Valley soccer players bring back the snow shovels after recent snowfall

PALMER — For local soccer programs, the April Fools joke came a few days early this year.

Colony High hosted varsity games on March 23, matches believed to be the earliest played outdoors ever in Alaska. The Knights followed with matches on March 24 and 25. Other Valley teams followed Colony’s lead, and added late-March games to their schedules. Players and volunteers in programs throughout the Valley helped make the early-season outdoors matches possible by spending afternoons shoveling any remaining snow and ice off the turf fields.

And then came Mother Nature’s April Fools joke. Early in the week, a spring storm, once again, blanketed the Valley with snow.

“We didn’t have practice Wednesday, Thursday and most of (Friday),” Colony boys and girls head coach Jeremy Johnson said Saturday afternoon. “We spent most of it shoveling.”

Johnson said the Knights had about a half-hour left in Friday’s practice once the turf field at Colony High was finally clear. Rather ditching the winter wear for the soccer gear, Johnson and the Colony coaches decided to have a little fun.

“We scrimmaged in snow boots,” Johnson said. “A big snow boot scrimmage as the reward.”

Colony and Wasilla both lost official matches this week. Both schools were set to host West Valley before the most recent snowfall, and all of those matches were postponed. The Knights will now host the West Valley girls and boys Thursday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at CHS. Wasilla will play the Wolfpack girls and boys Friday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at Colony High.

Colony was also set to host Chugiak. Johnson said the Knights may not be able to reschedule those games.

Before the snowfall, Colony had six matches scheduled between March 23 and April 1. The abundance in early-season matches is partly due to the temporary loss of The Dome in Anchorage. The roof of the popular indoor facility collapsed under the weight of heavy snow during the winter.

“It’s really frustrating to have all these matches against quality opponents,” Johnson said. “Because The Dome collapsed the Anchorage schools (want to) play us. Mother Nature did not cooperate.”

The Wasilla players, who also used their practice time this week to shovel the snow of Veterans Memorial Field, will have to wait until Friday to make their season debut. The Palmer Moose and Houston Hawks were slated to open their seasons against each other April 5, but those games have been postponed to April 12.

Colony was able to return to the field Saturday, for a pair of games against Bartlett.

Sahara Iverson and Isabella Brown each scored a pair of goals during a 5-3 girls’ win over the Golden Bears. One of Brown’s goals came on a penalty kick. Jazlyn Nino also scored for the Knights.

Mikey Shower used a penalty kick to give the Colony boys’ a 1-0 victory over Bartlett. Quinn Larson recorded the shutout in net.

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