“I’d love to see swimming be the popular sport at Wasilla,” the first-year Warriors head coach said during a poolside interview last week.
While swimming often gets overlooked among the more popular fall sports, the tattooed 29-year-old said he believes that the right combination of success and enthusiasm can change that attitude in Wasilla.
 ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Matt Hanley, a former swimming standout at Lathrop High School and the University of Alaska Anchorage, is now at the helm of a re-energized Wasilla High School swimming program. |
Hanley’s Wasilla team this year should have no trouble helping him out.
The Warriors boys are coming off a seventh-place finish at last year’s state meet, and the team’s top four swimmers — seniors Max Merriam and Charles Frey, along with juniors Christian Long and Jeffrey Frey — all have state meet experience. The Warriors showed they’ve got a powerful team in the season-opening Homer Invitational two weeks ago, beating eight other teams to win the team title. Wasilla has followed that with a tri-meet win over East Anchorage and Eagle River.
“We’ve got a good start,” Hanley said. “The energy’s incredible.”
Though this is his first year at Wasilla, Hanley, a 1997 Lathrop High graduate, is no stranger to the Valley. He’s also the head coach of the Northern Lights Swim Club in the Valley, and last year he served as an assistant at Palmer High. He’s also coached at Bartlett and Service, and as a competitive swimmer he set multiple state records before swimming collegiately for UAA.
Between coaching two swim teams, Hanley admitted he doesn’t have much time for anything outside the pool.
“All I do is coach,” he said.
Hanley’s enthusiasm for swimming my be eclipsed only by his team. He said that when he found out there was an opening at WHS, he was initially on the fence about taking on the added responsibility. But after talking with team members, he said he felt like something big was about to happen in Wasilla.
“The boys won me over,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of heart, a lot of emotion, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Hanley isn’t the only new face likely to make a big impact at Wasilla. Jeffrey Frey, who last year swam in three event finals at state for the Colony Knights, elected to join his older brother this season in Wasilla. Hanley said his four top swimmers believe the Warriors are capable of not only winning the Region III meet, but also making a big splash at state.
“They have some high goals,” Hanley said. “We’d like to put a lot of energy into state this year as a team and see where we compare with the rest of the field.”
While the Warriors are strong at the top, Hanley said he’s also hoping to see his other swimmers make big improvements during the season.
“We just try to make everybody as strong as possible, make sure that they realized it’s not just the top four boys. It’s everybody. That’s extremely important at Regions. Regions is more of a numbers game, where those third, fourth, fifth places really make the meet,” he said.
Hanley’s boys team has obvious potential to make a strong showing this season, but the coach said an even bigger focus may be in building the girls’ team for the future.
“The guys’ team has always had a strong presence, and this year one of our main goals is to give the ladies a chance to express themselves as a team as well,” he said.
Roughly two-thirds of Wasilla’s 45 swimmers and divers are female, so the numbers are there. And Hanley said there’s plenty of talent, as well.
“The girls team is coming together pretty strong,” he said.
Senior Caity Stigen, who excels in the freestyle events, is Wasilla’s top returning swimmer, and Hanley said Stigen is coming back nicely from a summertime shoulder injury.
“She’s done amazing work rebuilding the shoulder,” he said of Stigen, who swam both the 50 and 100 freestyle events at state last year.
Newcomer Brittany Shattuck, a versatile freshman, is also expected to do well this year.
“She’s strong all-around,” Hanley said.
The Warriors also return two state qualifiers in diving, senior David Kennedy and his younger sister Rachel, a junior.
Longtime diving coach Larry Smith is again working with both the Wasilla and Colony divers this season, and Hanley said he expects diving to be one of the Warriors’ strong suits.
“Diving is looking sharp right now,” he said.
Smith isn’t the only help Hanley has this year at Wasilla. He’s also joined by assistant Atali Smith, who is the head coach of the Wasilla Waves Swim Club. While the two coaches may be rivals in the club world, they’ve come together at Wasilla High to try and pool their collective swimming knowledge.
“We’ve got the two head coaches of the clubs working together,” he said.
Hanley was quick to credit Smith, a 2003 WHS grad who swam collegiately for the University of Northern Colorado, with helping make his first year as the head coach a good one.
“She’s amazingly strong, amazingly knowledgeable,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without her.”
With a dream lineup of solid athletes and enthusiastic coaches, Hanely said he’s happy with how the season has started — and excited to see where the Warriors end up.
“Our goal is to get everything to come together at the end,” he said.
Wasilla’s rivals, Colony and Palmer, are sporting larger teams this year. While Palmer’s increase is slight, Colony saw a dramatic boost in numbers.
The Knights started the year with about 50 swimmers, 20 more than Colony had last year, CHS head coach Dawn Brettrager said earlier this season.
“We have a lot of new kids,” Brettrager said.
On the boys’ side, the Knights will have to fill the void left by Jeffrey Frey, a state qualifier in 2007, but Colony does have an assortment of veterans to lead the team.
Among the leaders is senior Corbin Jahn, who excels in the freestyle events.
Another top freestyle swimmer is Rhowe Stefanski. who broke the program record in the 50 freestyle last year.
Brettrager also noted senior Adam Kincaid (freestyle, butterfly), junior Nick Brunger (freestyle, butterfly) and junior Bryan Gary (distance).
Leading the Colony girls’ squad is Katelyn Payne, the CHS girls’ lone state qualifier from last season. Payne, who had surgery during the offseason, is expected to be one of the region’s top swimmers in multiple events once she is completely healthy.
Also returning are junior Ashley Kangas (distance), junior Janessa Willard (freestyle) and sophomore Jasmyn Johnson.
Brettrager also noted sophomore Karina Barria, a transfer from Wasilla, and freshman Kayla Anderson.
Leading the Colony dive team is junior Alexander Deedy and Suzannah Witford, a 2007 state qualifier.
Palmer has about 30 swimmers this season.
Among the leaders on the girls’ side are Stacy Swindells, who finished seventh in the 100 freestyle at the Homer Invite, and Madelyn Peterson, who was fourth in the 1-meter diving in Homer.
Blake Branham finished ninth in the boys’ 50 freestyle at Homer, while Spencer Bloom finished 13th in the 100 freestyle.
All three Valley schools are slated to compete in the Soldotna Pentathlon this weekend.
Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz contributed to this story.
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