Colorful combat — Paintball business opens field of play

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. A skull-masked player advances down the field while taking heavy fire at the Pointblank paintball course May 25. The new course is located off Kalifornsky Beach Road.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

On the central Kenai Peninsula, the term “combat” is often used to describe the hordes of fishermen that line the banks of various streams when salmon are running. But May 25, combat took a more literal meaning in a field of grass, sand and obstacles off of Kalifornsky Beach Road.

Other than the preponderance of camo gear, the group of guys gathered Saturday morning didn’t seem out of the ordinary, being students, employees, employers, sons and fathers. But as operations began, they donned another mantle — that of soldier, armed with their weapon of choice, the paintball gun.

“Who’s hungry?” shouted one player while taking to the 110-by-250-foot field of the new Pointblank paintball course. “Because I’m ready to feed somebody paint!”

Behind him, the rest of his team and the opposing crew were outfitted in SWAT-like protective gear and masks — at least one bearing a resemblance to a skull to strike fear into his enemies — and all carrying various forms of paint-propelling firearms, including a few designed to look like AK-47s or AR-15s.

One of the owners of the new course, got in on a few matches. He said this is one of the best aspect of paintball — that people of all ages, sizes and experience levels can play at the same time.

When the official sounded the start of the match through a bullhorn, controlled chaos ensued. A hailstorm of hundreds of small, blue rounds flew in all directions as some of the guns — technically called “markers” — had the ability to shoot as many as 16 balls per second at a speed of nearly 300 feet per second. The growling shouts of teams directing their assaults were punctuated by the frequent “pop-pop-pop-pop” of rounds being fired.

There were intense, close-quarters maneuvers throughout the field, peppered with stacks of tires and large wooden spools providing scant cover. An assailant would turn a corner to find himself face to face with an adversary he had to shoot before getting shot first. Shooters often found themselves close enough to see the whites, and surprise, in the eyes of their opponents.

“I’ll probably go through 4,000 rounds today,” said John Revis, 25, of Sterling, who was playing with several of his AK Ragnarok teammates. Having gotten into paintball roughly 11 years ago, Revis has evolved into an upper-echelon player of the sport, competing in numerous tournaments around the state and in the Lower 48, some with as many as 7,000 players.

“I go to the gym, run and exercise year-round to stay in shape for this,” he said.

Path to a parks plan — Soldotna issues draft parks, trails master plan

File photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. A runner in the Kenai River Marathon heads down Bridge Access Road with the mountains flanking Cook Inlet behind her.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

If you live in the Soldotna area and are recreation- or activity-minded, chances are you’ve thought at least one of the following:

It’d sure be nice to have longer stretches to walk along the Kenai River.

It’s too bad the Unity Trail doesn’t continue through Soldotna, so we don’t have to walk, run or ride a bike right alongside the Sterling Highway.

I wish there were an indoor place to walk, or some turf on which to practice soccer before the snow melts.

It’d be great if teens had more maintained, supervised places to hang out and recreate.

Can’t someone do something to make the Sterling-Kenai Spur highways “Y” intersection less of a pain for pedestrians and bicyclists?

Or the big one — it would be so great to get back and forth from Kenai Peninsula College and downtown Soldotna without having to go all the way around Kalifornsky Beach Road to the Sterling Highway to the David Douthit Memorial Bridge over the Kenai River.

Well, Soldotna, that wishful thinking is on a path to being granted, with the Soldotna Parks and Trails planning process nearing completion. After reviewing past planning efforts, meeting with stakeholder and user groups, conferring with partner agencies and organizations, and soliciting input through a public survey, Casey Planning and Design has released a semifinal, 75 percent-complete draft Soldotna Parks and Trails Master Plan.

An open house will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Soldotna Sports Center, where the public can view the draft plan and its recommendations, ask questions and provide feedback. The draft plan, map and associated documents also will be available on the city of Soldotna’s website. The plan is open for review and public comment through May 10. Planners will contact season-specific recreational user groups over the summer — which might not have been thoroughly represented in the survey conducted this winter — for more input, then submit the plan to the city council for approval next fall.

