Season kickoff — Youth comp league soccer springing into action

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Come this weekend, about 150 Kenai Peninsula kids will kick off a rite of passage for spring, even if there is still snow on the ground.

It’s soccer season, ushered in by Kenai Peninsula Soccer Club tryouts Friday and Saturday at the Kenai Central High School gym. The club soccer program is a more competitive level of play than recreation leagues, and it isn’t affiliated with school sports programs so the season lasts longer into the summer, from April into August. It’s for ages 9 through 18 on 11 local teams. Teams practice or play games at least four days a week during the summer, and travel to tournaments in Anchorage and Fairbanks two or three times a summer.

It is a time commitment, but one that is well-rewarded, said Paul Ostrander, coach of the under-13 girls team Riptide and KPSC board member.

“It allows kids that maybe want to play at a more competitive level than, say, rec leagues available around here, to travel around the state and play against other comp teams. There’s a great amount of soccer skills that they gain, and I think that playing competitively and committing to something like this can really build up a kid, too. For example, my oldest daughter. I think it’s done wonders for her self-confidence and ability to compete, not only in athletics, but in school, as well,” Ostrander said.

Shelby Daly, a senior at KCHS, has been playing comp league soccer since she was in sixth grade and now is trying out for soccer teams at college next year, either at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., Corban College in Salem, Ore., or Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Wash. She said she’s enjoyed the level of play and the opportunity to travel.

“In comp soccer you go out there and try to win. It’s a way to keep pushing yourself to be a better player,” she said. “I really like the traveling and getting to become friends with people in other cities. That’s really been enjoyable.”

Daly’s played volleyball and basketball, as well, but neither have the appeal of soccer. Volleyball is a mental game, she said, with too much sitting around waiting and analyzing, and basketball can also be restrictive in where you go and what you do.

“With soccer you can make it up as you go. You can fix it and kind of take the game into your own hands and it’s not so back and forth, like basketball,” she said.

That aspect of the game probably has a lot to do with why soccer is growing in popularity on the peninsula, Ostrander said.

“When it comes to match time it’s really on the players. There’re no timeouts in soccer. The coach has very little control during matches, other than subbing,” he said. “I think kids like the fact that it’s more independent. In soccer, it’s up to them. It really generates creativity on their part. It’s very free-flowing and kids need to understand what’s going on and they need to react to what the game gives them. It’s a very different type of game than the others.”

That may be a foreign concept to people who grew up in the area, since soccer hasn’t been around for all that long.

“If they grew up around here there wasn’t really soccer, so people have a hard time understanding what the appeal is, but the kids, they absolutely love soccer if they play it and get involved. It’s just something they love to do,” Ostrander said.

This season promises a unique chance for players to improve their love and aptitude for the game. Ostrander said the KPSC is bringing a coach up from Georgia with an A license — the highest level attainable — for six weeks this summer to work with all the teams. Chas Frisco was here last year and worked with the program, and since then has gone on to bump his B license up to an A, which makes the opportunity even more exciting for local teams, Ostrander said.

“It was really good. Several teams really could see a huge benefit,” Ostrander said. “The kids reacted to him very well. Personally, I could see a huge benefit from the time he spent with the team. And it really helps our coaches out, they learn so much just by observing him coach the kids. The coaches glean so much from his time and some of the techniques and things he’s stressing continue on after he’s gone.”

To Ostrander’s knowledge, this is the first time the area will see an A-licensed coach.

“He knows the specific skills that the kids need to learn to really get their game to the next level,” he said.

From Aug. 9 to 15, KPSC teams will have a chance to display their skills to local soccer fans and the larger comp league community as the central peninsula hosts the comp league state tournament.

Kenai hosted the state tournament in 2007, which brought an estimated 1,500 people to the area.

“It was a huge undertaking for the club at the time, but all the reports from 2007 was it was a great success and very well run,” Ostrander said. “For 2009 to happen a ton of stuff needs to occur. We’re always looking for people willing to volunteer and help out. It’s a 100 percent volunteer effort. There’s an amazing amount of work that needs to go into it.”

As with club participation overall, there’s benefits to the commitment.

“It’s a huge deal for kids to be able to sleep in their own beds have that home field advantage that you enjoy,” Ostrander said.

Strong appeal — Bodybuilding offers new challenges

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

At 38 years old, Pako Whannell is in the best shape of her life.

That’s saying something, since the longtime volleyball coach, college athlete and manager at the Peninsula Athletic Club hasn’t been a slouch in the fitness department.

She’s worked out regularly, played volleyball and stayed in shape throughout her life, but she retired from coaching a few years ago and a back injury kept her from playing as much volleyball.

“I needed to find some other thing to stay focused on and stay fit and healthy,” she said.

She found it in bodybuilding. Whannell went to Anchorage with a group of friends and fellow gym members last year to support Scott Griebel and Sohnya Hamar as they competed in a bodybuilding competition.

“We just were inspired. It was just kind of a neat, entertaining thing to watch as well as it’s different and it takes dedication and hard work,” Whannell said. “But I think a lot of ladies these days might be tired of the same old routine of the doldrums of work every day and working out. They’re looking for some kind of challenge. It’s starting to explode,” Whannell said.

She and a few other ladies from the PAC decided to start training. About a year later, they were signed up to compete in the Alaska State Pro-Am Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness Championships in Anchorage on March 7, and are planning to compete in the first ever Kenai Peninsula bodybuilding competition March 28 at Kenai Central High School.

“It’s not really heard of to just train for a year and go into a competition,” Whannell said. “Most of those athletes train for at least two or three years. Our friend, who’s a trainer, said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’”

The answer was a resounding yes. Bodybuilding is not a casual hobby or something done halfway. It involves an entire lifestyle change.

For Whannell, that has meant weightlifting an hour a day, five days a week and doing cardio 30 to 40 minutes, four to five times a week, all fit in around her other priorities in life.

“I have two kids and a husband, and so I have to kind of work around their schedules, as well, and still be a mom and wife,” she said. “It does take a big toll on your family, but they’re very understanding.”

Her time in the gym has been the easy part of the journey. The nutritional aspect of bodybuilding is the most challenging, she said. Whannell changed her diet and now closely monitors and plans everything she eats to make sure she’s fueling her body in the best possible way for her metabolism and physiology to maximize results.

“Whatever you put in your mouth is what you’re going to see on your body onstage, so you have to be careful. And, you know, I like food, so that was the hardest part of it. A lot of people look at that and go, ‘Eh, I can’t do that.’ But you can. After a month it just became a habit,” she said.

Balancing the challenges is the support Whannell and her fellow bodybuilding newcomers got from the gym.

“The whole gym was very supportive in encouraging us and they saw the changes in our bodies when we were working out five days a week at the gym. The neat thing is the community and club was very supportive of what we were doing,” she said.

That support and level of involvement led to a rare honor at the bodybuilding championship March 7 — the Peninsula Athletic Club was given the team award for all five of the competitors from the PAC placing high in the competition. The award typically goes to an Anchorage gym, Whannell said.

“The highlight was winning the team award, since we all placed so well we received that. That was the best part of it. We were happy how we did individually, but the team award meant more to us than anything,” she said.

From the PAC, Scott Griebel, in his third competition, placed third in men’s middleweight bodybuilding. Sohnya Hamar, in her second competition, placed first in lightweight bodybuilding and fitness. Judi Klok placed first in master’s women bodybuilding and won the overall award in her first competition. Aleasha LaFleur, in her first competition, finished second in novice women’s bodybuilding. Whannell, also in her first competition, took fifth in the figure division, 5-foot-3 and over.

Other Kenai Peninsula athletes competing were Darren Hagen, who finished first in his division in novice men’s bodybuilding, and Helen Aye, who placed first in the figure division, 5-foot-3 and under. Both were from The Fitness Place.

