Valley ski programs share similarities and the Hatcher Pass trails

MAT-SU — Whether he likes it or not, Ed Strabel has returned to the high school cross country skiing scene.

Strabel, who retired two years ago after spending more than a decade building the ski program at Colony High, is helping out this season at Wasilla.

“I really didn’t want to get back into coaching,” Strabel said from his home near Hatcher Pass.

But after Wasilla coach John Bishop moved from Wasilla to Palmer this season, Strabel said the Warriors were in need of a bit of help.

First-year coach Jill Showman is heading up the program, but Showman is a relative newcomer to the sport.

“After John moved to Palmer to teach, that put two experienced coaches at Palmer and Colony and no experience at Wasilla,” Strabel said.

After beating the bushes in search of another coach at Wasilla, Strabel said he finally decided to step in.

“I figured being retired I might have enough time,” he said.

Strabel said he’s still lobbying members of the area ski community to come on board and help out the Wasilla program, which this season has about 20 skiers out for the team – the least among the three Palmer-Wasilla area schools.

“I’d like to try and recruit someone to put me out of my misery,” he joked.

If someone comes along who is willing to lend a hand, Strabel said he’d be more than happy to let them step in.

“It’s more than a full time job,” he said.

For now, the three Palmer-Wasilla area teams have been training together.

Last Saturday, Palmer, Wasilla and Colony all traveled to Fairbanks for a race/training session. Strabel’s son, Mark, is the head coach at Colony, while two former Strabel protégés, Darin Markwardt and John Bishop, coach at Palmer.

With the close relationship between the coaching staffs at the schools, Strabel said the Valley teams have been able to pool their resources in the early season.

“We’ve all got to work together,” he said.

Wasilla’s top returning skier this season is Baruch Chamberlain, whose finish 22nd last week in Fairbanks was tops a among Wasilla boys team that includes just six skiers.

“Boys, we need more depth,” Strabel said.

Chamberlain is among three Wasilla skiers with state experience from last season. Logan Burly (107th) and Tucker Minnick (113th), also helped the Warriors to an 18th place finish as a team at state last year.

Of Wasilla’s 20 skiers, Strabel said 14 are girls.

“Amongst the girls we’ve got a pretty strong team,” he said.

On the girls’ side, Wasilla got four girls into the top-35, including Katherine Parker (21st), Valerie Schleich (24th), Stephanie Flores (25th) and Kiersten Wilber (35th).

Strabel said he’s already seen big improvements on the team, and said the goal this year is to continue building toward the end of the season – and beyond.

“It’s all pointing toward region and state and also pointing toward future years,” he said.

Logan Burley (107th), Tucker Minnick (113th) and Micheal Lewis (114th)

Colony Knights

Over at Colony, the Knights’ Coach Strabel said he’s got a fairly large team, but not much experience.

“We graduated 21 seniors last year, so it’s definitely a rebuilding year,” he said.

Of Colony’s 39 skiers, Strabel said only “four or five” are seniors.

Colony’s sophomore class is huge, with more than half the team made up of 10th graders.

“We’re young,” he said.

Seniors Mason Wick and Dave Gray, along with junior Jeff Ford are Colony’s top returning skiers. The Knights lost senior Ryan VanGorder, who was the top Mat-Su skier last season, leading Colony to a fifth place finish at state. But both Wick and Ford both were in the top 50, and Strabel said he’s cautiously optimistic about the season.

“You’ve go to do well with what you’ve got,” he said.

On the girls side, sophomore Heidi Doner and senior Heather Callahan are Colony’s top returning skiers.

“And then we’ve got a whole slew of girls who are right there,” Strabel said.

Doner is second among all Mat-Su girls returning skiers (behind Palmer’s Kimberly Del Frate) with a 68th place finish at state last year as a freshman.

Palmer Moose

Palmer coach Darin Markwardt said his team isn’t lacking in top sophomores, either.

Both Kimberly Del Frate and her twin sister, Amanda, are sophomores, as are Palmer’s top boys skiers, Dunedin Strickland and Davis Dunlap.

“We have a very strong class,” Markwardt said.

Strickland was Palmer’s top finisher in Fairbanks, and even edged Markwardt, who was a top skier at Colony when the Knights were led by Ed Strabel.

“It was a rare chance for a coach and athlete to go together,” he said. “Unfortunately, he beat me.”

But what may be a bruise for Markwardt’s ego could spell success for his team. At the Fairbanks race, Palmer’s boys team edged Colony in the team scores – a first for Markwardt.

“Our guys team beat Colony for the first time in six years,” he said.

The win over his alma mater was nice, Markwardt said, but it hardly means there’s any bad feelings between the Valley’s coaches. Colony, Palmer and Wasilla have been training in close proximity to each other in the early season, with all three teams making several treks up to Hatcher Pass to find the best snow.

“We get along very well,” he said, noting that while the three don’t collaborate on coaching techniques, they’ll sometimes unconsciously end up mirroring each other’s styles.

“You see today, we’re all doing classic,” Markwardt, pointing to a large group of skiers that included athletes from all three schools. “None of us talked to each other, but we’re all doing the exact same thing today.”

As for his own team, Markwardt said he’s optimistic about both his boys and girls teams’ chances this season.

“Hopefully we can make our mark on the region,” he said.

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