“We want to keep it at a level of ‘What about?’ As opposed to, ‘Why didn’t they?’ At this point it’s still dynamic,” said Andrew Carmichael, city of Soldotna Parks and Recreation director.

Support for good sports — Special Olympics seeks help from community

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Special Olympics athlete Bryce Braun is all smiles while taking part in a swimming practice for the Central Peninsula Special Olympics Team at Skyview High School last week. He is aided by Alanna Hutto, but the whole team is in need of financial aid for the games to continue this season.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

Walking into many area businesses, it is not uncommon to find pictures on the wall from various events and teams sponsored, from traditional sports like baseball, football and soccer, to more uniquely Alaska events, such as mushing, and even the occasional stock car racer will garner local support.

One pool of athletes who could use more pictures on walls, and the accompanying support, are athletes preparing for the Special Olympics. As practice for their games begins to ratchet up this month, everything from volunteers, to uniforms and financial assistance is needed to get them through another successful season.

“We’re just beginning eight weeks of training in basketball, swimming and bowling, and we need support to offset the costs of things like going to the bowling alley, using the pool, etc; but also we need the support so they can continue to have these opportunities,” said Tina Strayhorn, an organizer of Central Peninsula Special Olympics Team, one of 17 teams that make up the broader Special Olympics Alaska division, which encompasses roughly 400 athletes who compete annually.

“We’re just beginning to put together the teams, looking at their individual skills and seeing what they’re best at,” Strayhorn said.

Dozens of athletes from Hope Community Resources, Frontier Community Services, Peninsula Community Heath Services and various other support agencies make up the teams, and athletes range in age from 8 to adult.

“We have some athletes in their 60s,” Strayhorn said.

Bowled over by support — Scholastic league benefits from donations, fundraisers

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Mason Yamada, Keenan Orth and Morgan Bilyeu share a few laughs during a 1970s-themed night of bowling Saturday at Alaskalanes Family Bowling Center in Kenai. The event was a fundraiser for the youth who are all members of the Kenai Peninsula Scholastic League of bowlers.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

Standing in front of crowd can be embarrassing for teenagers. Making your way to the front of a room full of your peers with “Disco Fever” blaring, while wearing a neon pink Velour leisure suit with a leopard-pattern lapel, and donning a giant floppy pimp hat, well, that would be awkward for anyone, regardless of age.

Mason Yamada handled this exact situation with poise Saturday at Alaskalanes Family Bowling Center in Kenai, where he was recognized for his pin-pounding prowess during a 1970s-themed night of bowling to raise money for him and several other young bowlers.

“Bowling is my sport. It’s what I do and I love it,” he said.

Yamada, one of eight middle- and high-school-aged youths involved in the Kenai Peninsula Scholastic League of bowlers, recently pitched a perfect 300 game — a tough task for any bowler. In addition to the bragging rights from his accomplishment, he also gained some green to one day be used for college tuition.

“The way it works is local businesses, adult bowlers and leagues support the kids, putting money into scholarship funds. This is our sixth year, but over the last five years we’ve given out between $15,000 and $20,000 in scholarship money,” said event organizer Kathy Waterbury.

Alaskans Ambush Las Vegas — Women’s hockey takes ice skills to the desert

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Alaska Ambush coaches Shannon Murray, right, and Heidi Hanson jostle for the puck during a practice scrimmage last year.

Redoubt Reporter

Vegas, baby! That’s where 12 local ladies are heading this week. But not for gambling or a wild trip with the girls — at least not in the usual sense. The women, all members of the Alaska Ambush hockey team, are headed to take part in the sold-out 2013 Las Vegas Women’s Hockey Classic.

“And we’re going to win,” said Heidi Hanson, who doubles as both a player and coach for the team.
Having attended multiple Vegas tournaments over the years, Hanson remembers just a few years ago when the Kenai-Soldotna based team nearly took it all in the nine-bracket, 42-team, 71-game, three-day event.

“When we went in ’05 we were very competitive. We went into double overtime in the final game and lost by one point, and we didn’t have a team like now,” she said.

