Top 11 in ‘11

Another year has passed, or the way I tend to measure time, another 156 editions of the Frontiersman have hit the newsstands.

Before I jump into the New Year, it’s only natural to reflect on the last.

It’s been another great year in Valley sports.

A busy year.

Valley youth and high school sports continue to thrive. The individual accolades are many, and local teams celebrated championships galore. Many, many of our local high school athletes earned opportunities to compete at the college level.

Great sports stories were born outside our local schools. Our community boasts athletes who are winning marathons, long-distance bicycle races and mushing events. The Valley is home to Special Olympians who have proudly brought home medals.

The Mat-Su has countless coaches, leaders and mentors guiding the next generation of athlete.

Each year, I take a stab at sifting through hundreds of stories, 156 issues worth of news, and pare it down to an ever-so-debatable top 10 list.

It’s a list that changes often in my head and again as my thoughts reach paper.

The list includes a number of team titles, a coaching controversy, a public vote that will impact our community greatly and a near tragedy.

As a bonus, in recognition of the year ’11, I am offering you my take on the top 11 stories of 2011.

Cheers.

11. Houston turns on the lights

The Houston Hawks suffered a 34-18 loss to the Kodiak Bears on Aug. 12. But more than that, Houston High and its football program enjoyed a historic Friday night. For the first time in school history, the Hawks hosted an evening prep football game under the Friday night lights.

“It was awesome to turn them on,” former Hawks football coach Norm Bouchard said after the game. “It felt really good as the came on and we saw the field light up.”

Scoring lights for the football field was a process years in the making. The field lights were installed in April and the Hawks were able to host a handful of night games in 2011.

10. Smallest school wins biggest title

The Valley has been home to many, many state championship teams. But one of the smallest schools in the Valley had the chance to celebrate its first state title in December.

The Glacier View Wolverines, who hail from a school of 38 students that sits alongside the Glenn Highway just north of Chickaloon, won the ASAA/First National Bank Mixed 6 Volleyball Championships in Anchorage.

“I had a good feeling they would do well this year,” Wolverines head coach Louanna Boyer said. “I knew they had it in them.”

Glacier View, which advanced to its second straight Mixed 6 state tourney in just its second year as an ASAA-sanctioned program, beat Noatak 3-2 (20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 15-7) to win the title.

9. Rally gives Moose the title

Former Palmer standout Piers LaFrance notched a hat trick and Palmer scored three unanswered goals during the final 5 minutes and 26 seconds of play as the Moose earned a 5-3 win over rival Wasilla in the North Star Conference Championships title game in February.

“I’m really proud, it was a gut check. That’s what wins championships, that kind of play when you need it. We don’t have a lot of banners up here, we’re not quite accustomed to them,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said as he looked up at the only prep banner that had hung from the rafters of the MTA Events Center, one that represents Palmer’s 1989 state hockey title.

8. Avs skate at record pace during the first half

Heading into the 2011-12 season, there were more questions about the Alaska Avalanche than answers. The Palmer-based North American Hockey League Junior A franchise faced massive turnover during the offseason. Former head coach Brian Heubel, assistant Sean Fish and general manager Dave Boitz had left, and were replaced by new head coach Corey Millen, assistant Josh Petrich and general manager Andrew Good. The Avs also lost a handful of key veterans who pursued opportunities in other junior leagues.

But under the guidance of the new regime and captain Joe Schmitz, the Avs have become a top team in the NAHL. Just past the halfway point of the 2011-12 season, the Avs are on pace to shatter franchise records. Alaska, which returned to the ice Friday night after a 20-day break, entered the final weekend of the 2011 calendar in first place of the NAHL West with a seven-point lead over second-place Fairbanks. Through 33 games, Alaska had already earned 22 wins, 10 shy of a franchise mark set last year.

7. Hockey standout injured in accidental shooting

Palmer hockey standout Ivan Good was injured in an accidental shooting in the parking lot of the Wasilla Sportsman’s Warehouse store in February.

A bullet struck the thigh of the 18-year-old after a .45-caliber pistol misfired while Good and a friend were in a parked car, Good’s father Andrew said after the incident.

“(Ivan’s) buddy went to put away the pistol, pointed it downward, and it misfired,” said Andrew Good, who described the incident as purely accidental.

There was a long rehabilitation and tense moments after medical staff discovered the single-entry would about the size of a quarter that left a Y-shaped fracture in his femur. But Ivan fully recovered and is back skating with the Palmer High hockey team. He is back for his senior season and is among the team’s top players on the ice.

6. Kicker lifts Warriors to Potato Bowl win

Wasilla placekicker Kyler Perry booted a 30-yard field goal as time expired to lift Wasilla to a 23-22 win over the rival Palmer Moose in the 2011 Potato Bowl at Wasilla High in September.

“We had 110 percent confidence in him,” Wasilla senior lineman Ryan Pomrenke said of Perry.