Being a first-timer in a bodybuilding competition was a nerve-wracking experience due to trying to banish butterflies and get pumped up to go onstage, Whannell said. But the experience of competition also helped make the months of hard work worthwhile.

“When you get out there in those lights and perform and show what you worked so hard for, and you’re so proud of yourself for achieving these goals, you just feel so good inside,” she said. “It’s hard to describe, it’s just an adrenaline rush, ‘I’m out here, I’m doing it, this is what I’ve got.’”

Built to last — Bodybuilding interest on peninsula swells to point of holding local show

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Seeing the toned, sculpted physiques flex, pose and perform in the lights and music onstage will be impressive enough at the Kenai Peninsula’s first Alaska Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness competition March 28 at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School.

The truly jaw-dropping part comes in realizing how much effort goes into the competitors being onstage — often a year or more of rigorous, multihour, five-days-a-week workouts and diligent commitment to an exacting nutritional regime where every calorie consumed is calculated for maximum benefit.

“Nowhere else in the state will you find a gathering of more lean, fit, healthy people at one place at one time than the 28th of March at that auditorium,” said Bernie Pendergast, of Sterling, who’s promoting the event. “I also think it’s important that people understand it’s not only a competition where these great athletes will be onstage, but it’s an athletic event and it’s also entertainment.”

Just like bodybuilders don’t become ready to compete overnight, the peninsula competition didn’t become a reality in a matter of days. It’s taken months to organize and promote the event, and it’s taken years for local interest in bodybuilding to grow to the point of supporting a competition.

Pendergast, who’s lived on the central peninsula since 1989, got interested in bodybuilding in 1996 and 1997 by helping his son, Nicholas, then a Skyview High School student, train for a junior men’s bodybuilding competition in Anchorage.

After his son graduated, Pendergast decided he wanted compete, but he ran into a frustration that likely limited involvement in bodybuilding in Alaska over the years, he said. There was only one bodybuilding organization in the state at the time, and it didn’t distinguish between natural, drug-free bodybuilding and bodybuilding that allowed steroid use.

“Even myself, in the years I competed, because I’m not really a big guy, I’d go onstage at about 155 pounds and have to stand, a lot of times, next to people who had a chemically enhanced physique, and they weighed over 200 pounds,” he said.

Pendergast competed for three years then got certified as a physique judge. Now he helps judge bodybuilding competitions, which has always meant traveling outside the peninsula – until now.

Central peninsula interest in the sport has grown in the past few years to the point where taking an informal head count of how many local bodybuilders would participate in a Kenai competition yielded 20 to 25 people, Pendergast said. Shows can include upward of 60 competitors, but 25 to 30 is a more manageable number. The Kenai show is open to competitors statewide.

“As long as I’ve been training in the gym here in town, since 1990, I’ve never seen, not only the interest, but the actual commitment to train and diet and getting into the condition they need to be to be competitive in this sport. It has really grown tremendously in the last couple of years,” Pendergast said.

Now the state has the Alaska Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness organization, which promotes natural bodybuilding, athletes have an avenue to be competitive in bodybuilding without the pressure of using drugs. Pendergast said that has helped the sport draw a following of health-conscious athletes looking for a unique challenge.

“It’s quite overwhelming for me, really. I am excited about it. I thought, you know, now that we’re natural and can promote the sport of bodybuilding to our young people through sensible weight training and good, sound nutrition and let them still build a physique that can be competitive onstage, it is really exciting. I like the involvement in it because it is a natural sport,” Pendergast said.

He had some time free this winter, and decided to “grab the bull by the horns and go with it. I just decided maybe the time was right down here,” he said.

He started making the rounds in the community for event sponsors and supporters. The response was overwhelming, he said.

“They were like, ‘Wow, how can I help?’ It’s been a really good outpouring of help in the community to get this thing going,” Pendergast said.

He hopes the support translates into attendance at events March 28. Not only will it show interest in the sport of bodybuilding, it will show support for local competitors.

“We’re looking forward to seeing everyone come out and support all our local athletes. It is a growing sport and we want people to be more educated in it and get more people involved,” said Pako Whannell, a manager at the Peninsula Athletic Club and bodybuilder who plans to compete in the Kenai event.

“We’re kind of nervous because everybody we know lives in the community, but we’re proud and really want people to understand that anyone can do this at any age,” she said.

There will be a prejudging event at noon where competitors go through set poses and are evaluated by judges. Admission for that event is $10 at the door.

The main event starts at 7 p.m., where competitors perform individual routines to music and awards are handed out in each class and division, including men’s and women’s bodybuilding, women’s figure and women’s fitness. Overall awards are given in each of the women’s categories, and in men’s bodybuilding.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. competition are $25 for prime seats, or $15 and $10 for side and balcony seating. Tickets are available at GNC, The Fitness Place, Peninsula Athletic Club and at the door.

Quest complete — Peninsula mushers face trials of the trail

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Jason Mackey faced a perfect storm in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race starting Feb. 14, although weather was one of the few things that didn’t go wrong for him.

“It was just a chain reaction of crazy events that I’ve never seen in training,” Mackey said. “The trail was as good as it’s ever been, it was like a superhighway the whole way. But overall I had many, many issues, right from the beginning.”

Coming out of Braeburn, the first checkpoint, his 14-dog team started getting sick with vomiting and diarrhea. He dropped one dog in Carmacks and another in Pelly, but just two hours after leaving Pelly on a 200-mile run to Scroggie, he already had one sick dog and another injured one in the sled, along with hundreds of pounds of food and gear.

“I worked my butt off. Man, I never worked so hard in my life,” Mackey said.
Those two were dropped in Scroggie, and another in Dawson, leaving Mackey’s team at nine dogs, with still over half of the 1,000-mile race to go.

“It wasn’t through the whole team at one time, just here and there throughout the team, so it was pretty disheartening,” Mackey said of the illness. “I had full faith in those dogs. I thought that I had everybody weeded out.”

A new form of disaster stuck as he was leaving Dawson — three of his females went into heat.

“By the end of 850 miles I had dealt with a little bit of everything. It got to the point where they wanted to give up, they wanted to breed and fight amongst each other, but I didn’t want to give up,” Mackey said. “We’ll walk over the (Eagle) Summit together, even if I had to take them over one at a time. I didn’t care, but they had something else in mind.”

Mackey has always told his family that if they get a call from him during a 1,000-mile race, something’s wrong.

“I called three times in that race,” he said.

One call was to his brother, Lance Mackey, who has won the Quest four times and also won the last two Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races.

“He’d been there before and he knew what I was going through. ‘You need to do what you need to do. Either they’ll go down the trail or they won’t,’” he said.
Mackey scratched in Central the morning of Feb. 25.

“After day 11 or day 12 of dealing with those situations a guy gets pretty burned out. As bad as I want to get to the finish line, it’s kind of one of those things where s--- happens and everybody’s been through it. My brothers, my dad, the best mushers in the world,” Mackey said. “I felt like I let everybody down, including myself and the dogs. They didn’t learn anything by turning around and getting in the truck, except they think they can do that now.”

To say Mackey is disappointed is an understatement; especially considering the investment of time, money and effort it took to get him to the start line. But he sees a silver lining. For one, he learned more about his dogs, including one of his leaders, Banger.

“She was absolutely incredible the whole way. She’s 48 pounds and she’s pulling 400 pounds of gear down the trail basically by herself. Everybody else is screwing around and she’s all business and she didn’t ever want to quit,” Mackey said.

Brutal though the lessons may have been, Mackey said the Quest was a learning experience for him and he’s shooting to reapply his knowledge within the next three years.