This year’s team headed to Vegas is made up of Hanson, Jenica Rose, Vicki VinZant, Dawn Lesterson, Brooke Ames, Shonia Werner, Julie Powell Tree, Lacey Wisniewski, Marcy True, Karen Martinelli, Brandi Urban and Beth Selinger. And, while there are two other teams going from Alaska, Hanson said that she has high hopes it will be the Ambush bringing home the cup.

“This year’s team is very competitive. We have a lot of strengths. So I’d be pretty surprised if we didn’t end up in the championships,” she said.

Coach’s Corner: First climb up, next glide down

By Alan Boraas, for the Redoubt Reporter

Uphill and downhill technique between classic and skate, or freestyle, cross-country skiing is much the same in some respects. Gravity is gravity, and exertion is needed to overcome it. But the devil, and differences, is in the details.

Uphill

Skate skiing technique for skiing uphill is modulated depending on the angle of the hill. The steeper the hill, the quicker the tempo, the shorter the arm swing and the shorter the glide.

Soldotna High School skiers crouch into different degrees of tucks to get down a hill during the Homer Invitational ski meet on Dec. 16.

The same, step-glide technique holds true for uphills as it does for flats — step up the hill, then glide on the opposite ski. The pattern is just sped up into a quicker tempo with shorter steps and glides to maintain speed

.

Step wider and squat lower to get more leg power, and bend at the ankles to create a forward lean into the hill to compensate for steepness.

The steeper the hill, the more you should repeat this mantra: “lower, shorter, quicker.”

Trial and air — Skate, bike culture taking off in area

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Gaden Ames does a backflip high over the Soldotna Skate Park during the third annual Soldotna Bike, Skate and Scooter Challenge on Sept. 29.

Redoubt Reporter

The math hardly seems worth it: Weeks, months to even years of hours-on-end practice where even the slightest hair’s breadth of a mistake can have painful, bruise-forming, skin abrading, bone-jarring repercussions. The expense of fixing, replacing and upgrading gear that is constantly taking a beating. Putting up with stereotypes presuming delinquency and suspect moral character, simply because of a chosen activity.

All in pursuit of a payoff that lasts a measly fraction to a couple of seconds — the time it takes to execute a spin, grind, tail whip or any of the other tricks a rider of a bike, skateboard or scooter can dream up.

But what a ride those few seconds entail, whether it’s the first tentative

KC Hordemann lays his bike sideways off a ramp during one of his runs.

attempts to dislodge wheels from ground, or launching 20 feet in the air to bend the bounds of gravity with a soaring superman or back flip. And landing, upright, ready to build up more speed and take off again.

The rush of speed, the whoosh of being airborne, the tight control over grip, limbs and wheels, the sense of accomplishment of executing a maneuver that’s taken tens, hundreds or thousands of wipeouts to achieve. Sometimes, that’s

Gaden Ames does a foot jam tail whip during one of his runs.

all there is — effort and achievement playing out as a solo soundtrack. But more and more often at the Soldotna Skate Park these days, there are other riders around to witness both the battle to learn a trick and the accomplishment of nailing it.

And on Sept. 29, a communitywide, all-ages crowd wrapped around the installation of rails, platforms and ramps at the skate park for the third annual Soldotna Bike, Skate and Scooter Challenge, with not only cheers of encouragement for the riders, but food, T-shirts, trophies and the clear understanding that what these kids do is as challenging as it is worth supporting.

Good, clean (or not) fun — Mud Run returns with a sloppy splash

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Brayden Holt, of Soldotna, makes a grand entrance into the mud pit during the New Beginnings Fitness Center’s Mud Run in North Kenai on Saturday.

Redoubt Reporter

While waiting for their son, Brayden Holt, at the finish line of the Mud Run sponsored by New Beginnings Fitness Center in North Kenai, his parents discussed what type of finish he would have, in the way parents are oft to do, but with a bit of a twist.

