Mat-Su strong

MAT-SU — Anchorage has basketball, the Southeast has baseball, and all other sports bounce around with regions of dominance. But the Mat-Su Valley has wrestling.

The Wasilla Warriors captured the team title of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Wrestling Championships Saturday night at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, continuing an impressive streak for Valley schools. Before this year, Colony had won four straight state championships, and Wasilla won the crown for the three years prior. The local teams have shown, Mat-Su Valley wrestling is a premier contender, and those around the mat don’t expect that to change any time soon.

Dominance of the prep ranks is evident, but the Valley’s excellence extends into the younger ranks.

Through the long and storied history of Alaska wrestling, the Mat-Su Valley has always been a prominent figure, but it was not always center stage. During this decade though, Valley grapplers are stealing the show.

Valley schools have taken nine out of the last 10 Tanana Invitational titles. That event, hosted by Tanana Middle School in Fairbanks each spring, is seen as the unofficial state tournament for middle school wrestlers.

There’s no question Valley teams have been dominant. That is clear. The remaining mystery is why.

Colony High head wrestling coach Dave Booth said there are four major keys to success.

“Good administration, good coaches, good parents and good kids,” Booth said. “We’ve been lucky to have all four.”

Booth’s brother, Bill, who is also an assistant at Colony High, has been the head coach at Teeland Middle since the school opened its doors.

Both of the Booth brothers have been around wrestling in the Valley for more than a decade. It’s that experience running throughout the Valley that shows through in tournament results.

Colony and Wasilla, the dominant figures in the Valley scene, both have an incredible amount of coaching expertise and experience.

Palmer has not had the same type of success as its rivals in the team standings during this decade, but the Moose are not too far removed from their time at the top of the state wrestling ranks.

Led by former head coach Lennie Zalesky — a past three-time All-American at Division I wrestling power Iowa — Palmer was a top team in the ’90s, winning a state championship in 1996 and finishing as the 4A runner-up the year before.

In recent years, the Moose have not been able to boast the sheer numbers or titles of their rivals, but that doesn’t mean the “Big Blue” is a stranger to success.

“We’ve had a lot of individual successes in the last few years,” Palmer head coach Dale Ewart said.

Nick Stahler, a 2009 graduate, was Palmer’s last state champion.

“Our problem for a long time was turnover at the middle school,” Ewart said. “Kids would see two, three different coaches throughout their career.”

But with the help of coaches such as Don Malone, the folks on the Palmer end of the Valley are helping rebuild a program that was prominent in the ’90s.

Wasilla head coach Shawn Hayes has been with the Wasilla programs since the ’90s. During his tenure, the Warriors have boasted some of the biggest numbers. Now the Warriors have another team title.

Many credit the continued success to the work that is being done at the youth and middle school levels. Wrestlers are entering ninth grades, with years worth of matches under their belts. That experience is allowing high school coaches to turn good wrestlers into state champions. It’s becoming more unusual to see athletes hit the mat for the first time when they hit high school.

Also, having already decorated wrestlers practicing with each other only breeds positive results.

“It’s no substitute,” said Dave Booth.

Valley wrestlers also have the most valuable asset of all to give them a leg up on Anchorage and the rest of the state — the Mat-Su Valley itself.

“Success breeds success,” Bill Booth said.

Valley wrestlers are surrounded by success. The community is littered with wrestling legends, supporters and fans. High schools are decorated with the names of those who came before them, or even those in their midst.

The Valley boasts more than 30 individual champions in the last 10 years. The only season during that span without a Valley individual champ came in 2007. But in that year, four Valley athletes advanced to the finals and Colony captured the team title by an overwhelming margin. Before 2007, the last state tournament without a Valley champion was in 1989.

Two of the eight wrestlers in Alaska history to win four high school state titles are from the Valley. Jed Wade, a 2004 graduate of Wasilla, completed the four-peat, as did 2007 Colony graduate Hollan Gravley. The Valley also has four, three-time winners — former Palmer wrestlers Gabe McMahon, Tony D’Amico and Chris Anderson, and former Warrior standout Alan Bartelli.

And a number of Valley wrestlers have gone on to compete at the Division I level. Bartelli (Boise State), Wade (Columbia) and Jesse Brock (Boise State) are former Wasilla standouts who have wrestled at the Division I level. McMahon (Iowa) Tony D’Amico (Boise State), Scott Jorgensen (Boise State) and Jack Wade (Indiana) are among the Palmer graduates to earn the chance to wrestle at the Division I level.

The popularity and victories of Valley wrestling are attracting more and more to try it.

“We’re going out into the hallway and recruiting, and finding out that some of these kids who are new to the sport are pretty talented wrestlers,” said Wasilla assistant coach Casey Katchinska.

Each of the four Valley 4A schools — Colony, Palmer, Wasilla and Houston — now have a youth freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling club that acts as a virtual feeder program for each of the local squads. It’s become so big in Wasilla, there are two club teams feeding the Warriors with new talent.

“You know, it starts with the youth. And we’ve had a bunch of hard working kids,” Hayes said.

Coaches also say young wrestlers are spending more time on the mat.

“It’s been a trend throughout American wrestling that kids specialize in wrestling. We have a couple of kids who play football and soccer, but the kids are wrestlers,” Bill Booth said.

But each coach knows that their winning also is due — in part — to a little luck.

“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have some great athletes come through here the last few years” said Dave Booth.

Katchinska, who won a state championship for Hayes and the Warriors two years ago, has come back to help coach the young grapplers of Wasilla.

“[Success] has a lot to do with our feeder programs,” Katchinska said. “We’re getting really good coaching in the middle schools. I’m a little bit biased, but I think we have the best coaching in the state. Coach Hayes and coach Dougherty have been here for a long time, and they’ve really built up the program.”

Tim Rockey is a senior at Palmer High School and contributes to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman schools and sports sections.