“I was bummed but I think it made me a better musher in the long run. How do I fix the things I saw fall apart in front of me? And I do have answers for that now, so my goal is to be back in the Quest with a whole different outlook on the race,” Mackey said. “I also have unfinished business there in the Quest. That’s what I have in mind — to race and win. That might sound confident from a guy who just scratched, but I’m not going there to come in second place.”

Third place, second to none

Jon Little’s team put forth a winning effort in the 2009 Yukon Quest. Even though they finished two spots and 58 minutes behind the leader, he said the race was a victory for him.

“In lot of ways (the race went) as good as can be expected, and I expect a lot, so I’m very happy with the dogs. My mission is always for the dogs to do their best, and I feel they did,” Little said. “… I left nothing on the trail. I tried everything I could and just two teams had a little more conditioning there at the end.”

Little said he tried a new approach this race of running his dogs longer but at a little slower pace, at times tackling eight-hour runs and resting for about four and a half.

“My attempt was to hustle things up a little bit. I wanted to set a pace where people could either stay with me or give up. But you run the risk of hurting your own chances because you’re kind of in the red zone of resting the dogs,” he said.

Little was in the lead coming out of McCabe Creek, Stepping Stone, Scroggie and Dawson, but slipped to third and couldn’t make up the difference.

“Eagle Summit always affects the race somehow,” Little said.

He and the two other frontrunners, Sebastian Schnuelle and Hugh Neff, reached the formidable ascent at night. Blowing snow had obscured the trail and created drifts.

“There were no discernible trail markers at night, no reflectors. It was only my second time up. I wasn’t quite sure where I was supposed to go up the hill. As it turns out, you go up anywhere. I couldn’t convince my dogs to go up in a headwind with such steep drifts on a hill,” Little said.

He found Neff camped out in his sled bag, waiting for morning to try the climb.
“At the time it seemed like a good idea to me, too,” Little said.

At dawn, Neff and Little took turns helping each other get their teams to the top, with one pulling the gang line in front and one pushing the sled from behind. As they were getting Little’s team to the top he spotted Schnuelle and William Kleedehn doing the same thing.

“At that point the first three were in the same spot. Sebastian basically said, ‘See you later Will,’ and he went for the win. His dogs had just incredible conditioning and good training. He was able to maintain good, steady speed. And Hugh has an amazing ability to go fast even late in the race,” Little said. “My guys coming off Eagle Summit slowed down to an easy trot, which ordinarily wouldn’t have been bad if I had a little lead. It was a fine speed for finishing the race but I couldn’t gain on anybody.”

Little wonders what might have been had his team not been involved in a vehicle collision on the Sterling Highway in October. Four dogs died from the crash and two others were injured.

“My lack of leaders was directly a result of that accident. Probably three dogs were in the rotation to run lead, and who knows which one of them would have done well,” he said.

Eagle Summit also looms as a “What if?” but Little isn’t spending much time looking back.

“It’s pretty hard to convince a dog team who doesn’t want to go a certain direction to go that way,” he said. “They didn’t want to go until morning. It boils down to better training in the preseason, a little longer runs and working on leaders.”

Finishing with a healthy team, gaining confidence with a more aggressive run schedule and being within striking distance of the lead were victories for Little.

“I’ve never been in position at that point in a race where I’m in the hunt to win. That’s a plateau I’ve never been on before,” he said.

“I thank everybody who helped me out. There’s been some local support and several people chipping in to help,” especially with veterinary bills and surgery following the accident, Little said. “It’s a community effort to get any one musher up the trail, so I’m really grateful.”

Challenged to succeed

An American musher from Kasilof traveled through Canada and Alaska with an Englishman, a Jamaican and a French Canadian.

Colleen Robertia was looking for a unique experience in her rookie run of the Yukon Quest, and she definitely found it.

“Overall, it went well. It was quite the adventure,” she said.

Robertia’s main goal was to maintain a healthy team while finishing the race. She and her husband, Joseph, maintain a small kennel with several rescues. One of her late-addition Quest team dogs, Arrow, came from the Kenai Animal Shelter.

“I’m really proud of my guys, especially because my philosophy is a very humane approach. We have a small kennel and they have a lifelong home here. It’s really hard to finish well and finish in the money, so to do that successfully and still have all the same guys here, it’s really rewarding because you know, even though I haven’t turned heads, you can do this humanely if you choose to,” she said.

The race was a series of firsts for Robertia — her and her dogs’ first 1,000-mile race, Robertia’s first tangle with massive expanses of jumble ice and her first experience with the isolation of multiday runs between checkpoints.

She led in some respects, too, maintaining the biggest team for most of the race, and finishing the last leg in the fastest time. She ended up placing 12th in her rookie run, sandwiched between Mark Sleightholme, of England, and Newton Marshall, of Jamaica, and ahead of Luc Tweddell, of Yukon Territory.

Sleightholme, Robertia and Marshall were been dubbed “the triplets,” since their teams were well-matched and ended up running more or less with each other for the second half of the race.

“The team did very well. I’m really happy with how they looked. I guess I’m proud of how I did with the dog team I had. … I got a lot of compliments just of how great they looked and how great their attitudes were,” she said.

Robertia said she started out slow and conservative, and made it a point to rest her team longer than she ran them.

“The only time I cut rest was to move with (Sleightholme and Marshall) over Eagle Summit, because I knew that was going to be the biggest challenge, likely of my mushing career. I wanted to be able to move with them for the benefit of the team. If they can see other teams around them, if nothing else they can chase them. Dogs just have a different attitude when other dog teams are around,” she said.

Long runs on the Yukon River posed a new challenge for Robertia.

“Jumble ice. Not just jumble ice, we’re talking about 100 miles of jumble ice. Three days at a time on it,” Robertia said. “The trail markers did a good job kind of weaving a path through it. There were times when I felt like a pinball in a pinball machine. I really felt like I got to be a better sled driver from this race, as well.”

She got to be a better pilot during her descent from Rosebud Summit when her brake broke.

“It’s 100 yards long but basically beyond vertical, so you’re dropping but you’re basically not even in contact with the ground,” Robertia said. “It goes by so fast you don’t have time to panic, but I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I’m flying right now.’ I think the dogs were even like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think she’s flying right now.’”

The distance between checkpoints was both a hardship and one of the things Robertia enjoyed about the Quest. It was difficult having to haul enough gear and being on her own for days at a time between official checkpoints, but it also meant taking advantage of the unofficial checkpoints along the way — remote cabins where people share a fire, dish up some moose or bear stew and swap stories.

“For them, it’s their television. That’s really exciting to hear all about the trail and what we’ve encountered. It’s almost like a symbiotic relationship because they get something out of it, but it’s really nice for you, too,” Robertia said.

Putting her dogs to the test and watching them succeed was another reward of the challenge.

“Seeing my dogs go through something that they’d never gone through before, something so challenging for them and just hoping they’ll still trust me and hoping I’m not breaking that bond I have with them. Wanting to explain to them, ‘There’s 200 miles, guys, hang in there.’ They’d keep their tails wagging. That was definitely the biggest challenge for me to see them go through something and not be able to explain to them what the end goal was, just hoping that they sensed it through me,” she said.

In the end, it was the most difficult parts that will make the fondest memories.

“The hardest things to overcome are things I’ll keep with me forever. As hard as it was when I’m out there, I wouldn’t trade it now that it’s over and I’ve gone through my first 1,000-mile race. I wouldn’t change it,” Robertia said.

Fast learners — Kids conquer the trails in youth skiing program

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Eight-year-old Oliva Botirius’ stream-of-consciousness play-by-play was going as fast as her skies were Saturday as she launched herself down an incline at Tsalteshi Trails.

“Yeah, a hill!”

“Look out below!”

“Hey, no cuts!”

“Woah, don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall!”

