Sports

Juneau Douglas High School kicked off its hockey season at Treadwell Ice Arena versus Soldotna High this weekend. The Crimson Bears fielded an especially young team this year and came up short in a pair of 5-0 losses to the Stars.

Photos by Steve Quinn.

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The University of Alaska Southeast will be hosting the Native Olympics this Saturday at the UAS Recreation Center. Yesterday, as preparation for the competition, representatives from the University and the community organized a demonstration of the events.

One of the demonstration’s leaders and UAS academic advisor Quentin Simeon says students will participate in several of the native games.

“The Eskimo stick pull, the Indian stick pull, the wrist carry, the scissor broad jump, the one foot high kick, the two foot high kick, the Alaskan high kick, leg wrestling, Indian leg wrestling, so those are the main ones we’re going to be highlighting on Saturday.”

Fellow demonstration leader Ricardo Worl hopes people will attend so they can learn about the games’ significance.

“They originated from the northern part of Alaska probably more than 2,000 years ago. The Eskimo and Indian people from the interior of Alaska created a series of games to teach their kids important survival skills.”

Simeon says onlookers will see a unique kind of contest.

“They help each other. It’s a different flavor of competition and so even if you’re like running head to head with somebody you will see that they will share their experiences, they will give each other advice, they will say you were running too fast when you were going up for that kick so you’re floating. You can see that competition, but it’s camaraderie at the same time, and it’s just a beautiful thing to see with the kids.”

The games begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the UAS Recreation Center.

Only three people showed up for the first meeting on Sunday of a community task force looking at Juneau middle school travel policies.

Jon Kurland created the task force after the Juneau School Board in September adopted a ban of all out-of-town middle school athletic travel. The ban takes effect next school year.

He said he’s just getting the word out and will be reaching out to the Floyd Dryden and Dzantik’i Heeni middle school communities.

He’s calling the open-to-all body the Stakeholder Committee on Middle School Sports Travel.

Unlike picketers and other community opponents of the school board’s ban, Kurland said this is not a de facto repeal effort.

“I’m not trying to hide the fact that I’m hoping we’re gonna get to a place where the board can say ‘yes’ to middle school travel, I think that’s very much the goal,” Kurland said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be as simple just having the board reverse its September decision. I think we’re probably going to have to come up with a new framework that has different conditions attached to it so the board can feel comfortable that that’s an option that they can get behind.”

Kurland had lobbied the Juneau School Board for official participation in the committee. The board didn’t assign any staff or board members to it, but said it’s “acknowledging” the committee’s creation, and will hear the task force’s recommendations in the spring. The committee aims to have final recommendations ready by the end of February.

Kurland is a parent, though he doesn’t have a personal stake in the travel ban. His youngest child will be in high school when it takes effect.

“I recognize the educational and social value of teen travel opportunities and I think we owe it to these kids to take a harder look at this problem and try to explore solutions to create those opportunities,” Kurland said.

The committee’s next meeting has not been set, but people interested in participating can find updates on the Facebook group Save Our Middle School Sports – Juneau, Alaska or by emailing Kurland directly at JonKurland1@gmail.com.

The Juneau Jamboree women’s hockey tournament enjoyed its 10^th year of competition at the Treadwell Ice Arena. Players came mostly from Juneau, but some traveled from Homer, Anchorage, Fairbanks and even Montana for an eight-team, three-day event. It’s the first tournament at Treadwell this year and represents growth in women’s hockey. The tournament featured six teams last year.

All photos by Steve Quinn

Over the weekend, Alaskans had their last chance to say goodbye to the state’s Olympians – and prospective Olympians – before they start their seasons…and eventually head to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Olympic Games.

A light layer of snow covered the ground – fitting for the occasion – as Alaska’s Olympians and Olympic hopefuls strolled into Anchorage’s town square to the cheers of supporters gathered to give the athletes an enthusiastic send-off.

Nordic skier Holly Brooks, who competed in the 2010 Games in Vancouver, says despite Alaska being so large and its population so spread out, it still manages to remain a very close-knit community:

“Alaskans really get behind their Olympians and their athletes, and we really feel a lot of support from the community. So, it’s pretty special.”

Kikkan Randall, who will be competing in her fourth Olympic Games, says events where community members get a chance to chat with their Olympians are important because, when she was younger, those events inspired her Olympic dreams.