The Perry game-winner not only gave Wasilla its first Potato Bowl win since 2007, it also helped secure the Warriors their first conference championship since 1999.

The field goal capped Wasilla’s nine unanswered points during the final 4:33 of play. Palmer led 7-0 after the first quarter, 14-7 at halftime and 22-14 in the fourth quarter.

5. Colony basketball program goes through change

Easily the most controversial storyline of my top 11, Colony High school opted to make a change within its girls basketball program following the 2010-11 season.

Former head coach Tom Lincoln was relieved of his duties just days after the ASAA 4A state tournament. Colony upset eventual state champion Wasilla in the Northern Lights Conference Championships title game and advanced to the state tourney.

“Basically, we decided to go in a different direction,” Colony High assistant principal Brendon McMahon said of the move.

Former Colony boys basketball head coach Jeff Bowker was named Lincoln’s successor later in the spring.

I have great respect for both the former and the current Colony basketball head coaches.

4. Another state title for Warrior hoops

Wasilla capped the game with a 10-3 run to earn a 36-30 victory over Juneau-Douglas in the girls’ 4A state championship game in Anchorage in March.

“We preached region championship, state championship. That’s what we’re working for every day,” said Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax, who led the Warriors to their fifth state championship game since 2002 and second state title since 2007. “From Day 1, the kids believed they could do it. We did it through hard times and adversity.”

Wasilla managed to win the title despite injury. Junior Alyssa Hutchins was lost for the tournament, and senior Leisl Brown battled injury throughout.

Sophomores Alysha Devine and Kyla Dinkel emerged and were key in Wasilla’s run to the title.

Four-year senior starters Kelsey Cottle and Celeste Colegrove were instrumental in the win, as the duo capped their careers with a title.

3. Valley votes yes on turf

Valley voters approved a $214 million bond proposition in October that includes a large chunk allotted to fund vast athletic facility upgrades at numerous Valley schools.

The bond for the improvements, which passed 4,164 to 3,624, includes $3 million allotted to four area high schools — Colony, Palmer, Houston and Wasilla — to help cover the costs of installation of artificial field turf and a synthetic track.

Before the vote, Mat-Su School District officials stressed this bond would benefit the entire community, not just the schools listed.

“Those user groups go from the youngest to the oldest,” Mat-Su School District executive director of instruction Lebron McPhail said.

The bond is set to add state-of-the-art athletic facilities to local schools, facilities that will be open for the entire community to use. Colony High activities director Mike Boyd estimated the CHS football field gets used about 60 hours per year now, but could go beyond 400 hours of use with turf.

The bond also includes money for athletic upgrades at local middle schools and Susitna Valley Jr./Sr. High School, in addition to funding for upgrades at 18 local elementary schools.

This story may be No. 3 on this list, but an argument can be made that this is the biggest overall story of 2011. Our community will certainly feel its positive impact for many years to come.

1. (tie) Wasilla High wins girls state track and field title; Warrior girls repeat as state cross-country running

OK, folks, I have a tie for first, one I just can’t break. On one version of this list, I had the cross-country title ranked first, with the track title second. I had them swapped on another draft.

Truth is, I could spend my evening trading the two feats back and forth. Both are incredible, and even in part, improbable. Both teams were coached by Wasilla’s Gary Howell.

The Warriors had to catch sort of a perfect storm en route to both championships. In the spring, Howell had a hunch his team was on the verge of something special, but he also knew his team would have to be extraordinary.

Powered by Howell’s dominant dozen, Wasilla wowed the Alaska track and field world by reeling in the 2011 title in Fairbanks. With only 12 athletes, the Warriors shot down heavily favored Diamond and beat the three-time defending state champions by 30 points.

“We knew coming in we would have to have a stellar meet. We didn’t have any margin of error whatsoever,” Howell said after the meet.

Junior Morgan Dampier won a pair of state titles and shattered her own state record in the 800 meters, and sophomore Dejanae Harris successfully defended her title in the 100 to help Wasilla win its first track and field state team title.

Fast forward to the fall.

Wasilla entered the cross-country season as the defending state champions, but battled through sort of an odd 2011 regular season. The Warriors only regular-season win in the team standings came in the tiny Seward Invitational. Wasilla fought injury and didn’t have one of its top runners, Dampier, until the region meet.

The Warriors also used a different strategy. The coaches harnessed their runners, aiming to save their athletes’ best for the final two meets of the season.

The strategy worked. Wasilla cruised to the Region III title, then exceeded their wildest expectations en route to a second straight state championship.

Wasilla placed a pair of runners in the top 11 and all five scorers in the top 23. Each of Wasilla’s five scoring runners finished in less than 20 minutes

That shocked Howell.

“Especially with this deep of a field. It’s unbelievable to me,” Howell said. “All five in the top 23, this team, they’d be our state championship team last year by a mile.”

So, there you have it, my take of the top 11 stories from the world of Valley sports in 2011. It’s been a good year. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2012 has to offer.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.