On track for football, athletes use spring sports to prepare for the fall

MAT-SU - George Percak-Dennett faced a tough decision this spring.

The Colony junior could either return to the Knights boys soccer squad for a third season and inherit the starting goalkeeper position, or he could compete on the CHS track and field squad for the first time in his high school career.

&#8220It was probably one of the toughest decisions I had to make,” Percak-Dennett said.

Percak-Dennett ultimately decided to take a step away from the soccer goal, and work toward his goal of earning the opportunity to play football at the college level. In his first season as a varsity regular in 2005, Percak-Dennett earned first-team all-conference and second-team all-state honors as a defensive end on a Colony football squad that advanced to the state playoffs. Now, like many football players, Percak-Dennett is spending his spring on the track to help prepare for his fall on the gridiron.

&#8220The senior class is really good for Colony (in soccer). They all really wanted me to come back,” Percak-Dennett said after competing in the 100-meter dash during the Mat-Su Borough Track and Field Championships at Wasilla High School on Wednesday. &#8220But I am looking to my future. I'm hoping this will help me out.”

Percak-Dennett, recently named captain of the Colony football squad for the 2006 season, is giving the 100, 400-meter relay and the throwing events a shot this spring. As a tight end and defensive end, Percak-Dennett knows he won't be sprinting 100 meters down the field in a straight line. But if his work in the 100 meter can help his 10-yard burst off the line of scrimmage, he is victorious this spring - regardless of his finishes in the track and field events this season.

&#8220I'm not really doing this to score points, I'm doing this for myself,” Percak-Dennett said.

Motivated more by what he can do during his senior year of football than his junior year of track, Percak-Dennett is working toward becoming a faster football player.

&#8220I definitely would not consider myself a fast kid,” he said. &#8220I'd consider myself an average kid who tries hard.”

Percak-Dennett said he was timed at 4.82 seconds in the 40-yard dash last year - an event specifically used to test the speed of football players. Percak-Dennett said he would rather be down somewhere around

4.62.

While Percak-Dennett is hoping his work on the track team will help slice a few tenths of a second off his 40 time and possibly earn him a chance to play college football, Palmer senior Jake Heun has seen his 40 time drop since he joined the Moose track and field squad two years ago, and now has the chance to play college football. Before he hit the track, Heun was hovering somewhere in the 4.8 region. Now he's recorded times as low as 4.6. In the fall, Heun will start his freshman season as a member of the City College of San Francisco football squad - one of the top junior college programs in California.

While football is his passion, Heun has stayed active in the spring throughout his time at PHS. As a freshman he played baseball and was a goalie on the soccer team as a sophomore, before taking a suggestion from his dad and joining the track squad as a junior.

He has competed in several events this year - such as the shot put, discus, 400 relay and 800 relay - but the high hurdles are his preference. And that's something that's unusual for a 6-foot-1, 240-pound linebacker.

One day during practice last year, Heun saw the high hurdles set up on the track of Machetanz Field at PHS. He cleared one, then another, then another. Now he's hooked.

&#8220I don't think any of us expected him to do as well as he's done,” Palmer head track and field coach Dale Ewart said. &#8220He's just one of those kids who is really athletic and strong, and can do about anything he wants to do.”

Ewart, who has also coached Heun in football and wrestling, said he has seen a substantial improved in Heun's speed in the last two years. Heun said the coaches at the City College of San Francisco liked the idea of their future linebacker competing in the high hurdles. With man coverage as the basis of their defense, the Rams require speed and athleticism in their linebackers.

Palmer has a tradition of luring its football players to the track team. Ewart tries to bring the linemen to the throwing events, and the backs and receivers to the sprints, jumps and hurdles.

As he moves into his first season as the head coach of the Wasilla High School football team, Jim Shetter is hoping to maintain that trend at WHS. This year, Shetter said, there are about 15 football players on the track squad. But as helpful as a season on the track squad can be, Shetter said it is just important to stay active, regardless of the choice of sport.

&#8220It's about being an all-around athlete, verses being one dimensional.”

There are also about 15 Warrior football players on the soccer team.

When his athletes question the need to participate in a sport other than football, Shetter always falls back on a story about a football coach from Alaska sending a letter to a football coaching legend.

More than a decade ago, before former West Anchorage standout linebacker James Price earned a scholarship to play college football at Washington State University, a West assistant football coach sent a letter to Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden. The West coaches were trying to get Price to compete on the wrestling team, so they wrote a letter to Bowden, asking the coaching legend what college programs prefer - an athlete who just plays football, or a football player who participates in other sports. Bowden wrote back and said he would chose the multi-sport athlete over the guy who just played football every time. It's a message that has always stuck with Shetter.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com or 352-2273.