Homecoming

WASILLA — Colony High School is hosting its homecoming festivities this weekend. And one of Colony’s graduates will be celebrating a homecoming of his own.

Former Colony Knights hockey standout Blake Huppert is returning to the Mat-Su Valley as a member of the Alaska Avalanche.

Huppert is one of eight Alaskans and two Valley skaters who could take the ice when the Wasilla-based North American Hockey League opens the 2009-10 season with a three-game series against the Kenai River Brown Bears that starts tonight at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena at 7 p.m.

“I’m really excited,” Huppert said Thursday morning. “Seven or eight of these guys I grew up playing against. It’s nice to get back and play with them.”

Huppert, a 2008 graduate of Colony High, returns to the Valley after skating in Canada for a season. Last year, as a rookie in the Junior B Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, Huppert posted 12 goals and 37 assists in 38 games for the Peninsula Panthers.

Huppert’s work helped the Panthers finish 35-8-5 and win the VIJHL regular season title.

Most importantly, his time in Canada provided a transition from prep pucks to the level he is at now.

“It was a good experience for me,” Huppert said. “Just getting used to the junior lifestyle. It’s much more physical, much more demanding on your body.”

Huppert started his four-year varsity career at Colony as one of the smaller players on the ice. He’s grown since those days, now about 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, but in the last year, Huppert said he gained a better idea of what it takes physically to have success in junior hockey.

“Just the physicality is a lot more extreme, it’s nice getting used to that,” Huppert said.

Huppert said he spent the summer working with former Avalanche forward Adam Friese, a Wasilla graduate, preparing for his first season with the Avs.

“I worked really hard in the offseason, worked out with Adam and he helped me get a lot bigger,” Huppert said. “That’s the one thing the coaches were telling me at the end of the year last year. Get bigger. I gained about 10 pounds over the summer, and I really think it’ll help me a lot.”

Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said he could see the increased strength of Huppert when the Valley product competed in the team’s offseason try out camps.

Boitz said Huppert already had the skill.

“He’s really a very highly skilled player,” Boitz said. “He shoots the puck well, and he’s in great shape. He takes care of himself.”

Huppert will play right wing for the Avalanche.

During his high school career, despite missing most of his junior season due to injury, Huppert became one of Colony’s all-time leading scorers with more than 150 points. Only Seth Reda and Ryan Pauling ended their Colony careers with more points than Huppert.

When looking toward the future, Huppert said his goals parallel most junior players.

“My whole life my goal has been Division I hockey,” Huppert said. “If that doesn’t work out, I’d love to play Division III hockey.”

Boitz said Huppert certainly has the chance to hit the college rink.

“I think he’s got some Division I potential if he continues to work hard,” Boitz said. “He certainly has the skill and the mindset.”

Huppert joins Wasilla’s Matthew Friese and Valley players currently on the 2009-10 squad. Friese, who has already verbally committed to play Division I hockey for UAA in the 2010-11 season, posted four goals and four assists for the Avs as a 16-year-old last season.

Anchorage skaters Kyle Pichler, Robb Haider, Zach Smith and Logan Rounds are also among the forwards returning to the team.

Pichler returns as the team’s all-team career leader in goals scored, with 37. He was second on the squad with 31 points (17-14-31) last season.

Haider (13-12-25), Smith (14-10-24), Rounds (12-9-21) and forward Nardo Nagtzaam (9-14-23) also return after topping the 20-point mark during their first seasons in the NAHL.

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