CHEVAK -- Wayne Hill nearly spilled his afternoon coffee last Thursday when he saw Chevak's cross-country team seemingly running backward.
Peering through a hazy window on the second floor of his general store in Chevak, the 69-year-old man picked out Chevak's top two runners, seniors Casey Ferguson and his best friend, Jareth Boyscout.
The proprietor of Wayne Hill Company said he shook his head after he saw Ferguson and Boyscout leading their teammates into a violent windstorm that amounted to a tundra tug-of-war against a wicked Mother Nature.
"They weren't running forward." Hill said. "They were running backwards. Those kids will run through anything."
The powerful storm ripped through Western Alaska and flooded several coastal villages along Norton Sound and the Bering Sea. In Chevak, it brought torrential rains, 60 mph winds and about five feet of tidal water 20 miles inland from the Bering Sea.
And while Hill's rickety steel-sided building swayed in the wind, the Chevak Comets, an all-Eskimo team, were busy trying to run 400-meter intervals on a sloppy, silty dirt road. It was so windy, neither Ferguson nor Boyscout could hear their coach screaming encouragement to keep going, to keep pushing forward.
"It was like Hurricane Katrina hitting the Bush," Boyscout said.
Most residents in this secluded Cup'ik (pronounced choo-pick) village of about 900 hunkered inside their homes, Boyscout said, praying that their fishing camps, fishing boats and smokehouses dotting the tundra would withstand the maelstrom.
The Comets, meanwhile, had a different agenda. It was 3:30 p.m., and school was out. They had cross-country practice in a half-hour and their coach, Harry Ferguson, wasn't about to cancel it.
"We choose to run practice hard every day," Boyscout said, "even when the weather is horrible."
But really, he said, conditions were perfect -- windy, bone-chillingly cold and downright nasty -- for their final training run before heading to last Saturday's Region I South meet in Dillingham.
The Comets thrive on preparing for the worst. Eighth-grade runner Margaret Anderson said racing conditions can either make you or break you.
"We run in any type of weather," she said. "We don't wimp out."
TWO-SECOND MIKE
On Friday morning, the storm kept blowing. Harry Ferguson sprang from his cozy bed to hear his neighbor yelling, "Harry, your roof is falling off your duplex!"
Ferguson, who teaches construction and math at Chevak, dashed outside with his tools to secure the roof and keep it from blowing away.
While fastening it down with his sons Casey, Cody, Kash and Conor, who all run cross country, Harry wondered if the Comets would make their flight to Bethel and connecting flight to Dillingham.
"You can never count on air travel in the Bush," Harry Ferguson said. "But the weather finally lifted, and we got (to Dillingham) by the skin of our teeth."
Chevak got its bid to Saturday's 1-2-3A state meet in Soldotna, thanks to its coach, who employed his math skills to reconstruct the results and determine errors in team scoring.
At the awards banquet, officials announced that Chevak had finished runner-up with 42 points, and Bethel, its rival 130 miles to the west, finished on top with 41.
"We had an empty, hollow feeling in our stomach," Harry said. "There was so much expectation. The kids were embarrassed to go home."
The Comets had to finish No. 1 in order to qualify for state. They won had won regionals four straight years, and most Chevak residents, Harry said, expected nothing less than another berth to state.
As Harry sat with his team, waiting for the bus to take off for Dillingham's airport, he checked the results and noticed that the scores of two Akiachak runners were incorrectly counted in the team standings.
Akiachak didn't have five runners, the minimum required to qualify in the team standings.
Removing Akiachak's scores bumped down Michael Ulroan's score by two points, which gave Chevak the regional title, 40-41, and a berth to state.
"It was just a stroke of dumb luck," Harry said. "Ulroan's two seconds made the difference, so from now until forever in Chevak he'll be known as Michael 'Two-Second' Ulroan."
"I don't care if that's what I'm known for," Ulroan said. "It just shows that every practice counts."
The Comets have never brought home a state championship in any sport. But if the village had to choose one sport that would, Casey Ferguson said, it would be its tundra-tough cross-country team.
"We've been working for this season our whole life," Ferguson said. "If there is any year to do it, this is it."
BUILT TUNDRA-TOUGH
Fourteen years ago, when Harry Ferguson began the running program in Chevak, he couldn't convince village kids to run outside, much less run in 60 mph winds. He got three runners that first fall, but only one lasted the season. They weren't having fun.
"Nobody would come to practice every day," he said. "They would come maybe two times a week."
Village kids were unmotivated, he said. They didn't want to run even a mile, and their uniforms were hideous. Ferguson's only incentive was Chevak's lone away meet of the season, a 35-mile boat trip to Hooper Bay.
"Boy, that was an exiting trip," he said. "The kids would dream about it for two weeks: 'We're going to Hooper Bay! We're going to Hooper Bay!' "
Ferguson, who grew up in Wrangell, said he always liked running but was never a great runner. He moved to Chevak 30 years ago for a construction job and soon fell in love with a Cup'ik woman named Lena, whom he married.
Then Ferguson recognized two of his talents -- building structures and building solid relationships. He burned the late-night stove oil for months, reading books on training, nutrition and education. Soon he became a teacher and a coach, and in 2000, everything came together at regionals.
The Comets finally trusted Ferguson's work-hard-while-you-play attitude and, in turn, won their first regional title -- the same year water and sewer was first provided in Chevak homes.
That year, Ferguson, who was thankful to have gotten rid of honey buckets, helped make cross country one of Chevak's most popular sports.
