Wasilla, Colony have new soccer rivals in the Railbelt Conference

WASILLA — ASAA’s Division I level will have a different look in prep soccer this season, and a pair of Valley squads will have new conference rivals.

Chugiak and Eagle River were added to the Railbelt Conference during the offseason. The Mustangs and Wolves join Colony, Wasilla, Lathrop and West Valley in what now is a six-team conference. With the move of Chugiak and Eagle River, the Cook Inlet Conference also now has six teams.

“I think it’s great,” Wasilla girls head coach Patrick O’Neill said. “It’s a good balance.”

With the addition of the two teams, the conference schedule was pushed from six games to 10 for each Railbelt team. Like last season, there will be no conference tournament.

“It’s great for the kids. I missing having a region tournament, but every (regular season) game means something,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill said he also believes having Chugiak and Eagle River in the same conference as Valley schools is a natural fit.

“It gives us a chance to build up more rivalries,”

ASAA also brought back an eight-team tournament for the Division I level. Last season, only six squads advanced to each of the DI tourneys.

“Eight teams out of the 12 making state is a pretty high percentage, but it gives more teams the opportunity to set that goal,” O’Neill said.

The state tournament will be seeded based on conference finish.

The CIC features Bartlett, Dimond, East Anchorage, Service, South Anchorage and West Anchorage.

The Division II level — which includes Palmer, Houston and Redington — remains the same. The Valley teams are in the Northern Lights Conference, which has two automatic bids to the DII state tourney. The Peninsula Conference also gets two berths, and there is one berth each for the Mid-Alaska and Southeast conferences. A pair of at-large bids are also awards at the DII level.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.