Prep soccer: Warriors grab on to a new tradition with teamwork exercise

WASILLA — Alone, no Wasilla High School soccer player would have any hope of moving a 30-foot cottonwood tree trunk even a few feet. But working as a team, the Warriors proved Monday that together, anything is possible.

Wasilla’s players hauled the massive tree trunk — dubbed “The Bone” — more than three miles from the Bumpus Sports Complex to the school, where they triumphantly deposited the massive log beneath the scoreboard at Veterans Memorial Field. What may have appeared to be a rather odd task was, according to head coach Blake Livingston, a way to bring his squad members closer together and teach them a bit about working as a team.

“It’s just a good team-building thing,” Livingston said.

The long log haul wasn’t actually Livingston’s idea. That honor belongs to juniors Aaron Sharrow and Tillerman Kroon, and senior Adam Friese.

Two years ago as underclassmen, the three players came up with the exercise as a way to try and build a bit of tradition within the program.

“It really brings the team together,” Sharrow said shortly after finishing the long journey, which took the team through parts of downtown Wasilla as perplexed motorists looked on.

The team skipped the ritual last season before deciding to bring it back permanently this year.

“We kind of spaced it out last year,” Sharrow said.

The Bone is equipped with rope handles on each side to make it easier for players to get a grip on the giant log. None of the players knows exactly how heavy the log weighs, but even with 18 players — nine on a side — carrying it, Friese said the trip from Bumpus to the WHS campus was no easy task.

“It’s a really big tree,” Friese said.

The players seemed upbeat as they made their way slowly through town Monday, trading jokes and singing along with a hip-hop soundtrack provided by junior Adrese LaVern, whose job was to haul a large boom box along the length of the route.

But while players had smiles on their faces as then entered Veterans Memorial Stadium, Sharrow said the team-building exercise also doubled as a pretty good conditioning drill as well.

“Even with every single person carrying it, with handles are rope — whew! — I’m so tired,” he said.

With the ritual now cemented in WHS lore, Friese said it will now be the job of Wasilla’s younger players to carry on the tradition. And after making Monday’s arduous journey, he said he believes carrying The Bone will continue as a staple of Wasilla’s early season training.

“After all that,” he said, pausing to catch his breath. “It better be.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com