Local soccer teams able to add early-season matches

WASILLA — Local prep soccer squads are typically at the mercy of Mother Nature.

It’s usually a waiting game for the eight prep boys and girls teams at Colony, Houston, Palmer and Wasilla. The local teams wait until the snow melts and the grass fields are just dry enough to play on. But this year, a few of the Mat-Su squads are getting a jump on the season by scheduling matches at The Dome in Anchorage.

“It’s huge to finally be able to get in there and play,” Colony boys head coach Jeremy Johnson said.

Johnson’s Knights will play at The Dome twice this week. Colony opens the season today at 4 p.m. against Grace Christian and will meet Nikiski at The Dome Thursday at noon. The Colony boys and girls will meet rival Wasilla at The Dome next Tuesday.

Johnson’s squad was able to play Nikiski at The Dome in early April last season, but had to wait about two weeks for its second match of the season.

“It makes it feel like a more consistent schedule, have a couple, three matches a week versus the big breaks while waiting for our fields to clear,” Johnson said.

Last year, administrators at Palmer and Wasilla were able to get their soccer teams into The Dome to play each other. Those matches were put together at the last minute. Blake Livingston, head coach of the Wasilla boys team, said Wasilla worked throughout the offseason to schedule games at The Dome.

“It’s been long overdue. I know that I started to contact coaches last fall for this year,” Livingston said. “I did a lot of networking, our (activities director) got involved. It’s been a process.”

Wasilla will play rivals Colony and Palmer at The Dome within the next two weeks.

The Warriors also picked up three games against Anchorage teams. Livingston said it’ll mark the first time in three years that his team has seen an Anchorage program before the state tournament.

“We’re really excited to have some early-season games,” Livingston said. “Hopefully that will make us stronger.”

There are now a handful of turfs fields in the Anchorage area. In addition to The Dome and Anchorage Football Stadium, there’s also turf at Dimond and Chugiak.

“We’re definitely at a disadvantage,” Livingston said.

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