Houston seniors make history

Feb. 13, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - As the Houston Hawks skated off the ice on Saturday after winning the ASAA First National Cup 3A State Hockey Championships, Chad Lipse held onto the championship trophy with a fierce grip.

&#8220I don't want to let go,” Lipse said after the Hawks' 5-0 win over Glennallen.

Lipse did have to release the grab he had on the prize so teammates could raise it into the air in front of a large contingent of screaming Houston hockey fans at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena.

But there is something else that Lipse and two of his teammates will never have to give up.

Lipse and fellow seniors Kaleb Westfall and Dusty Spidal became the first players from any program in the state to end their prep hockey careers with four state championships.

&#8220It feels unbelievable. Unreal,” Spidal said.

Since the large and small-schools state hockey tournaments became sanctioned events in Alaska, no program has ever been able to pull off the four peat.

Teams have been close.

Service scored the three-peat, winning in 2002, 2003 and 2004. But in 2005, the Cougars failed to qualify for the state tournament.

Programs have notched the four peat in several other Alaska high school sports - Kenai won four straight small-school football titles, East Anchorage won four consecutive boys' basketball championships and Service did the four-peat in volleyball.

But it never had been done in hockey.

Houston has enjoyed tremendous success in the last seven years - the Hawks have won six titles - but even the players were not sure if the four-peat was possible.

Lipse remembers his first days as a freshman on the Houston varsity squad. He was up on the top line with a pair of the most prolific scorers in Houston hockey history, Wade Williams and Rick Morlack. The Hawks were beating everyone, including Delta 9-5 in the 3A title game. But even then, he wasn't quite sure.

&#8220I never throughout we could do four in a row,” Lipse said. &#8220But we pulled through.”

Of the four state titles, Westfall said the 2004 championship when he, Lipse and Spidal were all freshman, could be the most memorable.

&#8220We were losing by a goal, and we had to wake up,” Westfall said.

For Spidal, it was one of the most memorable titles because it was kind of a breakout game for the big stay-at-home defensmen.

&#8220I didn't get to play much the whole season,” Spidal said. &#8220But that championship game I got to play a lot.”

And obviously, the 2007 title will rank high among the memories for the three seniors.

&#8220Going into the third period, I started to realize this is it,” said Westfall, who now will begin his pursuit of a junior hockey career. &#8220This is the last high school game of the career right here. I just wanted to go out with a win in the state tournament.”

Throughout the 2006-07 season, the Hawks tried not to center all tack around the quest for the four-peat.

&#8220The beginning of the year we mentioned it. Then we didn't talk about it,” said Williams, who won three state titles during his career. &#8220We played our game throughout the season, and at the end of the year we brought it up again.”

But it was hard not to think of it.

&#8220We came (into the game) fired up. We didn't want to lose. We made it so far,” Spidal said. &#8220(We thought) it's right there in the palm of our hands.”

Now a 3A hockey dynasty, the program did have it's meager beginnings. The team struggled early and often, and waited a few years for its first win.

But the Hawks kept building.

Former head coach Jamie Smith and assistant Dudley Boehm stayed with the program for the first 15 years of its existence, until retiring at the end of last season. Mike Styers, now the head coach of the Hawks, has been with the team for more than a decade.

Williams and his brother Jake are each four-year standouts at HHS, and now back with the program as coaches.

Each of the three Houston seniors had the same answer to the question, &#8220Why does Houston stay so good for so long?”

&#8220Coaching,” Lipse said.

&#8220Good coaching,” Westfall said.

&#8220Definitely the coaching,” Spidal said. &#8220Without good coaching you can't get too far.”

Many of the players on the Houston roster have also been skating with their teammates since they first began to lace up their skates and fire pucks into the net.

&#8220It's awesome,” Spidal said. &#8220We've been playing with each other so long, it's like we can read each other's minds.”

Westfall rattled a long list of Houston players who he has been playing hockey with since the very early days of his career.

Lipse, Spidal, Dillon Styers, Jake Henkel, and so on, and so on, and so on.

&#8220It's awesome to share this with kids I started in the IPs with,” said Westfall, who began his hockey career in the first grade.

The Houston coaches have always had a strong relationship with the youth teams in the Big Lake Amateur Hockey Association. The BLAHA teams have basically become the minor leagues for the Hawks varsity squad.

&#8220I remember me and Jake when we were 8 or 9, still in grade school, (Jamie) Smith would let us come in and skate with the older guys when they first started the team up,” Wade Williams said. &#8220Just to be a part of it ever since then, it's awesome.”

Houston has two other seniors, forwards Aaron Burleson and Seth Grove, who were just short of the four peat. Both started their Houston careers as sophomores, but ended each year with a title.

The Hawks have four juniors on the team - Styers, Henkel, Casey Marre and Emily Hundley. But it will be a bit more difficult to pull off their won four-peat.

Saturday's 5-0 win over Glennallen also marked Houston's final game at the 3A level. Next season, Houston is moving up to the large-school ranks.

But as players on a team that has always been competitive against the 4A squads, the players are not worried about the leap to the big pond.

&#8220We have some more kids coming up,” Westfall said. &#8220I think we'll do all right.”

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