Pioneer Peak Challenge - Anchorage vs. Mat-Su Valley

February 4, 2011

By ANDY MORTON, GAUSBCA President

Apparently the Mat-Su Valley was not at all impressed that Anchorage won the inaugural Denali Cup last November in a close battle with Fairbanks.  In fact, they were so unimpressed they have since challenged Anchorage to a head to head battle utilizing that same Denali Cup format, though the Denali Cup itself will not be up for grabs.  Instead, they’re calling it the Pioneer Peak Challenge and they hope it sparks more interest in these community competitions just like the Denali Cup sparked this event.

It will all go down on February 8^th, at 7:00 PM at North Bowl, located on the Palmer/Wasilla Highway.  With a team consisting of only local players from Wasilla and Palmer, the Mat-Su Valley will look to prove to Anchorage and Fairbanks that you can't get to either town without first going through the Valley.

And though this is entirely true for the most part, the Denali Cup itself will remain safely in the arms of Anchorage for the time being.  This particular match will serve as a separate competition, but will introduce Mat-Su Valley bowlers to the big city boys from Anchorage and will certainly be hotly contested by both teams.

“It’s great that the Valley wants a shot at Anchorage and even though the Denali Cup won’t be on the line, there will be plenty of bragging rights worth bowling for,” said Chris Clapper, a member of the Anchorage team.

A victory by the Mat-Su Valley would certainly bring into question the validity of Anchorage’s win in November, which was advertised as a competition between Alaska’s two biggest bowling communities.  It may also lead to future involvement of the Mat-Su Valley in the Denali Cup competition.

“I watched Anchorage win the Denali Cup in November and thought it would be great if we could somehow involve the Mat-Su Valley in it.  This is a good start to making that happen,” said Nate Morton, captain of the Mat-Su team.

The Anchorage team consists of three Denali Cup veterans and five rookies.  The team is once again lead by Captain Andy Morton.  On his team are veterans Joe Krison and Chris Clapper.  The rookies are Mark Eggleton, Dustin Sherman, Shawn Robinson, James Riske and Shaun Goodwin. 

On the Mat-Su Valley side, captain Nate Morton leads a group that includes; Don Marquart, Ron Neffendorf, Kelly McGonegal, Collin Dowling, Cory Jones, Dale Lebahn, and Dan Fettes.

“What I learned from watching (The Denali Cup) is that home court advantage is quite large during the team portions of the event and that’s where Anchorage struggled against Fairbanks.  I think it’s important that we get off to a good start and put Anchorage in a hole early,” said Nate Morton. 

With nearly two months worth of promotional time, the North Bowl staff and bowlers have really reached out to the bowling community to get them to come out to the event and support their home team.

“Truly, I hope there are a lot of people rooting against us.  That just makes this so much fun and so different than any other type of bowling competition.  Like any real professional sporting event, we expect to be booed because we are the visiting team,” said Anchorage captain Andy Morton.