Playing soccer in Alaska means teams are often playing indoors and practicing in crowded gymnasiums, cafeterias and school hallways. That's why an early spring is exciting news for players and coaches.
This season, outdoor fields were cleared for practice March 28 — much earlier than normal. Outdoor games for Cook Inlet Conference teams started Friday for boys when Soldotna played at East. Matches start Monday for girls with Wasilla at Chugiak. On Tuesday, the Wasilla girls are at Service.
"It's nice, we've been waiting for it all year," East midfielder Lucas Wagner said. "It's nice to (be) outside The Dome and get pictures after the game and look good.
"It's nice (having) home field advantage. It picks up the intensity — I know the guys want to win here a lot more than at The Dome."
Normally, teams are practicing and playing matches indoors well into April or even May. The thought of hitting the pitch in March wouldn't have even crossed coaches' minds if it weren't for the light winters in Anchorage the last couple years.
"This is definitely the earliest that we've been able to get outdoors," Service girls coach Mark Cascolan said. "It's definitely welcomed to be able to get out of the gym space, especially when all of the schools have to play/train on the same fields or the same area that maybe a basketball game would take place."
The Dome offers a state-of-the-art facility for indoor play, but the massive air-pressurized sports complex can only hold so many matches and practices. Even with multiple club league matches occurring at the same time, or track meets going on while soccer teams play on the field, there still isn't enough Dome to go around for everyone all the time.
Each school gets three two-hour blocks to practice at The Dome before matches start, but that practice time is also split between JV programs. That leaves soccer teams vying for space in school gymnasiums during a time when basketball teams are given priority and other sports, like track and field, baseball and softball are also starting.
"They're playing, a lot of times, in the gym or cafeterias or wherever you can fit in at your school," Bartlett boys coach Matt Froehle said. "We kind of just make due the best you can. That's why we're so happy for the early spring … My first year 2013, we practiced one time outside."
But considering how warm this winter has been, why haven't the teams gone outside even earlier?
One reason is fields have to thaw naturally before they are cleared for use by the school district. Teams aren't allowed to use any man-made methods to speed up the process.
"Sometimes the field can be clear, but there's a ton of ice right along the outside layer along the track that hasn't been cleared yet, and they want everything to be done naturally," Cascolan said. "You're not allowed to go out and put any type of tool on the turf to clear off any snow or anything like that."
Cascolan said the wait can be frustrating when teams are itching to get outdoors, but he knows the Anchorage School District has player safety as a top priority when making the decisions.
Players and coaches are just excited to get out and play soccer where it's meant to be played — on the pitch.
"You can lace up some proper boots and really strike a ball instead of it bouncing off of bleachers and walls," Cascolan said. "We're outdoors, we're happy, 11v11. We're playing soccer in massive space,s and it's the way the game should be played."