out of our young people as we possibly can,” Falk said. “Protect them from the bad elements that are out there and offer them the opportunity to improve themselves.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
Attendees at the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala chat as they make their way through the buffet line Saturday night at Centennial Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