She didn’t, making it to the bottom in a blur of matching purple snow gear, hardly any ski pole flailing, and brown curls flopping in the breeze. Once she coasted to a stop at the bottom of the hill, she plopped down to her knees, but made sure everyone in her learn-to-ski group knew it wasn’t an accident.

“I didn’t fall. I did this on purpose. ’Cus I can do this,” she announced, as she started scooting herself backward.

A few loops over on the trail system behind Skyview High School, the mighty Snow Leopards were sizing up a hill of their own. The kids had been at Tsalteshi Trails Associations’ learn-to-ski program long enough that their first reaction to hills — “We have to go down that?” — had been largely replaced with the desire to see how much momentum their 4-foot-tall bodies could accumulate.

Coach Robin Nyce was waiting a little ways down, calling out encouragement to try to snowplow — point the tips of their skis together to slow descent — or some other technique.

They dutifully followed instructions, whether it was a snowplow or hunching over their feet and grabbing the tips of their skis as they slid down the hill. But some were mystified about the point of maneuvers that made them go slower.

“Why did we do that? I could have gone down that way faster on my own,” said 6-year-old Tyle Owens.

That’s a far cry from the beginning of January, when the kids’ ski program started.

“We had a couple of little, little ones like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to go uphill,’ and, ‘I don’t want to go down hills,’ but now they’re doing it. The ones who have never even skied before are cruising. It just takes getting kids out moving on skies and they figure a lot out on their own,” said Laura Pillifant, with the trails association board.

For older or more experienced skiers, the program is a chance to get instruction and practice with their peers, instead of just their parents.

“We take them out skiing, you know, with us, and they kind of complain a lot and they don’t really want to go,” Pillifant said. “Being in the program, they haven’t complained once. They’re out there skiing hard and having fun and coming along really well.”

Marc Johnson, a parent volunteer, said he was excited when he heard about the program. Not only does it teach kids a new skill and gets them to enjoy the outdoors, but it’s helpful for school ski programs, as well.

“It gets kids started at a young age, like they do with kids in Anchorage,” he said. “They have a pool of talent when they get into middle school and high school there.”

He said the instructors have been doing a great job of tailoring the program to the kids and their ability levels, even coming up with games they can play to keep it interesting — like sharks and minnows and a scavenger hunt.

“They make it fun for the kids to get them excited about skiing so they want to keep doing it,” he said. “They’re having a great time. Even when they crash they get right up and they’re laughing.”

Johnson’s daughter, Leah, 8, is hooked. She said she plans on being on the Kenai Central High School Kardinals ski team when she’s old enough.

“I think the trails are the funnest part,” she said. “The hills are really fun because you go so fast.”

This is the first year for the program, which was scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday nights, plus four Saturdays, from Jan. 6 through March 7. The trails association got a grant to buy 30 pairs of combination skis — waxable skis that can be used for classic or skate skiing — for kids to rent out. Next year it hopes to add poles to its stock of rental gear.

Kids start with the basics of how to wax skis, put on the boots, skis and poles, and the all-important tricks for how to stand back up once you succumb to the unavoidable combination of gravity and slippery, awkward footwear. Kids are grouped by ability level, so the more experienced skiers can work on higher-level techniques, like step turning around corners, while others practice the basics of just get getting going.

Originally, the plan was to teach four weeks of classic skiing and four weeks of skating, Pillifant said, but weather, trail conditions and ability levels have dictated the program’s progression more than initial planning.

“The younger, 6- to 8-year-olds, the beginner beginners, if they can get standing on their skies and moving any way they can, they don’t distinguish between the skate and the classic,” Pillifant said. “The older ones, they know skating is faster so they’re kind of starting to press coaches, ‘Come on, let’s go to skating.’ But the classic is just a lot of fun and they need to know that, that’s for sure, if they’re going to continue on.”

Pillifant said she’s thrilled with the response to the program, with 43 skiers ages 6 to 12 signed up (plus one 13-year-old with two younger siblings in the program). Along with the kids came a platoon of volunteers, which has been crucial in wrangling, much less teaching, so many kids.

“It’s been overwhelming the response from people and the help that we’re getting. It takes a lot of people not to leave someone on the trail or take a skier back to warm them up or help with cookies and hot chocolate,” she said.

Organizers conscripted a group of coaches — David Michael, Adam Reimer, Gigi Banas, Pillifant, Sara Hepner, Nyce and Denise Harro — and have had even more people step up every week to help, including Bill Holt keeping the trails groomed, Kelly Keating bringing a lighting system, Dr. Justin Moore and SoHi skier Jordann Nelson helping coach, parents and Skyview High School coaches and skiers helping wax, and Mary Helminski bringing cookies, cleaning up and helping with whatever else is needed. The community has also pitched in with donations when needed, Pillifant said.

“Everybody is just going crazy with helping us,” she said. “You think ahead of time, ‘Oh dear, I’ve got a lot of places to be already,’ but it’s just way different than most things that you have to be at. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s going very fast.”

Striking it rich — Setting record for marathon bowling gets man $1,000

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

Near the end of his attempt at the record, Tony Bordenelli’s badly blistered left hand was sporting a rubber glove and his right thumb was wound with wrinkled medical tape as he staggered from lane to lane in Soldotna’s new bowling alley, the Sky Bowl, sending one ball after another toward the pins at the other end of the hardwood.

Doggedly he persisted until, at 3:19 a.m. June 26, 1960, he completed his 1,002nd consecutive game, breaking the world record of 1,001 straight games set by 37-year-old Steve Karpinski of Plainville, Conn., who had completed the task in 110 hours and 7 minutes.

At that point, according to a July 8, 1960, article in The Cheechako News, Bordenelli’s wife, Eyvohn, gave him a celebratory hug and a kiss, which prompted the 45-year-old, 147-pound Bordenelli to pick up his bride and swing her around in his arms.

Then someone in the crowd of spectators called out, “Are you through?”

Bordenelli replied, “Well, I think I’ll just bowl six more games and give that fool in Connecticut something to shoot at.”

Bordenelli had bowled a 106 in game number 1,002. In the next six games, he went on to post a 112, a 107, a 115, a 104, a 133, and a 116, mostly to the cheering of spectators marveling at his endurance.

In the end, he had bowled 1,008 straight games in 79 hours and 45 minutes, averaging 101.7 pins per game and nearly 13 games an hour. By the estimate of Sky Bowl owner, Burton Carver, the right-handed Bordenelli had bowled about 40 percent of his games left-handed, including his low-score game (his 880th) of 13. His highest score for one game had been a 183.

A team of eight scorekeepers had worked in shifts to keep track of Bordenelli’s progress and to form an official record of the event. After all the numbers were tallied, they determined that Bordenelli had made 924 strikes and had knocked down a total of 102,548 pins.

Alan Phillips, who had been a 15-year-old scorekeeper during some of the evening and early morning hours, said that the attempt at the record “was the most exciting thing going on in the whole town.”

“Back in those days, the bowling alley was one of the only gathering places, other than the post office,” Philips said, and so local residents wandered in and out during all times of the day to check on Bordenelli’s progress.

After the final game, Bordenelli posed for a photograph with Carver and his trainer, Charlie Hill, who then gave the exhausted bowler a rubdown for his aching muscles. In the victory photo — which appeared on page one of the newspaper under a banner headline proclaiming his success — all three men are holding bowling balls, but Bordenelli is holding his ball with his wrists instead of his gnarled hands. Blood can be seen on his right hand, while both of his thumbs are coiled in tape.

According to Bordenelli’s good friend, Ray LaFrenere, who wrote about the incident in Once Upon the Kenai, the whole affair came about because of Bordenelli’s affinity for gambling — a predilection remembered by other area residents of that time. LaFrenere said that if his friend had been alive in the days of Skagway’s famous Soapy Smith, “I’d guess that Smith would have had to take a back seat.”

