Mat-Su sports in 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic and the other top stories

I’ve been writing my annual top 10 Mat-Su sports stories of the year column for almost two decades now. Usually after sorting through 12 months of content, I end up with at least 15 or 20 stories that I have to somehow chop to 10. More often that not, the final column has two or three honorable mentions.

But it’s a bit different this year.

As everyone on the planet is painfully aware of, 2020 has not been a typical year. We have spent the last nine months of 2020 living in a pandemic. The global impact has been something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. It’s a storyline I’d expect to see in an over-budgeted Michael Bay movie.

Pandemic.

In the grand scheme of things, the overall impact on just life in general is so much more important than how COVID-19 has affected sports. Lives have been lost. Businesses have closed the doors, maybe forever. The vulnerable population is sequestered.

But this is a sports column. We’ll talk about sports. And it would not be a 2020 year in review column, if we didn’t start with COVID.

As I think about Mat-Su sports in 2020, I continue to ask myself the same question over and over.

What if?

And I am sure I am not alone.

What if the Colony boys basketball team had a chance to compete for a state championship? The Knights were clearly the team to beat when COVID-19 led to the abrupt end to the prep basketball season in March. What if the Wasilla baseball and Houston football programs had a shot to properly defend their state titles? What if ASAA was able to host all of its fall state championship events? How far would programs like Colony football and Wasilla volleyball go?

We are all left with plenty of questions.

Nobody on the planet can put together one of these top stories columns without listing the pandemic first. And that’s where I start. It would probably be easier to just list top 10 things that didn’t happen in Valley sports. But despite the pandemic, there were some great storylines in 2020.

Valley baseballEven though the ASAA prep baseball season was canceled, another COVID casualty, the local American Legion programs had a chance to take the field during the summer. The Wasilla Road Warriors and Palmer Pioneers played a full slate of games, and both capped the season among the top teams in the state. Wasilla finished as the runner-up in the Alliance State Tournament in late July. West needed a walk-off victory to edge the Warriors 3-2. Wasilla standout Jacob Gilbert was named the tournament MVP.

The Pioneers won the Alaska Legion Baseball Matson Invitational with a 3-2 victory over South Anchorage. Palmer standout Ben Alley was named the tournament MVP.

The summer seasons for Wasilla and Palmer are examples of the huge strides that have been made in Valley baseball. When Alaska American Legion announced it was adding a second Mat-Su team, I wasn’t sure if I was on board. The Road Warriors staff had built a championship caliber program that was very deep, both at the junior varsity and varsity levels. Despite the split, the Wasilla varsity team has remained as strong as ever. The Road Warriors advanced to the championship game in consecutive years, and became the first team from Alaska to play in a regional tournament title game in 2019.

Palmer is also developing a quality program and has enjoyed success during the past two seasons. Really good coaching throughout the Valley is a big part of the overall success of baseball at the legion and high school levels.

And even better, Valley baseball programs are producing college talent. The Colony, Palmer and Wasilla high school programs have been represented by alumni on college rosters in recent years. Wasilla has established a track record of sending players to college every year for the last several years. The list includes star Clayton Boyett, who has committed to Division I Oregon. He is only the third Valley baseball player to commit to a Division I baseball program in the last 20 years.

Tobin Hushower makes history

I’ll be the first to admit, when esports in local Alaska schools first became a thing, I was not on that bandwagon. Part of me still can’t wrap my mind around it. Competing in video games at the varsity level? With that said, I will argue for any opportunity for a student to participate in extracurricular activities. It doesn’t matter if it is a sport, drama, music, the debate team or a book club. Students who are involved in something within the school outside of the classroom have more success inside the classroom.

In Hushower’s case, video games led to an opportunity in college. Hushower signed his National Letter of Intent to compete for the Wichita State University varsity Rocket League team. Hushower is the first Mat-Su Borough School District student to sign an NLI for esports. Even though I may still not totally get it, I hope there are many more to come.

Ryan EngebretsenAfter 13 seasons leading the Wasilla Warriors boys basketball program, former head coach Ryan Engebretsen opted to step down from his position.

During his tenure, Engebretsen enjoyed one of the most successful runs of any Valley coach in any Valley sport during that time span. Engebretsen led the Warriors to 12 Northern Lights Conference championship tournaments, and the Warriors earned six region titles. Wasilla also advanced to the 4A boys state championship game three times, and scored the 2018 state title. Engebretsen’s Warriors won more than 200 games during his 13 seasons.

Patrick McMahonWhat is more sports in 2020 than a National Letter of Intent ceremony on Zoom? That’s how Colony High boys basketball star Patrick McMahon made it official, committing to Montana State.

His choice appears to check every box for McMahon, who will have the chance to compete right away for a Division I program in a state he is very familiar with. McMahon is the reigning Alaska Association of Basketball Coaches 4A Player of the Year. McMahon’s opportunity is also historically significant for the Colony Knights boys program. As good as the Knights have been for 30 years, the program has only had a couple of players who spent time with a Division I team.

McMahon also had one of the best moments of 2020 in all of Valley sports. McMahon slammed a windmill dunk during a win over Wasilla. It was actually his final basket of the 2020 season, because the year was suspended early due to COVID-19.

The Mayor’s Cup returns to WasillaThe Wasilla Warriors earned their first win in the Potato Bowl since 2014, and will have the coveted Mayor’s Cup in their possession for the first time in six years.

With COVID-19 and all of the protocol, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Potato Bowl, which is my favorite single game of the year. With local teams restricted to only intradistrict competition, the 2020 Potato Bowl was also in mid-September, rather than its traditional home in Week 8 of the prep football season.

But with all of that said, it was a good game. One of the biggest players on the field made one of the biggest plays of the night, and helped the Wasilla Warriors earn one of their biggest varsity football wins in recent memory.

Lineman Payson White, who stands at about 6-foot-6, reached up and snagged an interception with 59 seconds left to help Wasilla secure a 20-14 Potato Bowl win.

Well, there’s my list for 2020. I would love to have enough storylines to write my time 21 stories from 2021 about 12 months from now.

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