“In high school he ran track and cross-country, but since he went off to college he hasn’t run as much, and he only decided to run this at 10:15 this morning,” said his mother, Kim Holt. “And, he has his good shirt on. I don’t know what he was thinking.”

While his mother worried about his wardrobe, his father was a bit more relaxed.

“Whatever he does, he has a good time in mind,” said Alan Holt. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he did a nosedive.”

Amanda Burg, of Soldotna, wallows her way through the pit in her costume — an elephant/clown/shark.

In the end, the senior Holt’s prognostication wasn’t far from the mark. Upon completion of the five-kilometer event, Brayden cannonballed into the center of the mucky mess that awaited all the finishers of the Mud Run, sending waves of brown slop sloshing skyward.

A filthy finish was the point of the day, though, and what separated this event from other numerous running competitions around the Kenai Peninsula during the summer. In addition to large tire tunnels and other obstacles along the way, a 1,000-gallon, 20-by-50-foot mud pit had to be crossed to reach the finish line. Many competitors embraced their messy side and wholeheartedly sloshed their way through the slop to the end.

Oilers wind up to defend title

By Ed Kobak, for the Redoubt Reporter

The Peninsula Oilers, the defending champions of the Alaska Baseball League, begin their quest for another league title at 7 p.m. Monday, June 11, with a two-game, two-night set against the All Stars, kicking off nine consecutive nights of baseball at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.

The Oilers are one of six baseball clubs in the summer collegiate Alaska Baseball League, one of the premier summer collegiate baseball leagues in the country. There are more than 40 summer collegiate leagues in the U.S. that play under National Collegiate Athletic Association rules, with all players being current NCAA (all divisions), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and junior college players. Occasionally a high-school player dots the ranks of these amateur collegiate teams.

The Alaska Baseball League traces its roots back to the 1970s. It is a traditional wooden bat league, much like the professional leagues and unlike several summer collegiate leagues that play with aluminum bats to the sound of a metallic ding, rather than the more historic wooden thwack, when a hitter connects with a ball.

Alaska baseball itself has roots going back to the early 1900s, when gold prospectors made their way up from Seattle and San Francisco to Skagway via steamship and over the Chilkoot Pass and onto the goldfields and streams of Alaska and the Yukon.

Some of these prospectors were ballplayers from organized baseball of their day who began gold camp and town baseball teams throughout Alaska. The Alaska Baseball League grew from these early prospectors and baseball players. The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks honor these former players in their name.

The Peninsula Oilers previously have won Alaska Baseball League titles in 1998, 2000, 2006 and last season’s 2011 league championship title.

What a hit — Sterling gets big kick from new judo program

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Bob Ermold and Jacob McConnell perform pushups to build strength and warm up their muscles before a class of the Sterling Judo Club on May 15.

Redoubt Reporter

Like many mothers, Donna Edmunds, of Sterling, was excited when her oldest son, 5-year-old Jacob, began elementary school. It was a high-water mark, of sorts, but as with many tides, not everything that washes in is positive.

Sometimes, when youngsters come together for the first time, despite the best efforts of administrators, teachers and parents, bullying can take place. In an effort to ensure her son remained safe when out of her sight, Edmunds enrolled him in a newly started Sterling Judo Club, to teach him some fundamentals of defending himself.

“At his age, it’s not very technical. It focuses a lot on how to fall forward or backward and protect your head, if someone were to push you. It teaches him moves to get out of being held down, all important things at his age, and things you’re worrying about when your kid is out on the playground,” she said.

“And it works,” Edmunds added. “I’ve seen him use it with kids trying to push him

Kyran Mumm receives his yellow belt, his first promotion since beginning judo classes Feb. 14.

around. He didn’t bully anyone, but he used it to prevent being bullied.”

It is stories such as these that inspired Robert Brink, of Sterling, to again take on the role of sensei, teaching classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Now a black belt, Brink first began judo in 1962 in Japan while serving in the Navy. Over the 50 years since then, he has taught judo and started several judo clubs in the Lower 48 and Alaska, and it was a recent communication from an old student that got him to again don his gi.