LaFrenere claimed that Bordenelli, who hailed from Colorado Springs, Colo., and owned the Jet Bar in Kenai, “bet a couple high rollers that he could bowl 1,000 games nonstop.”

That bet apparently led Bordenelli to Carver, who helped him set up the event.

They began by contacting the American Bowling Congress to find out information concerning the feat, which is how they learned of Karpinski’s mark. The Sky Bowl sponsored Bordenelli, and Carver promised him a check for $1,000 if he succeeded in breaking the record. Carver also encouraged spectators to contribute to the pot, and Bordenelli said he would give all the money to charity if he failed.

The Brunswick bowling company furnished Bordenelli with three specially fitted balls since he planned to bowl on three lanes simultaneously. He was allowed to break for 15 minutes each hour, but was not allowed to save his breaks and use them cumulatively. Plans were made to have a physician standing by in the latter stages of the attempt — just in case.

On day two, when a bloody callous had developed on the thumb of Bordenelli’s left hand, Dr. Paul Isaak arrived to remove the callous, tape the thumb and cover the digit with a protective metal guard.
Painful hands and fingers were not the first major hurdle that Bordenelli encountered, according to the newspaper. The Cheechako reported that the bowler’s biggest problem early on was his desire to sleep. Once he overcame that, the paper said, he stayed on pace for the record.

In his later years, Bordenelli moved to Anchorage, where, at the age of 89, he once again made headlines and once again demonstrated his toughness. In a 2003 article in the Anchorage Daily News is a report of Bordenelli trying to fight off an intruder in his Fairview neighborhood home. Accompanying the story is a color photograph that shows Bordenelli with a small cut on his left temple and a swirl of yellow and dark purple around his left eye.

According to the story, on the evening of June 16, he and his second wife, Patty, and their infant daughter were at home when a man burst in through the front door they had propped open to help circulate the air inside. While his wife and child hid in a closet, Bordenelli faced the intruder.

The attacker, wielding a pellet gun, shoved Bordenelli into a bathroom and onto the floor, where he straddled the elderly man, demanding money. Bordenelli kicked the man between the legs.

“That’s when he shot me,” Bordenelli told the paper, showing a reporter a bandage on his upper chest. And when he tried to rise, the attacker pistol-whipped him across the left temple before stealing money and other items from his pants pockets and fleeing the scene.

The reporter, in recounting the incident, called Bordenelli “a former boxer” and referred to a newspaper clipping of his bowling record framed on one wall.

Bordenelli, for his part, remained tough and resolute, even in defeat.

“If I saw him coming in,” he said of the intruder, “it would have been a different story.”

Lost & Found — Skiers’ mishaps don’t dampen enthusiasm for Europe trip

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Sarah Riley got a brand-new set of classic cross-country ski gear during a trip to Europe to race in two ski marathons. Justin Moore got a broken nose. That’s still better than Pete Sprague, who didn’t get there at all.

Three Soldotna skiers planned to travel to the Czech Republic earlier this month to participate in the 50-kilometer Jizerská padesátka on Jan. 11 and the 60-K freestyle Dolomitenlauf in Austria on Jan. 18, but between lost baggage, cultural experiences and a Czech Olympic Nordic ski medalist saving the day, the races weren’t even the highlight.

For Riley, the races were going to be her first ever long-distance events, and she was anxious to see if she could make it through. She did, “despite the airport’s best efforts not to let me ski,” she said.

“Air France lost my skis. They said, ‘We have no idea where your bag is. Whether your bag is full of gold or skies, we have no idea where it is,’” she said.

She called her mom, who suggested Riley call her friend, Pavel Nuc, for help. But Nuc, who Riley met in high school when he was a foreign exchange student, lived three hours away so she didn’t figure he couldn’t help her. Turns out Riley and her mom were both right, and wrong.

When she got to Liberec, where the Jizerská was held, she quickly found out that with 4,800 people in town for the ski races and massive airline baggage handling snafus, she couldn’t find any skis to borrow.

“There wasn’t a rental to be had, but from what I heard, the rentals they did have looked like they skied across gravel,” she said.

She found a woman who considered her situation, then pointed to a guy and said, “This is a nice young man. He will help you.”

His name was Pavel, the same as her friend. He took her to a ski shop owned by a Czech 1988 Nordic ski Olympic medalist, who set her up with all the classic ski gear she needed. The shop’s name was Nyc, but she misread the sign and thought it was Nuc, the same as her friend Pavel’s last name.

“It’s like it was fated to happen,” she said.

The race went well, Riley said, with her finishing in 4 hours, 23 minutes. Her ski bag showed up the next day, so she was ready for the 60-K freestyle Dolomitenlauf. She’d waxed her skis before she left for the trip and had no idea if they’d match the snow conditions. They did — almost a little too well.

“I stepped on my skies and they were so fast, I was flying down the course. About 10 K in I was passing people and my ski tip got stuck in deep snow and in less than a second I was like 180 degrees around. I just flipped so fast, but I followed through with the rest of my body,” Riley said.

With her knee wrenched she didn’t get back up to the same speed as when she started the race, but she still finished in 4:01 which put her 17th in the women’s division.
Having an Alaska ski uniform on during the 60-K made her somewhat of a celebrity at rest stops.

“They would yell, ‘Yeah Alaska! Go Obama!’” she said.

People’s overall friendliness was one of the most noteworthy things about the trip, Riley said.

“All the tourism books say to watch out because people aren’t necessarily nice or helpful, but I don’t think I met anyone who wasn’t overly helpful,” she said. “Everybody was just so nice it kind of makes you want to go back. Everywhere else I’ve been they’re not so friendly.”

Interactions with other people were the highlight of the trip for Moore, as well.
“Just to talk to people around the world about politics and history and what’s like in other countries, especially central Europe, which we never really think about,” Moore said. “Every day was like a living history lesson, which Americans don’t get a lot of, so it was probably the best trip I’ve ever done.”

That’s not to say everything went off without a hitch. Moore’s skies got lost, as well. He found some gear to borrow, but the skies didn’t fit and the poles were about 6 inches too short. Luckily, his gear turned up the day before the Jizerská race, although his wife, Orie, didn’t get her bags until the end of the trip.

“Everything she meticulously packed for didn’t show up, but it really didn’t matter. It all worked out fine,” he said. “I suppose the lesson is, carry on everything you can carry on trips like that.”

Having the gear he was used to didn’t entirely make up for the fact that Moore wasn’t completely used to classic skiing.

“It was a four-hour learning event. I didn’t classic ski before this 50 K. I think I practiced for like three weeks, so it was my education,” he said. “Everybody I skied beside had a different technique, so I’d try this technique and try that technique.

“It was fun. I had a really good time. But I think I probably broke my nose. I spent all my time learning how to go uphill and not downhill, so I had four big crashes.”

He got in a few high-speed impacts going down hills in classic tracks surrounded by other skiers.

“I was over my head. I tried to slow down and I was running up on people’s skies and didn’t know how to slow down. Going up I did fine, and on flats, but going down —that was too much. … I talked to people afterward about what to do when you’re going too fast, so I learned a little late.”

The 60-K Dolomitenlauf went more smoothly. Moore saw about 10 broken poles along the course, but none were his. He finished in 3:28, and was resting at the finish line, feeling pretty happy with himself, when his accomplishment got put into perspective.

“About an hour later an 87-year-old man comes in, then right after him a blind skier comes in led by another guy with radio,” Moore said. “That was pretty inspirational to see a guy come in and complete a technical course with no sight. It’s amazing and pretty humbling. It’s like, so what?”

While Moore was getting a new outlook on accomplishment, Sprague was back in the U.S., getting a lesson in overcoming disappointment.

