WHS hockey squad works to clean up school’s facilities

WASILLA — Hockey players are used to handling sticks in the cold, so it was fitting that a spring snow was falling in the woods behind Wasilla High School Saturday as members of the school’s pucks squad worked to clear brush and debris from the WHS cross country trails.

“It’s better than sitting around watching TV all day,” freshman forward Hunter Schachle said, tossing a downed birch tree trunk off the trail.

The snowy conditions didn’t deter the team from starting work on the project, which head coach Bill Sturdevant said he wants to become an annual way for the team’s players to help spruce up the campus.

“The school has supported us a lot, especially this year, so we want to try to give something back a little bit,” he said.

More than a dozen players, coaches and parents helped out with the trail clearing effort Saturday. Bob Cederholm, a WHS hockey parent, used a chain saw to cut small trees. Players and coaches supplied the labor, hauling off logs and branches by the armful.

“And it’s a good workout, too,” freshman forward Brandon Little said.

Wasilla’s cross country trails have become overgrown with brush and torn up by off-road vehicles. No cross country running meets were held at the school this fall, and currently Wasilla’s trails lag far behind the facilities at Palmer and Colony.

In addition to clearing brush, the hockey team will be working to clear a right-of-way for a planned fence around the perimeter that will keep four-wheelers out, enabling the trails to again be used for their intended purpose.

“In order to put the fence in, we have to go in and clean out some brush,” Sturdevant

said.

Wasilla assistant coach Joanie Welch has been working on securing a grant to help pay for the trails project. Once completed, Sturdevant said the goal is to have the perimeter completely fenced in, with park benches installed at various locations along the

trails.

The project won’t come together overnight, but Sturdevant said he hopes eventually the cross country trails can be something the school can be proud of. If that happens, he said he’ll be proud to know his players had something to do with the trails turnaround.

“It will be an ongoing project, but it’s something we want to put our stamp on,” Sturdevant said.

And Saturday’s effort, he noted, had the added benefit of helping to give his team some off-season conditioning.

“It’ll toughen ‘em up,” he said, pulling his knit cap down around his ears as wet, heavy snowflakes continued to fall. “And the coaches, too.”

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

frontiersman.com