“I mean, I remember when Tommy Moe won the gold medal in Lilyhammer and came back and signed posters at the Alaska Club,” Randall said. “I remember when Nina Kemppel signed a poster for me when I was 10-years-old at the Gold Nugget Triathlon.”

Since then, Randall has become a source of inspiration for Alaska’s next generation of Olympians. Along the way, she’s earned the support of the community and she says that means a lot.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that so many people in this community have helped me get to where I am today,” Randall said. “So, to really just be able to celebrate that one more time and capture all this great energy so that we can take it with us on the road.”

Both Brooks and Randall leave later this week for Europe and the World Cup circuit, which starts in about two weeks. Randall says it will be an extremely hectic schedule from now through the end of the Olympics.

“We race the World Cup up until four days before the opening ceremonies,” Randall said. “So, we literally go to Munich, pack away our U.S. Ski Team stuff, grab our Olympic stuff and head over to Sochi, and then we just hit the ground running once we’re there.”

The 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia start on February 7-23.

When Juneau’s new Dimond Park Aquatic Center was still in the formative stages, the ability to host state high school statewide swimming and diving meets was a major selling point.

Pool requirements are different than the last time Kodiak High School swim coach John Lindquist was in the capital city  for a swim meet.

“My last state meet was in Juneau in 1980,” when Lindquist was in high school.

That was at Augustus Brown pool downtown.  It is too small to host a state meet now, because pools must have at least 8 lanes,  a deck and audience seating. Until Juneau’s new Dimond Park Aquatic Center opened in 2011, Bartlett High School in Anchorage had the only pool big enough to accommodate a state championship.  (Ketchikan recently opened an 8-lane pool.)

The Alaska School Activities Association accepted Juneau’s bid for the 2013 Swim-Dive State Championship in January. But planning started when  the new pool was still in the development stage.  In fact, Glacier Swim Club’s Max Mertz spent years working on the pool project. The ability to host such a meet was always a top selling point.

“Really it started back  in 2006-2007.  We told everybody we’d work to get the meet here. We started in earnest probably about two years ago. We wrote a proposal, presented it about a year ago to the ASAA board.  They bought off on it, decided to let us host it, so we’ve been kind of working it for the last year to put it on,” Mertz said. 

More than 300 swimmers and divers, representing 25 Alaska high schools, came to Juneau for the state championship.  An estimated 200 parents and volunteers were here, too.

Isaiah Vreeman is state championships director for the Alaska School Activities Association.  He called it exciting to be able to hold the meet outside Anchorage.  Not only does a pool have to have eight lanes, “it has to have adequate deck space.  That’s why Max and some of his crew put together this platform that you see on the deck, which is phenomenal.  It has to have a lot of seating,” Vreeman said.

Home pool

Thunder Mountain  High School swimmer Trevor Jones appreciated the home pool advantage.

“Whenever we travel to Anchorage there’s more than six teams from Anchorage and numerous teams in the Anchorage area where they don’t have to go and stay in a hotel and be roomed out.  They can just sleep in their own bed and have homecooked meals. When you have home-field advantage that comes all to us, so that’s just a huge deal for Juneau swimmers,” Jones said.

It did pay off for Juneau swimmers. Juneau Douglas High School girls edged out an  Anchorage team, Dimond High School, by three points to win the meet.

Jones and other Thunder Mountain swimmers Kenny Fox, Thane O’Brien, and Josiah Loseby placed second in the 200 Medley Relay.  The entire THMS boys team placed fourth in the meet.

A number of swimmers from both Juneau high schools had personal bests.

Training

When it comes to training, all the athletes spend hours in the pool each day.

“About 4 hours a day,” said  Tahna Lindquist.  She and Ila Hughes swim for Kodiak High School.

“In the morning we swim and then after school,” Hughes said.  The swimmers get to the pool at 6:15 a.m.

Jason Wilson coaches the Thunder Mountain swim team.

“You know what, people don’t understand the type of work that swimmers and divers put in,” he said. “We swim everyday six days a week.”

Then there’s cross-training after school every day.

“Sprints, squats, push-ups, sit ups and core work,” Wilson said.

And weight lifting.  “On Saturdays we lift from 10 to 11,” THMS swimmer Trevor Jones said.

Like most of the youth at the statewide meet, the 16 year-old has been swimming competitively for ten years.  He believes the hard work is worth it.

“Just the thrill of being in the pool and racing with other people and getting good times.  Everything about it is just a great essence.”