He had planned to go to the Czech Republic for a week do the Jizerská race, then come back to Soldotna so he wouldn’t miss a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, of which he is a member. But Seattle is as far as he got. His flight schedule to Seattle changed and he was only able to check his bag as far as Seattle. He got there, but his bag — with his skis — didn’t.

“It never showed up at the time that I had to get on the plane to Prague. I wasn’t going to go there with my passport and my camera and the clothes on my back for a week, which was very irritating and disappointing, to say the least,” Sprague said. “It just seemed like things weren’t working out. A lot of people said I should go anyway. It was a tough decision, but things were just piling up, unfortunately.”

Though he was dissuaded in his first attempt at international travel, it won’t be his last.

“Skiing for me wasn’t the focus, it was the trip and seeing someplace new,” he said. “I’m going to go, for sure.”

Raising the roof — Dome group wants to create service area to generate funds for indoor sports facility

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

The Tuttles, of Nikiski, are a soccer family. Dan coaches the Under-14 Sweetfeet in the Kenai Peninsula Soccer Club, and Denise is assistant manager. Four kids play year-round, with two participating in a league that requires frequent trips to Anchorage. The oldest daughter participates in the Olympic Development Program, which involves camps held throughout Alaska during the winter as part of the team selection process.

The kids work hard and love the game, but that alone isn’t enough to bridge the widening gap between peninsula soccer teams and teams from Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna area and Juneau.

Tuttle says that gap is the length of a full soccer field, has a roof overhead, lights and heat, and is blanketed in artificial turf. It’s a place to play year-round.

She and about 30 other central peninsula residents attended an informational meeting Thursday at the Kenai Merit Inn to voice their support for the peninsula’s own 175,000-square-foot dome.

“The rate at which the clubs we compete with are developing, we will be falling behind rapidly without a facility of our own,” Tuttle said. “The difference between an elementary school gym and turf is like apples and oranges, you cannot compare the two.”

Anchorage, Wasilla and Juneau have indoor turf fields where sports like soccer, track and field, baseball and softball can not only start practices on time — instead of waiting for snow, ice and mud to recede in the spring — but they can keep up their skills in the winter, too.

On the central peninsula, outdoor spring sports teams with schools practice in gyms, hallways or wherever else they can find space until their fields are dry and ready for them. Youth programs, like the Kenai Peninsula Soccer Club and Boys and Girls Club soccer program, only get a few months playtime outside when Alaska conditions allow it. After that, it’s either pack it up until next year, or jockey for indoor gym space, which isn’t ideal even when teams can find it.

“Redoubt Elementary has been the most willing to give us time but as our girls have grown, so have their kicks,” Tuttle said of the Sweetfeet team. “It is too small for the 16 girls we roster, making it very difficult to truly practice as needed to compete.”

The solution Tuttle would like to see is an indoor sports facility on the central peninsula, like the 174,290-square-foot, air-supported facility at Changepoint Church in Anchorage, called The Dome.

“Since the (Anchorage) dome has opened, the level of play between our area and those with indoor facilities has grown an even larger gap. It would be nice to give our local talent an arena to shine in and grow as athletes,” Tuttle said.

A local group has been meeting throughout the fall and winter to discuss the possibility and look at ways to make it feasible. At Thursday’s meeting, spokesperson Mike Navarre said the group would like to sell 25-year bonds to finance the project and create a service area with the same boundaries as the Central Peninsula Hospital service area to pay for the dome through tax dollars.

The envisioned dome would be about the same size as the one in Anchorage, only configured differently so it could have designated spectator seating. They also want removable turf to allow for basketball and other nonfield events. The estimated construction cost is $20 million.

Navarre said the group estimates a half mill increase in property taxes would cover the amount needed to build the facility and provide money to help pay to run it. A half-mill tax increase, which would cost the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 an extra $50 a year, would generate $2 million a year. Most of that — $1.4 million — would cover the debt service each year, with $600,000 left to help cover annual operational costs. Navarre said they expect operational costs to exceed $600,000, but plan to make up the difference with user fees. They’d set rates based on how much extra they’d need to raise to run the facility.

While the group does want to follow in Anchorage’s footsteps in building a sports dome, it doesn’t want to end up in financial trouble a year after opening — as Anchorage’s dome is facing a $600,000 shortfall in operational funds.

It would be a mistake for the peninsula to expect to build a facility through legislative money, grants and donations alone, and to pay to run it primarily through user fees, Navarre said. Anchorage’s dome costs $600 an hour to rent for an event, he said.

“For a facility like this, our idea is that a service area is really the only way this area can support it. Local sports teams, they’re constantly out raising money just to have enough money to have the activity. What we want to do is charge for the use of the facility, but make the fees reasonable enough that people can use it,” he said.

The group does hope to get grants, donations and legislative funds to finance a large chunk of the project, and the more financial support they get, the less bonds will be needed. But Navarre said the group wants to be open with the public about all the costs involved, in case grants and donations don’t come in as hoped.

“We don’t want to mislead the public. We’re introducing realistic costs and talking about all the reasons why it’s a good idea. At the end of the day, they get to make the choice,” Navarre said.

The group has been gathering letters of support from a diverse group of potential users, everyone from local sports programs to Homer teams and even Triumvirate Theatre, which would like to do “outdoor” shows there in the winter.

“Think outside the box. It’s kind of exciting to think about all the things that can be done,” said Kathy Gensel, co-chair of the dome facility committee.

Youth and high school sports uses alone would be myriad. Such a facility can include soccer fields, a football field, batting cages, a baseball and/or softball diamond, a track and a basketball court. It could allow the peninsula to host major sports tournaments and teams to practice year-round. Adult recreational sports could also find a home there.

But the public has to buy into the benefits of a dome to agree to more taxes to pay for it. Navarre sees it as an extension of the community’s existing support for kids.

“Those in the business community know that (sports teams) are out soliciting all the time — all the time,” Navarre said. “… It comes out of the community one way or another, and by having a service area we can spread the cost for what we see as a cost of living issue over a broad base.”

To form a service area, the group needs approval from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly to put the question on the ballot. They hope to complete a feasibility study this winter, with money from the hospital community fund and a previous fundraiser, and approach the assembly in May to get the issue on the October ballot. If it passes, construction could start during the 2010 building season, Navarre said.

There are likely to be some sticking points in garnering public support. One is the concern that the dome, with a $20 million price tag, isn’t a necessity at a time when the economy is stumbling.

But Navarre said he thinks this is a good time to pursue the project.

“Alaska has lots of opportunity still for growth and expansion,’ he said. “The Kenai Peninsula community is going to grow, and this is a 25-year project — it’s going to be here for a long time.”

Navarre said he expects the economic woes of the Lower 48 will impact Alaska to some degree, but not as extensively as is happening elsewhere. And he said he sees the possibility of further oil development and natural gas line construction on the horizon, as well as continued demand for an indoor facility.

“We’re talking about a 25-year project, and the economy’s going to go up and down over time, and global warming isn’t going to happen quite soon enough,” Navarre said. “It’s still going to be cold in the winter, so for 25 years, this makes sense.”

Where to put the facility may also become an issue. The group is hoping the borough will donate land — five acres for the facility and another five for parking — somewhere between Kenai and Soldotna.

“Kenai wants it in Kenai, Soldotna wants it in Soldotna. If we find a neutral ground, the politics of the situation are that we’re likely to get more support. There’s only going to be one facility, we’re really going to have to share,” he said.

So far, Navarre and Gensel said they’ve gotten wide-ranging support from government, schools and community organization representatives. The real test will be on the ballot.

“We’re pretty broad in terms of the numbers of people that we have talked to at this stage,” Navarre said. “We’ve got a good broad base of support. It has to go before the assembly and the assembly has to approve it to put it on the ballot and it has to pass. The public gets to decide this. That’s how this works.”

