Girls basketball: Chartraw wants to be role model as league MVP

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026

After being crowned Olympic League MVP last month by coaches, Sequim’s Gracie Chartraw sees the accolade as a team award.

“I couldn’t have done it without my family on the court,” the junior guard said.

That includes head coach Joclin Julmist, she said, who helped lead the Wolves back to the 2A state tournament for the first time since 2023.

Chartraw did her part too in the regular season with averages of 24.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.8 steals, and 3.3 assists per game. She recorded multiple 30-point games, including 30 against Port Angeles on Jan. 30 to hand the Roughriders their only league loss of the year.

Chartraw also set a Sequim girls school record with 43 points in Sequim against Orting in the district tournament.

Sequim went on to lose 54-36 to Nathan Hale in the opening round of the state tournament, but Chartraw and teammates said they connected more as the season went on.

“We learned how to play with each other,” Chartraw said.

Freshman teammate Jordyn Julmist, who was voted to the All-League Second Team with season averages of 9.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 steals per game, said the season started “kind of iffy” but “we’ve been working really well together as a team” as it progressed.

Early in the season, Sequim hovered around .500, but after losing to Port Angeles in early January, the Wolves went 9-2 with their only losses to Bainbridge and Neah Bay, who went on to win their fourth straight 1B state title last weekend.

Sequim players said a 58-51 home win on Jan. 30 against the Roughriders was a pivotal moment for their season.

“That was a big motivation for us,” Jordyn Julmist said.

Another key game for the Wolves, they said, was their district finals game on Feb. 21 in Bainbridge. The Wolves had lost twice to them already in the regular season, and the winner-to-state game came down to defense, particularly from seniors Navaeh Owens, and Hailey Wagner, who received the league’s Sportsmanship award for Sequim. The Wolves won the game 46-44.

Wagner, who averaged 7.5 rebounds, 5.8 points, and 1.7 steals a game for the Wolves in the regular season, said she struggled on defense her first two games against Bainbridge.

“My whole goal for the season was to work on (defense), and I think that last game beating them, kind of proved that goal for me,” she said.

Wagner grabbed nine rebounds in the game.

She was a freshman on Sequim’s 2023 squad that placed fourth at state and she said making a return to the tournament as a senior means a lot as she wanted to come back and make a larger impact.

“Finishing where I knew we could be this whole time is awesome,” she said.

Jordyn Julmist said Wagner was an encouragement to other players and never got down when situations were tough. Wagner echoed that sentiment about her teammate calling her kind, inclusive, and uplifting.

“She was always there to pat my back to tell me to keep going,” Wagner said.

Chartraw was grateful for her teammates and for them making it to state.

“I’m really happy that I was able to do it with these girls,” she said. “I wish I could have done it with everyone else in my previous years, but I’m just thankful that we pulled together and did it.

“After a long, tough season, we just kept coming back stronger and stronger together.”

More from the MVP

Chartraw, a Running Start student at Peninsula College, still has her senior year to play for Sequim next school year. She has aspirations to play basketball in college while pursuing a psychology degree and a career in behavioral support psychology.

Through her travels, Chartraw said she’s seen “how some people get treated differently and honestly, just not having enough support for them in the world right now.”

“I want to go and make a bigger difference in my future,” she said.

Chartraw is a Makah Tribe member and has traveled across the country with various travel teams, including Salish Hoops for Rez Ball, a fast-paced Native American league. Basketball has been a part of her daily life since she was little.

“It’s something I just grew up with ever since I was 3-years-old doing little kid camps, training, and everything,” Chartraw said.

She moved to Sequim her freshman year after time in Neah Bay and Port Angeles and said when it’s not the school’s basketball season, she’s still playing year round.

Asked about her style of play being considered “aggressive,” Chartraw agreed with the sentiment.

“(My) style is from just always being in the gym with other people playing in older age groups, playing with boys, so that’s how I learned,” she said.

However, Chartraw tries to keep the environment friendly on the court.

“I’m very nice to people … no matter if there’s tension between the teams, or not,” she said. “I’ll always help somebody up, or I always tell a girl ‘good job.’ That’s definitely just my personality.”

Wagner described Chartraw similarly.

“When she came onto the team she automatically became friends with all of us,” she said. “She’s someone who just makes the team and practices so fun.”

To reach that MVP level, Chartraw said the top thing she’s gotten better at is learning how to work more with her teammates and get to know their strengths and weaknesses.

“I built around that, built as a family, and just improved everyday at practice, and every off season,” she said.

As for her next high school basketball accomplishment, Chartraw said she just wants to be a good role model for younger students.

“Maybe they’ll find a love for the game like I have,” she said.