The top 10 in ’10: Another great year for Valley sports

Another 12 months are in the books. Goodbye 2010, hello 2011.

Before we get too far into the New Year, it’s nice to reflect on the year that’s passed. And it’s certainly been a very full year when it comes to the world of Mat-Su Valley sports.

It’s not an easy task to pare 52 weeks worth of local sports stories down to an ever-so debatable top-10 list. But each year, I have to give it a shot.

I’ll think about this list for weeks, and probably settle on my top 10 about 10 times. There are stories that travel up and down this list with a speed of a point guard rushing up the floor on a fast break.

There are stories that have dropped off the list. Others that have been left off and brought back into the top 10. I’d create a list of honorable mentions, but I am not sure if I have space.

This top 10 list includes a number of stories that will long stick in my mind. My 10th story involves an athlete I have watched grow and prosper for more than eight years. My sixth story involves an issue I was, and still am, incredibly passionate about. My No. 2 story features a great group of kids and coaches that made a historic run. No. 3 involves a story that was undoubtedly the hardest of the year to write.

My top story is my rock of this list, one that was decided months ago. When you have read this column completely, I hope you’ll understand why.

The following is my take on what I think just may be the top 10 stories from the world of Mat-Su Valley sports in 2010.

10. Junior lands on

senior circuit

Former Palmer High School football standout Junior Aumavae was signed by the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys just moments after the 2010 NFL draft. Even though Aumavae would later be released before the start of the team’s training camp, Aumavae did become just the second Valley product to get a taste of life in the NFL. “Words can’t explain it,” an elated Aumavae said shortly after agreeing to terms with the National Football League franchise.

Several NFL teams had interest in the 6-foot-2, 330-pound defensive tackle who was a Division II standout at Western Washington and Minnesota State-Mankato. Aumavae did have the chance to participate in the team’s rookie minicamp and offseason organized team activities.

9. Another year,

another ABL title

The Mat-Su Miners grabbed another Alaska Baseball League title in 2010, its fourth since 2007. But this time, Mat-Su certainly had to use quite the late effort to score ABL gold.

During the final stretch of the season, the Miners suffered through a rough, week-long road trip to Fairbanks, finishing 3-5 during the eight-game stretch in the Interior. Mat-Su dropped from first to third in the ABL standings with those five losses and returned home 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Alaska Goldpanners.

But the Miners didn’t balk.

Mat-Su posted five wins in its final six games of the season and swept a doubleheader against the Goldpanners on the final day of the year to win its second straight ABL title.

“It takes incredible toughness,” Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said after the Miners won their fourth title in seven years with a 5-1 win over the Panners. “They played their tails off. They really had to battle.”

8. Palmer skis into fresh territory

In February, the Palmer Moose boys cross country ski team claimed its first Region III title in 19 years.

“This is basically the highlight of the season,” said Palmer’s Dunedin Strickland, who won the 3-kilometer skate at the region meet.

The Moose placed four skiers in the top-10 of the combined totals.

The Palmer girls finished as the region runner-up, with sisters Kimberly and Amanda DelFrate finishing in the top-10.

7. Warriors

reign again

Wasilla climbed back to the top of the Alaska state wrestling ladder, earning a 4A team title in December.

The 2010 championship was a virtual tug-of-war between the Warriors and runner-up Service. The rivals traded the lead back and forth throughout the first day, and Service used a strong first-day effort to carry an 11-point lead into the second day of the meet.

“All weekend for both Service and us, it’s been ups and downs,” Wasilla head coach Shawn Hayes said. “Last night as we were leaving, we were down by 11 points. We were pretty nervous there. One point (Friday) we were actually in fourth place.”

But on Saturday, the Warriors scored key wins on both sides of the bracket to jump ahead and stay there.

“We did battle,” Hayes said. “That’s what we talked about (Saturday) morning. We told them, ‘You guys want to win a state title? You’re going to have to wrestle like it.’ We wrestled really well.”

Abe Fox, Tyler Adams and Jake Johnson won individual titles.

“Not only did I win an individual championship, the team’s now won the state championship,” Adams said. “It feels great.”

6. Proposition 4

fails miserably

An effort to bring turf fields to the Valley and make major improvements to local athletic facilities failed miserably at the polls in October. Proposition 4, a bond proposal — which included potential funding for the installation of turf fields at three schools and synthetic tracks at five high schools — failed by about 14 percent, according to the Mat-Su Borough general election results.

The results left many coaches and supporters of local athletics in shock.

“When I saw the (results), I actually thought, ‘wow,’ we lost by that much,” Colony High boys soccer coach Jeremy Johnson said after the election. “I had to really read through it, double-check it.”