Coed to cross-cultural — Hockey becomes ticket to international experience

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

When Whitney Ischi stepped on the ice to play hockey in Switzerland in September, she wasn’t quite the same as the rest of the players.

The rules of the game were different from what she was used to, for one thing. And being from Kenai, she wasn’t familiar with the culture, much less any of the languages spoken there. She couldn’t even talk to the coach.

But if she let differences from the rest of her team stop her from playing hockey, she wouldn’t have gotten that far in the first place.

Ischi, 19, grew up in Kenai, playing hockey since she was 5 with the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association, and high school hockey at Kenai Central and Soldotna high schools. Being one of the few female players on the peninsula, it was either play with the boys, or not play.

“All through growing up I was basically the only girl down here on the peninsula that played. There weren’t many girls, and there were no girls teams down here to play on,” she said. “But it was difficult growing up being a girl playing hockey. A lot of people thought it wasn’t a place for girls to play.”
Ischi’s mother, Val, said she and her husband, Peter, encouraged Whitney to play, just as they did their son, Phillip.

“For us, we wanted the kids to do something they loved to do and something that was positive for them to do and helped take up their extra time,” Val said. “We spent a lot of money and a lot of time on it, but for us it was worth it. We didn’t have to worry about the kids getting into trouble. That was our goal. If it ended up being something they did after high school, great, but it was just something for the kids to do and not be couch potatoes.”

Even though she supported her daughter’s interest in hockey, Val said she was surprised that Whitney stuck with the sport.

“I think with it being typically not a girls sport and her having to play with the boys, I thought when she hit Peewee level and they started checking, this would be the point where she said, ‘That’s enough,’ and didn’t want to do this anymore,” Val said.

“The thing was, you are a girl. So, number one, you’re going to have to be a little tougher out there. And no whining. When you step on the ice, you’re a hockey player, you’re not a girl because you chose to play,” she said.

Whitney kept on playing through Peewee checking, through high school where the skaters got faster and bigger, through a girls competition league for Team Alaska and during a year of college in Minnesota.

“So far she’s done well and any injuries she’s had is against the girls,” Val said. “She had knee surgery from playing soccer, and went into the boards against girls. Go figure, you know?”

After her first year in college, Whitney wasn’t sure where she wanted to go with her education.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do this year. I wanted to take a year off school to figure it out. I didn’t want to waste another year of my family’s money,” she said.

Her older brother, Phillip, played pro hockey for Visp in Switzerland’s National League B for the past two seasons, and talked to his agent about a girls league. The teams are only allowed two “import,” or foreign, players, but both Whitney and Phillip got dual citizenship so they could play. This year, Phillip is playing for Crans-Montana and Whitney is playing for Kussnacht Rigi in the amateur Ladies A League.

Even though Whitney has family connections to Switzerland, she ended up there alone in September. Phillip didn’t head over for his season until Whitney was on her way back to Kenai for holiday break. Their grandmother had a condo in Switzerland, but she spends half the year in Hawaii.

Other then a family trip when she was 10, Whitney had never been to Europe. She doesn’t speak any of the languages spoken in Switzerland — French, Italian, German and Romansh. Her cell phone didn’t work and she didn’t have Internet access when she got there. She doesn’t have a car and the public transportation system was unfamiliar.

But she’s adjusted. There’s a translator on her team that helps her communicate when she’s in practice or games, and she’s taking German lessons. She’s got the transportation system figured out, and Phillip will be there when she gets back in January. She plans to travel with him for a month after hockey season is over in March.

“I really like Switzerland a lot,” Whitney said. “The whole other culture thing and how they go through life is different. Traveling on the transit system and the trains, that was very difficult at first, but now I like them.”

Her next moves are starting to fall into place. Whitney plans to take online classes next year to pursue a career as an X-ray technician. She may move back to Alaska someday, since her family is still here. Her parents own the Dairy Queen in Soldotna.

As for hockey, she plans to keep it a part of her life.

“It’s so different from other sports,” Whitney said. “… There’s so many different places that it takes you. You play people from all over. It’s so unexpected. There’s no certain plan. I can go any direction I want and can continue to do it anywhere, really.

“I’ll continue to keep playing for a couple more years, and if something else happens, something else happens.”

Whatever direction Whitney ends up going, Val expects she’ll skate down it with the same determination she’s showed in playing hockey.

“She’s very focused, very driven. There’s not a doubt in my mind she’ll succeed at it. If she couldn’t take it, she would be done. It was really her choice to do and she has just succeeded in it. She sets herself goals and she’s sure she’s going to attain them, and good for her,” Val said.

Phillip, who will be 23 in February, wants to see how far he can go in hockey, Val said.

“He found what he loves doing, and I wish him all the success in it,” she said. “Pete and I both have encouraged the kids to do it, mainly because how many people get that kind of experience? And learning the culture and all of those kinds of things is good. You might as well do it when you’re young and don’t have anything holding you back.”

That’s Whitney’s philosophy.

“Keep your mind open to any opportunity that comes your way,” she said. “Any chance to do something different, just take it. You always have your life to live afterward, but you can only be young once.”

Having Zum fun — Latin dance-inspired workout is high-energy exercise

By Ann Marina
For the Redoubt Reporter

Participants of the Soldotna Community Schools program had a chance to learn a leading-edge exercise routine coming all the way from Colombia to Alaska.

Zumba (ZOOM-bah) blends spicy Latin dance moves into a creative aerobic session.

“It gets people smiling, and their endorphins start flowing,” said Cannetta Lloyd, a Soldotna fitness instructor who leads the classes.

Hips gyrate, shoulders shimmy and feet hop and slide across the floor. Zumba includes calypso, salsa, merengue and other international tempos. Derived from Spanish words, Zumba means “move fast and have fun.”

A few years ago, Lloyd was introduced to the workout at a national fitness convention in Las Vegas.

“I was blown away,” she said. “The moves are fluid, and people sway with the music.”

For more than 12 years, Lloyd has offered a variety of dance-related classes on the central Kenai Peninsula.

“Zumba is a lot more interesting than doing 30 reps of something,” she said.

Lyndy Wackler, of Soldotna, took the Zumba class and was surprised by how engaging it is.

“It’s not so easy that you get bored of it. It’s high impact, but it’s so fun you don’t even realize what a workout it is,” she said. “It’s nice to kind of include your mind, too.”

She attended the last Zumba class held Dec. 16, but was able to step right in with the rest of the group.

“I think it’s neat because (Lloyd) shows all levels. She goes back and forth so you can see beginning, intermediate and advanced moves,” she said.

Zumba’s originator, Miami choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez, brought the innovation to Florida from his native country of Colombia in 1999. It was actually by chance that he developed the workout.

In the mid-1990s, Perez led cardio classes in Colombia. One day he forgot to bring the music CDs for his aerobics group. He raced back to his car, grabbed a few favorite Latin recordings, and Zumba was born.

“My class members enjoyed that improvised session, and encouraged me to keep developing a workout set to Latin dance music,” Perez said in a recent e-mail interview.

Once it hit the U.S., Zumba’s popularity soared. Perez teamed up with Miami entrepreneurs Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, creating a global company based on the Zumba fitness philosophy.

“They’ve channeled this energy into a business that benefits instructors, employees and consumers,” Perez said. “It’s a win-win-win.”

“I really want to acknowledge our instructors,” he added. “Their success is what makes Zumba grow.”

Ten thousand instructors are now certified to lead Zumba in the U.S., along with 5,000 in other countries. The Zumba DVD has sold over 3 million copies.

“It’s possible to burn a thousand calories in one session,” Perez said. “But people of any fitness level can enjoy Zumba. It’s OK if you miss a step — as long as you’re moving, you’re keeping fit.”

Zumba’s popularity arose as Latin dance started gaining a following on reality TV shows, like “Dancing with the Stars.”

