Story about former Palmer soccer standout provides a different perspective about Alaska players competing Outside

It's always interesting to see a different perspective, when it comes to Alaska players competing at the college level.

Like most Alaskans who venture Outside, fielding a plethora of questions relating to igloos, Eskimos and Sarah Palin seems to be inevitable for the average Alaska athlete.

Appropriately dubbed the Last Frontier, Alaska certainly still has a degree of myth unmatched by any other state in the union.

But in addition to the often misconstrued view of life in Alaska, in general it’s still unique to see a product of this state succeed in college athletics down south.

In general, it's still unique to see a product of the Last Frontier succeed down south.

The following is a story about former Palmer High School girls soccer standout Chelsea Beetch. While it does include a bit of Alaska folk lore, it’s a good look at the success a local athlete is having Outside.

— Jeremiah Bartz

By DAVID HAYS

Lander Sports Information

GREENWOOD, S.C. — Chelsea Beetch didn’t raise penguins or have polar bears as pets growing up in Alaska. But she did play a lot of soccer there, and was a good enough goalkeeper to catch the attention of college recruiters.

Thanks in part to an older brother who was already playing college soccer in South Carolina, Beetch wound up at Lander and is becoming one of the better young goalkeepers in the Peach Belt Conference.

Beetch grew up in Palmer, Alaska, a small town approximately 40 miles northeast of Anchorage. She played for the Palmer High School Moose, who compete in the Northern Lights Conference. The school is located on West Arctic Avenue and the principal’s name is Wolfgang Winter. The Palmer High hockey team has its own web site. The school also has Nordic ski teams. And, yes, they do play football.

Although Palmer is considered a gateway to Alaska’s inland frontier, it is actually many hundreds of miles from the Arctic Circle. The misconceptions are aplenty, and Beetch admits to facing some crazy questions.

“I think the silliest question I got, I mentioned that I live on a farm in Alaska and somebody actually asked me if I bred penguins, which don’t even live in Alaska,” the sophomore said, with a wide smile.

She actually lived on a horse farm.

“There have been some ridiculous questions. ‘Do you live in an igloo? Do you take dog sleds to school? Do you have pet polar bears? Have you dated an Eskimo?’ You start to wonder if they are actually serious questions or not,” she said, laughing.

“All good questions,” Lander women’s soccer coach Chris Ayer said, with a teasing grin.

Palmer is located about 13 miles from Wasilla, a city which has become famous since native daughter and “hockey mom” Sarah Palin became John McCain’s vice presidential running mate in 2008. The Wasilla Warriors and Palmer are natural rivals whose football teams compete each year in the Potato Bowl. The Moose pounded Wasilla, 48-7, on Sept. 25.

“I was pretty excited (about Palin). I don’t know that much about her,” Beetch said of the former Wasilla mayor and Alaska governor. “Politics is not one of my best subjects. But I was happy to have someone represent Alaska.”

Chelsea’s trek to Lander was an indirect result of Ayer recruiting her brother Ben while he was coaching both the men’s and women’s soccer programs at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C. Ben was the team’s Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, and is now a senior at Coker.

“I found Ben at the CASL (Capital Area Soccer League) Raleigh Shootout tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina his senior year,” Ayer said. “It is a big college showcase.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea was starring in goal at Palmer High and became interested in the recruiting process. She considered Colgate University in New York, a pair of North Carolina schools - Catawba College and Belmont-Abbey College – and Coker.

“When I first started looking at colleges, I was either going to go West Coast or East Coast,” she said. “He (Ben) went East Coast, and I found out during my recruiting progress that East Coast coaches seem to be a little more interested.”

Coker had an immediate opening for a goalkeeper and it seemed like a good fit. She visited the Hartsville campus in October 2007 while watching her brother play.

“Coker just got my attention a little more. At first, I thought it might have been a little weird going to the same school as my big brother. But it turned out to be really good,” she said, with a smile. “I like to play and I was going to get playing time there. And it was a good year.”

But the Lady Cobras went 3-15 and Beetch faced a lot of shots. She made 161 saves, but allowed 60 goals in 1,619 minutes of action. Though she posted shutouts against Lees-McRae and Converse, Coker got blown out of a lot of matches.

“I got a lot of action as a keeper at Coker,” she said. “It was fun. And I had my definite college experience. I don’t regret it. But I wanted to be on a team that could really compete a little bit more.”

There were too many connections to Lander for her to ignore. Ayer, who coached at Coker from 2002-05, was now entering his fourth year with the Lady Bearcats. Ayer’s assistant, Jacob Wyman, is a former Coker player.

“I knew Coach Ayer from recruiting my brother. I actually met coach Wyman, because he played at Coker as well, on a recruiting trip. He was visiting (Coker) and said he coached at Lander. I had been thinking about transferring from Coker early in the season. Those two names (Ayer and Wyman) came up and I was like, ‘hmm, maybe I’ll check that out.’ I mean, Coach Ayer recruited my brother.”