The Comets ran 7-15 miles per day this season, and Ferguson couldn't keep students away from running.
"This is the first group that has ever bought into my system," he said. "They don't know any better than to run 10 miles in the rain or wind. It's all about Eskimo pride."
This season the Comets had 15 runners. Only 98 students attend high school, and 239 are in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Having a new school, a travel budget and Gary "Doc" Stevens, Kashunamiut School District superintendent, helped too. Construction of the new school began in 2002 and opened in 2003. Stevens, a former cross-country coach, started his job in Chevak this year.
"It's all a psychological game because there's an addiction to running," Stevens said. "They see Harry run too. It definitely helps.
"Just make them believe they're running on Miami Beach."
The Comets take pride in where they run. Their makeshift cross-country course is on the outskirts of town, near the dump. They run a figure-eight loop that utilizes the area's only hill -- a silty climb 500 feet long. The closest mountains around are the Askinuks, 30 miles to the north.
The Comets also run at the sand pit, a quarter-mile loop near the airport. Running on these two courses, junior Cody Ferguson said, is as dignifying as harpooning a bearded seal or a beluga whale.
"Cross country was never as important as it is now," he said. "When people think of cross country, they now think of Chevak."
FRIENDS FOR LIFE
Three second-graders -- Caleb Jones, Axel Atcherian and Thomas Bukowski -- waited patiently outside Chevak school Tuesday afternoon waiting for cross-country practice to begin.
"They're coming, Mom, they're coming," yelled Caleb. "But I don't want to come home."
As the Comets headed down the school's metal stairs and toward the sand pit, Jones ignored his mother and joined his buddies Axel and Thomas. It was an all-out pursuit of the Comets.
Jones, 9, kept up with Casey Ferguson, 17, for the first loop while his backpack bounced around. Then he grew tired. Ferguson sped off. Jones plopped down in the tall grass to rest.
"I didn't want to go home," Jones said. "I want to run with the high school boys every day."
Ferguson said he remembers those days with Boyscout and Ulroan, running wildly around Chevak without worrying about who had the best time or place.
Ferguson, who won his fourth consecutive Region I South meet this year in 16 minutes, 45 seconds, and Boyscout, who finished second in 17:12, give Chevak a 1-2 punch that could give the school its first state title.
Harry Ferguson said their success has set a running precedent in the village.
"Kids who never left the village were afraid, awestruck of meets," Harry said. "When Casey and Jareth started doing well, it changed everything."
But Casey, Boyscout and Ulroan aren't just running buddies. They connect by an ongoing battle to keep their minds clear of peer pressure: Casey and Ulroan said it's hard, but they have always stayed clear of drugs and alcohol.
"In the village it's easy to get into trouble because you stay out late," Ulroan said. "You know everybody and they try to get you to do stuff."
Boyscout, 17, said he is torn between two worlds -- the world of the Caseys and Ulroans and the world of giving in to peer pressure.
"I'm getting real close to getting out of it," Boyscout said. "I really want to go to college."
Casey and Ulroan said they are both heading to college next year. They hope to earn free tuition through the University of Alaska Scholars Program, which rewards students who finish in the top 10 percent of their graduating class.
Chevak hasn't had a police officer in more than a month, Boyscout said. There are no curfews, and rules are often broken.
Chevak is a dry town, but Boyscout said alcohol and marijuana can be found.
Boyscout has a lot going on in his life. He works two jobs, one at the Chevak Company Corporation (a hardware store) and the other taking care of his 9-year-old sister. He doesn't get home until late at night.
Boyscout said he lives with 11 people and rooms with his grandpa and cousin. Half of the money Boyscout earns goes toward food for his family and the rest, he said, is going toward his college fund.
Luckily, he said, he has the Fergusons, the Comets and teachers to help keep his goals from slipping away. Boyscout said he wished that he lived with the Fergusons.
"Cross country helps out a lot," he said. "Before running cross country, I was in it (drugs and alcohol) a lot. But it's allowed me to get away."
YOUTH GROUP
A bag of Doritos costs $7.40 and a two-liter of Coke costs $5 at Wayne Hill Company. Hill is the village's weather man, runs the village's museum and used to be mayor.
He also employs Bryson Kanrilak, a 21-year-old who used to run cross country for Ferguson.
Kanrilak said he wanted to get out of Chevak after high school and go to college, but it never happened.
"It's hard to leave," he said. "I miss high school. Harry was a great coach, and he taught me a lot."
Wayne Hill Company is a popular hang-out spot for kids, and that inspired Kanrilak to recently start a youth group with two of his friends.
The purpose is to keep kids busy with meetings every Wednesday. They talk about forming activities such as dances, games and village projects.
"We picked up trash along the (Ningikfak) river," he said, "and beautified the tundra. I wanted to help put the village on its feet. Kids are bored when there's nothing going on."
That's why more kids are running cross country these days, even in wicked storms like last week's, Kanrilak said.
You could call the Comets' hurricane training run crazy, Hill said.
But in Chevak, the elders tell stories of battling horrendous storms and running dog teams through them. It used to be a matter of survival for hunting seals and birds, fishing for salmon and gathering berries to store for the harsh winter months.
In some ways, running still is a matter of survival.
"Those kids have to run," Hill said. "It keeps them off my street.
"The weather didn't matter. If it did, then why would any of us ever live here?"
Daily News reporter Kevin Klott can be reached at kklott@adn.com or 257-4335.