Working with Kellogg’s to reach the Hispanic market in the United States and abroad, Zumba has been featured on more than 1.5 million boxes of Special K cereal. A Spanish-language infomercial was launched in more than 30 countries in 2004, resulting in a huge boost of DVD sales.

Zumba Fitness Company shares the fruits of its success through annual “Zumbathons.” In 2006, the first Zumbathon in Miami raised money for breast cancer research and treatments. The event drew nearly a thousand participants.

This year, Zumbathons were held in several cities to benefit agencies working to prevent domestic violence and assist victims of abuse.

While providing a cardio workout, Zumba shapes and strengthens the abdominal area.
“The movements sculpt your powerhouse of core stability — the abs,” Lloyd said.

“It works your glutes, inner and outer thighs, arms and toes,” she laughed. “No, really, it’s so much fun that you forget you’re working out.”

Lloyd will offer more classes in the new year. For information, contact Community Schools Director Carmen Triana at 262-3151, ext. 24, or e-mail ctriana@ci.soldotna.ak.us.

Freelance writer Ann Marina is a former resident of the central peninsula.

Never too late to skate — Son’s interest in hockey gets dad on the ice

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Peter Klauder wasn’t completely unfamiliar with hockey before he joined a Tier II Rusty Blades hockey team this winter.

But his prior experience wasn’t exactly extensive.

“I’ve skated on ponds, like three or four times in my life,” he said of his childhood in Ohio. “We played hockey a little bit, maybe. I don’t know if we even had a hockey stick. I remember somebody’s mom playing goalie with a broomstick.”

But when Klauder’s 13-year-old son, Sage, decided he wanted to play hockey last December, Klauder decided to give it a try, too.

“My son, out of the blue, came up and said, ‘I want to play hockey.’ I said, ‘Great. The season’s half over, but let’s go check it out.’”

Sage was able to join a team in the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association, and Klauder shoveled off a section of the lake they live by for a practice rink.

“We were playing one on one and I was laughing so hard I’d be crying having so much fun,” Klauder said.

His friend, Shorty Lawrence, talked him into joining Rusty Blades, the adult hockey league at the Soldotna Sports Center. Not only did he need to hone his skating skills, but he was fuzzy on hockey in general.

“I was scared to death out there. I really had never played hockey. I didn’t know any of the rules,” he said.

He’s progressed past getting a penalty for standing in the wrong spot. Now he’s on to the finer points of the game, like avoiding collisions.

“Oh, man. I’m really a terrible hockey player, but I suppose I’m getting a little bit better. It’s just so much fun. It’s such a kick. There’s no checking, which is nice. As long as I don’t hurt myself running into things and other people, I’m having a blast,’ he said.

Klauder played soccer in high school and college, and he likes that hockey is similarly filled with action.

“It’s exciting, it’s fast, it’s a real adrenaline rush,” he said. “It’s constant action. There’s no break, there’s no lull, you just go full speed when you’re playing hockey. You go all out, take a quick little break and go all out again.”

Rusty Blades has a Tier I program for advanced players, and Tier II for the more recreational ones. Klauder likes that it isn’t a super competitive environment. He certainly doesn’t get caught up in the team’s record, the length of the season or the scores of recent games.

“Oh boy, all these technical questions,” he said.

Still, hockey now plays a big role in his family’s life in the winter. He and his son weren’t hockey fans before, but they are now. Klauder and Sage watch Brown Bears games, and they both like starting pickup games for practice. Klauder watches Sage’s Bantam games, and said Sage has turned into a good skater — “he can twirl around me,” Klauder said.

“It’s a great, fun thing to go do with my son. I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t for him,” Klauder said. “It’s made winter for me. It gives me something to do in the winter that’s a lot of fun.”

Anyone with some skating experience — even if it involves neighbors’ mothers and broomsticks — is welcome to give it a try.

“You need to be able to skate a little bit. It is a competitive sport,” Klauder said. “It’s all about being energetic and going after it, but, golly, if you’ve got someone who’s energetic and knows how to skate, you should definitely go for it.”

Have a ball — Harlem Ambassadors bringing high-flying basketball fun

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

When playing against the Harlem Ambassadors, being a good sport is better than being good at sports.

The professional show basketball team puts on charity games that are part basketball competition, part comedy act. They’ll perform at Skyview High School on Saturday, facing a team of central peninsula players, as a fundraiser for Cook Inlet Academy’s athletics department.

“It’s an event where you’ve got these players who are very highly skilled in what they do going up against folks that have maybe touched a basketball once or twice in their life. The crowd definitely falls in love with them. The local team kind of turns into the bad guys, in a sense,” said Matt Wilson, of Soldotna.

Wilson was part of a celebrity team that played against the Ambassadors in Kodiak two years ago as a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.

“At the time I was on the radio there, so they asked, ‘Do you want to make a fool of yourself in front of everyone in town?’ And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’”

On Saturday he can try that shot again, since he was recruited to play for the central peninsula team.

Wilson works at KSRM Radio Group now, and met with CIA Principal Mary Rowley when she came to the station to work out advertising for the game. He mentioned he’d played with the Ambassadors before. That was all it took to get him signed up to play again.

“She’s like, ‘You’re in.’ I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ She’s like, ‘No, great. We need another player, you’re in.’”

Wilson said he has no experience at basketball, other than the occasional weekend community pickup game. With the attention he’s gotten from his co-workers about the game, he’ll either have to acquire some skills or a thick skin before Saturday.

“Everybody’s making fun of the fact, ‘Come see Matt make a fool of himself.’ Now the pressure is building to either deliver or make a fool of myself,” he said.

Wilson isn’t worried about winning the game. That’s not really what it’s about. The score of the Kodiak game is eclipsed in Wilson’s memory by the tricks and skills the Ambassadors displayed, although the highlights of the game didn’t have anything to do with clean, straightforward basketball.

“I shot a 3-pointer and they smacked it out of my hands. The ref just kind of looks at me and says, ‘Oh, I didn’t see that,’” Wilson said.

Rowley said she’s looking forward to a fun night.

“Matt said they were just laughing so hard down in Kodiak, they just had the best time. You can’t take something like that too seriously,” she said.

CIA’s athletic director came up with the idea to host the Ambassadors as a fundraiser, Rowley said. Local businesses sponsor the event to pay to bring the team to Soldotna, and money from ticket sales will be used by the school’s athletic department. She said it’s turned out to be a positive fundraiser, but she was skeptical at first.

“Being a principal of a nonprofit school, you always look at the practical side of things, but as we’ve gotten into it it’s very exciting because they’ve been very helpful,” she said. “They’ve got a very comprehensive program that gives you timelines, good marketing hints. … I think it’s going to be really a fabulous, fun, family night for our community.”

The school invited some past CIA basketball alumni for the team, and others in the community who’d developed reputations around open gym for being good players. They didn’t get a single “no,” Rowley said.

Also playing are Noah Shields, Jacob Peterson, Jason Hofseth, Reid Kornstad, David Holloway, Ryan Baldridge, Matt Johnson, Kara Johnson, Nick Christenson, Chet Nettles, Rob Smithwick, James Arness and Jeremiah Taylor.

Wilson may have been tempted to turn down the offer, but he said he was willing to suffer some embarrassment for a good community cause.

“There sometimes isn’t a lot of activities to do in the winter to get the whole family out to participate in,” he said. “I think it’s a good opportunity, whether you’re 1 or 101, to go to something like this and enjoy this event.

“And the timing they picked for this is good because basketball season starts in the next couple weeks. With high school basketball starting, it’s a nice way to segue into the basketball season on the peninsula.”

The Harlem Ambassadors will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Skyview High School. Advance tickets, available at CIA, are $10 for adults and $5 for kids ages 4 to 8. Tickets at the door are $12 for adults and $6 for kids.