Weather forces changes to prep schedules

PALMER — Mother Nature continues to keep Valley athletes and coaches guessing.

Southcentral Alaska’s unusual April weather has left the high school sports schedules in a constant state of flux. The most recent wave of change has impacted just about every ASAA-sanctioned spring sport.

“It’s been an incredibly crazy spring. Every other spring, we’d be out playing on our grass fields right now,” longtime Colony boys soccer coach Jeremy Johnson said. “We thought with two turf fields, we’d be good to go. But all the sudden we get this weather.”

The Colony boys and girls teams have been the most fortunate, arguably, this spring, losing the fewest amount of scheduled matches due to weather. Colony High has also become the unofficial home to other soccer programs this spring. Wasilla, Palmer and Houston have used the CHS field to host games this month.

“We’ve been blessed by having Colony (available),” Palmer activities director Jeff Thiede said.

Thiede, like most local activities directors, has been busy finding options for his teams. Palmer High School also has a new turf field, like Colony, installed during the summer of 2012. But the spring melt has left Palmer’s Machetanz Field covered in standing water. Heavy snowfall in April has complicated the issue.

Thursday, Thiede confirmed that boys and girls matches against Soldotna tonight and Nikiski on Saturday have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

Thiede said he hopes the field is playable by Tuesday when Grace Christian is scheduled to play the Moose at Machetanz.

Earlier this week, Wasilla opted to host varsity games on its practice field, which sits in front of the school along Bogard Road. The Warriors will host Skyview tonight, with the girls playing at 4 and the boys at 6 p.m. Wasilla will play Homer at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The Colony High field will be home to a full slate of matches today and Saturday. Houston will host Homer at CHS today (girls at 10 a.m., boys at noon).

Colony hosts Nikiski tonight (boys at 6 p.m., girls at 8). The Knights will face Soldotna on Saturday (boys at noon, girls at 2 p.m.).

Two track meets were also cancelled this weekend. Palmer was scheduled to travel north to compete in the Fairbanks Invitational, but that meet has been rescheduled for early May. Colony was slated to hit the Skyview Invitational, which was supposed to start today in Soldotna.

With the cancellation of the Skyview meet, Homer High School will host a one-day meet on Saturday, Thiede said.

Weekend baseball games have also been axed from the schedule. Lathrop will not make a trip to Houston to play the Hawks and Wasilla Warriors. Palmer’s game at Houston and Colony’s game at Wasilla, both scheduled for Monday, have also been cancelled.

Weekend softball games were moved from Alcantra Softball Complex to Colony Middle School. Lathrop plays Palmer tonight at 6 p.m. at CMS, and North Pole meets Wasilla at 7:45 p.m.

Saturday, Colony hosts North Pole at noon and Skyview at 3 p.m. Lathrop meets Wasilla at 10:30 a.m. and is slated to play Palmer at 1:30 p.m.