WASILLA — Bill Sturdevant can’t quite remember running across another Alaska high school boys hockey team with a female on the coaching staff.

The longtime local coach and former Wasilla High School standout vaguely remembers a female coach somewhere, maybe in Anchorage.

But the key word here is another, because Sturdevant has spent his three seasons as head coach of the Wasilla hockey team with a female on his own staff.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman It may be rare in Alaska to see a female coaching a boys high school hockey team, but Wasilla assistant coach Joanie Welch has proven it’s not impossible. A longtime youth hockey coach, Welch has spent the last several years with the Warriors hockey program.

Even though it’s rare to see a female coach on the bench of a high school boys hockey team, Joanie Welch has proven it’s not impossible.

“It’s rare, way more rare than we even realize, but it’s not really even something we think about,” Sturdevant said earlier this year.

Like most others associated with Wasilla hockey, Sturdevant doesn’t dwell on the significance.

“She’s Coach Welch,” Sturdevant said.

And it’s something Welch doesn’t think about much either.

“It doesn’t get in my way,” Welch said with a laugh.

Taking the ice

Welch has been involved in the sport of hockey, in some way, for more than 20 years. She’s coached her children, Arlin and Ashlen, and Welch is a longtime player on a local women’s adult hockey team.

Welch has always been the type of person who likes to spend time outdoors. She’s an avid runner and skier. But not getting the chance to ski actually led her to the opportunity to get involved in hockey.

In 1985, her first year as a school nurse at WHS, she saw an advertisement in the newspaper about a local women’s hockey club looking for players. She and a physical education teacher from the school decided to join.

And she’s been on the ice ever since.

“I’ve hung in there,” Welch said. “Those long nights, with no snow, there’s not much else to do. It’s good exercise.

“Hockey’s wonderful.”

Welch said she’s always been attracted to the sport. While growing up in Wisconsin, Welch remembers family trips to Duluth, Minn., to see hockey game.

“The crowd, the music, it was always exciting,” Welch said. “I always thought if I ever came across a women’s hockey team, I wanted to play.”

That was before Title IX, the amendment that promotes equal opportunity in high school and college athletics, so women’s hockey was virtually nonexistent, Welch said.

“We hardly had women’s basketball,” she said.

Welch had to wait until 1985, but she got her chance.

“I was thrilled to run across that article,” Welch said. “It was good timing.”

Welch still plays one to two games a week, depending on the schedule. She skates for the All Creatures team in the Anchorage Women’s Hockey League. But her time with her team goes beyond just the chance to play the sport she has become to love. It’s also about the time with her teammates.

“They’re my hockey sisters,” Welch said. “It’s a lot of fun. Sometimes you need to have those things.”

Coach Welch

It wasn’t long after she started playing that Welch was coaching her children in the sport. Ashlen played hockey through the fifth grade, before moving from the ice to the hardwood for basketball and volleyball. Arlin, who also played football at WHS, was part of the Wasilla hockey program for four years.

“I had a desire to teach the kids how to play,” Welch said.

Welch coached teams in the Matanuska Amateur Hockey Association for a number of years.

“All the way through they needed a coach, needed more people involved,” Welch said. “The more people involved, the better.”

She’s coached cross country running at the elementary and high school levels, and track and WHS. But Welch has spent much of her time as a coach at the rink.

When Arlin entered the ninth grade, Welch joined hockey booster club and helped out wherever she could. A few years later when Sturdevant was hired as the head coach of the hockey program, he asked Welch to be on his staff.

“When Bill asked me, I thought it was such a compliment,” Welch said. “I couldn’t resist.”

Now after three years with her on his staff, Sturdevant sees her as an integral part of the Warriors’ success.

“If she wasn’t helping us out, we wouldn’t make it out of Wasilla,” Sturdevant joked. “She’s that important to us.”

Wasilla High School assistant principal echoed Sturdevant’s sentiments.

“She understands the game, she understands how to work with kids,” Michael said. “She’s a huge asset.”

Welch is also the only assistant coach on the staff who currently works at Wasilla High, which makes her that much more valuable to the team, Michael said.

“She has the finger on the pulse of that team,” Sturdevant said.

Welch said she considers herself as just one of the cogs in the Wasilla hockey wheel. At the school, Welch is the bridge that ties the program with the coaches who work outside of the school.

“She stays on top of academic issues. She always knows when stuff is going on. She’s in the know, see things coming before they happen,” Michael said. “The kids like her. She’s real fair. She wants what’s best for the kids, and the kids know it.”

Welch puts together the dryland and preseason training programs, and she coaches both the varsity and junior varsity squads on the ice.

Sturdevant said Welch knows the game of hockey, and players look to her just as they would any other coach.

“It’s fair to say men pretty much dominate the coaching ranks all the way through,” Sturdevant said. “But as long as you are knowledgeable about the game, it doesn’t matter what your name is.”

Staying on the ice

Hockey may play a big role in the lives of Welch and her family, but there are lots of big things in their lives, she said.

“Hockey’s just one part of it,” Welch said. “We like to do a lot of other things. Skiing is really important too.”

But she doesn’t see herself being away from the sport any time soon.

“You meet so many cool people in the sport,” Welch said. “I dig it. I dig hockey.”

And she’s already thought of the chance to maybe coach the next generation of Welch players.

“I really feel if my kids ever have children, I seem myself being the grandma on the ice, teaching them to skate,” Welch said.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.