5. ASAA makes

major changes

Local prep programs will see tremendous change in the coming years with the adoption of a major reclassification plan by the Alaska Schools Activities Association late in 2010.

The ASAA board of directors voted to approve the move, which affects local athletes in a variety of schools and sports. With the changes — which will be put into effect for the 2012-13 school year — Houston and Susitna Valley will drop classes, two programs will leave the Northern Lights Conference and Palmer could potentially compete in a newly-formed medium-schools football class.

The board also voted to change the prep wrestling season and the way 4A teams are selected for the state basketball tournament.

Wasilla assistant principal and Region III representative Dan Michael called the state’s activities association’s moves the most significant in the last 30 years.

4. Avs slide

across Valley

The Alaska Avalanche Junior A hockey organization made the move across the Valley, leaving the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in favor of a five-year deal at the Palmer Ice Arena.

“I definitely wanted to keep the team in the Valley,” Avs owner Mark Lee said after the news became official in July.

Wasilla city officials and the Avalanche called their split mutual, both citing the need to do what’s best for each entity. Lee said he held no ill will toward Wasilla, but needed to make the change to ensure financial stability in the future.

The Avs’ agreement with the city of Palmer called for the team to pay an annual rent and facility use fee of $30,500, a sum substantially less than what the city of Wasilla would have charged, Lee said. The franchise also agreed to pay a total of $50,000 into the city’s capital investment fund over a four-year period.

The agreement continued to state that all beverages and food sold during Avalanche home games will be sold by the team. The team will sell its own advertising, but the city retains advertising rights on the Zamboni, scoreboard, center ice and the arena name.

With the deal, the city also commits to arena improvements, including new locker rooms and an equipment storage facility. The city also committed to expand the arena to 1,500 seats by the 2011-12 season.

3. Football is therapy

Few teams will experience a year even remotely close to the 2010 football season of the Colony Knights. Colony, a program bursting at the seams with veteran talent, dropped its first two games. During the year, injuries forced two quarterbacks to the sidelines and a third into the starting lineup.

But bigger than that, prior to the beginning of the season, shortly after suffering a focal seizure during a class in May, first-year Colony head coach Brian McIntosh, also a CHS teacher, was diagnosed with an anaplastic astrocytoma grade three brain tumor.

Throughout the 2010 season, McIntosh, a husband and father of two, watched his players battle on the field, as he fought the battle of his own.

With a passion that could be likened to that of their head coach, Colony overcame adversity and won its final six regular-season games to win the Railbelt Conference title. The Knights played their way into the semifinals and finished among the top four teams of the large-schools class.

“I am so very proud of this group,” said McIntosh, before walking off the field following the season-ending semifinal loss to Service. “They’re very special. It’s the first group I started with at Colony High School as a teacher. I watched them as freshmen and watched them go through high school. There’s really a connection with this senior team.”

2. Perfect season

Just a few short years ago, it was nearly impossible to include the words Wasilla and cross country championship in the same reference. But throughout the 2010 season, Wasilla head coach Gary Howell thought his girls team should, at least, be included in a conversation about title contenders.

In 2010, the Warriors were the talk of the state meet.

Wasilla capped a perfect season by winning the school’s first cross country running title during the ASAA/First National Bank State Cross Country Running Championships at Bartlett High School.

“I thought about this for a long time and I thought I’d have a perfect thing to say and I don’t, because you can’t describe this,” Howell said that day, nearly lost for words as he watched his runners exchange hugs and wipe away tears. “A lot of hard work, years of building went into this. These girls, they deserve it.”

Wasilla placed a pair of runners in the top six and four in the top 17 en route to making history.

All five scoring runners are expected to return for the 2011 season.

1. A silver lining

As it turns out, my top story of 2010 is very similar to 2009. Actually, it’s an extension of the top story from a year ago. Last year, Kerry Weiland was named to the Team USA women’s Olympic hockey team, and that was easily the top story from 2009. And this year, there’s no denying Weiland is once again central to the Valley’s top sports story.

Weiland earned an Olympic silver medal as part of Team USA. She etched her name into the history books with that honor. But she also cemented her place in not just Valley sports history, but Alaska sports history.

Few athletes in our state’s history have reached the athletic heights of Weiland.

Weiland also did not hesitate to return to her home — where she graduated from Palmer High School and starred for the Moose boys hockey team — and share her experiences.

“To come home to Alaska to share the medal with so many people is extra special,” Weiland told me an interview earlier this year. “To share my story, the hard work, the sacrifices, to visit schools around the Valley is extra special.”

So, there you are. My top stories of 2010. It’s been a good year in the Mat-Su Valley. I’m looking forward to see what 2011 has to offer.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.