“I got an email from someone I had in my class from back in the’70s when I taught judo up at Fort Richardson. He said he was a gangly kid who got an education he never forgot from judo. The experience stayed with him the rest of his life and he now had a son he had gotten into it,” he said.

Paying fair — School district, associations ponder pay for KPBSD coaches

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Part of the goal of school sports is to instill among participants a sense of fairness and the importance of playing by the rules. Yet when it comes to figuring out rules for paying the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District coaches who are tasked with achieving those goals, fairness can be difficult to define.

Equitability of pay for extracurricular coaches dominated much of the discussion in a collective bargaining session between the negotiations team for the district and that of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association on March 26 in Soldotna.

The teams are nearing the end of the negotiations calendar in which they aim to come to agreement on the next three-year contracts for classified and certified district employees. While progress is being made on “language” items in the contracts — regarding things like unpaid leaves of absence and shift scheduling — the big-ticket items of salaries and health insurance have not yet been resolved.

On March 26, much of the discussion involved compensation for sports and activity coaches and sponsors. One thing both sides agreed on is that it isn’t possible to pay coaches “enough” in the sense of a fair hourly wage for all the time they put in.

“No one coaches, no one sponsors an activity for the money. That’s just insane — you just don’t,” said LaDawn Druce, president of KPEA. “Our goal is to make people feel valued in what they do. We would like it to be fair enough to where they can do it and justify the time away from their family, or justify (coaching) instead of needing to go get a second job. That they at least feel valued enough and where the compensation is fair enough that they can do that.”

The district pays stipends of varying amounts for extracurricular positions. Currently there are 12 pay ranges under which extracurricular positions fall, with the lower-paying ranges involving less time, and the higher-paying ranges involving more. Football, basketball, swimming and volleyball coaches, for instance, are at a higher range than, say, a dance coach. The stipends are a flat amount per activity, not a rate per hour.

“You cannot do it on a dollar amount, there’s just no way. If you try to do it on a dollar-per-hour amount, you’re never going to get there,” said Tim Peterson, director of Human Resources for KPBSD. “If you take it into a dollar amount and you say that somebody who’s working 800 hours is going to make 25 dollars an hour, I can tell you that this district cannot afford that. We would be cutting extracurricular programs long before that would take place.”

Fair play — Ninilchik girls finish season on boys basketball team

By Joseph Robertia

Photo courtesy of Nick Finley, Ninilchik School. Kaylee Smith, No. 1, and Lyndsay Appelhanz, No. 10, pose for a team photo with the boys Wolverine basketball team at Ninilchik School this year. Not pictured is Melissa Clark.

Redoubt Reporter

High school can be a tough time, filled with peer pressures and tough decisions. But sometimes, when choices lead to poor results, important life lessons are learned in the process. This has been the case for three teenage girls from Ninilchik School, who almost missed out on the remainder of the basketball season as a result of the actions of some of their teammates.

“It some ways, it ended up being a blessing in disguise,” said Kaylee Smith, a junior at Ninilchik, who plays wing on the school’s Lady Wolverines basketball team.

Or did, until the Lady Wolverines were sidelined after several members of the girls team were found in violation of the contract all high school athletes sign stating they will avoid alcohol and/or drugs.

“It’s kind of a touchy subject, but to put it simply, they messed up,” said Ninilchik boys basketball head coach Nick Finley. “They did it on their own time, not at school or anything, but being 14, 15 and 16, it still wasn’t OK, so the plug was pulled on their season.”

Not all the team members got into trouble, but the entire team was affected since there were not enough players left to field the team. Finley, along with Rod Van Saun, the Lady Wolverines head coach, and Jeff Ambrosier, the school principal, took steps to ensure Smith, sophomore Lyndsay Appelhanz and freshman Melissa Clark could finish out their sports season. The three Lady Wolverines joined the boys team.

“We wanted them to be able to finish out their season, since there were still three regular games, plus the regional tournament,” Finley said. “Everyone talked, and then talked to people further up the food chain and we learned there was a waiver that could be signed to allow them to play on the boys’ team, since the school’s basketball team is not typically coed.”