Chelsea visited Lander, located in Greenwood, S.C., two-plus hours west or Harsville, last spring.

“We were able to bring in Chelsea because she knew I had left Coker and went to Lander and there was still a family connection,” Ayer said. “I had a good relationship with her parents. She looked us up and called and visited and the rest is history.”

“I practiced with the team. I liked it,” she said of her visit to Lander. “The girls were awesome. The coaches were good. And the campus is a little bigger than Coker.”

She has also found more success at Lander. Through nine games, the Lady Bearcats are 6-1-2 with five shutouts heading into Saturday’s match at Flagler in St. Augustine, Fla. Beetch has allowed only five goals in 729 minutes of action, has recorded 31 saves, and is yielding only 0.62 goals per game.

She shared shutouts with backup goalkeepers Rachel Baggett and Katherine Baltz against Erskine and Converse. She was the sole keeper in shutting out Anderson, Wingate and Georgia College & State University. The Wingate and Georgia College matches were double-overtime, 110-minute marathons.

“The defense here is real strong, which I really like,” she said. “And they also listen to my commands in the back, which shows respect for me. That’s one thing that you worry about as a keeper when you are first coming in is if your defense will actually listen to you. They showed me real good respect in the beginning and I think we’re doing really well.”

Beetch earned respect, in part, by winning a crowded goalkeeper competition over the summer. She battled multi-talented newcomer Jamie Shaw, and experienced keepers Baggett and Baltz for the starting position. Shaw has since moved to the midfield.

“At Coker, there wasn’t as much competition for the keeper spot. I knew, coming here to visit, that there are great keepers here,” she said. “I came in and got real excited to play. I just battled it out, had some fun, and did my job. It’s a mental challenge as much as it is a physical challenge.

“When you are competing against that much talent, you really feel good about yourself when you actually get the starting position.”

Beetch was honored very early in her Lander career, being selected as the Peach Belt Conference’s Goalkeeper of the Week for the first week of the season when she did not allow a goal and recorded six saves in 160 minutes of play. She played 70 minutes in Lander’s 5-0 victory over Erskine, and got the complete-game shutout in a 3-0 win at Anderson.

The Lady Bearcats, 13-5 two years ago in Ayer’s second season, have already won almost as many games as last year when they finished 7-9-1.

“I think the team has great potential,” Beetch said. “I don’t think we have hit our peak just yet. We have played some decent games. I feel like I am playing well as a keeper. But there are a few things that I can always work on. I have confidence and love the game.”

“Chelsea is a very good goalkeeper,” Ayer said. “She worked hard this summer and won the starting job. She is very athletic and good technically. She is performing well. She has five shutouts already this year.”

The only drawback to coming to Lander is Chelsea has only seen her brother play once this season.

“I saw him play last year, obviously, going to the same school,” she said. “I got to catch one game this year when they played Erskine. I would like to see a few more. But it’s hard to fit in the schedule and without a vehicle.”

For the record, Chelsea and Ben aren’t the only players from Alaska playing college soccer in South Carolina or the Peach Belt Conference. Amanda Hall plays just down the road from Coker at Francis Marion University. Emily DesJarlais also plays in the Peach Belt at UNC Pembroke. Both players are from Anchorage. Chelsea’s cousin Amanda Dotten plays soccer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“You wouldn’t think that in Alaska, with six months of snow, but we have some decent players,” Chelsea said, with a smile. “I had the privilege of playing (club soccer) with Carly Butcher, who plays for the University of Southern California. She is an amazing player.”

Like South Carolina, Alaskan prep soccer is played in the spring. But the similarities end there.

“In the beginning, there is still snow on the ground and we have to play indoors for about three to four weeks,” Chelsea said. “Our games don’t start until we can actually play outdoors. For Anchorage teams, we have an indoor dome now which has full-sized soccer fields.

“We can do little scrimmages on indoor fields. But other than that, we play in the gym. Then we have to shovel the fields in order to actually practice outdoors. But you get so desperate after being in the gym for so long.”

In addition to playing for Palmer High, she was a member of the Alaska ODP Team and was named a State Champion Goalkeeper in 2008. Beetch is a three-time member of the state champion Alaska Rush Club team and was a two-time Player of the Game in the Alaska state championship quarterfinals.

Chelsea is happy to be in South Carolina.

“I am really happy being down here. People say they get homesick. Well, I miss my family and friends. It (Alaska) is beautiful. But I really enjoy down here.”

Hays is a member of the Lander College Sports Information Departmetn. Lander competes in the Division II Peach Belt Conference in Greenwood, a city of 23,000 people in west central South Carolina.