Typically, the only time Batman of DC Comics and Captain America of Marvel Comics cross paths is at Comic-Con or on the pages of a rare crossover graphic novel. But Thursday night at Eagle River’s Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center proved be an exception, for a great cause.
Players from the Chugiak and West Anchorage high school hockey teams took the ice with the logo of one of the two iconic heroes on the front of their jerseys, and the name of a special education student from their respective school’s Life Skills programs on the back, as part of the Partner’s Club Superhero Hockey Game.
“It’s pretty big and the kids were into it, so it was really nice to be a part of it,” West head coach Rob Larkey said. “They got to wear our jerseys around school the entire day. It’s really nice to include those kids in the school environment too.”
On Wednesday, both teams had lunch with the Life Skills students from their respective schools and traded jerseys. Each player was given a jersey with a blank name plate. Then one of their partners wrote their names in so that they could see them as the players skated on the ice.
Chugiak head coach Rodney Wild said his team “doesn’t need any extra motivation to play West,” but players from both teams were excited and honored to represent the new names on the back of their jerseys while their partners wore theirs in the stands.
“To see the smiles on the kids’ faces and just them wearing our jerseys means the world,” West forward senior Paul Dittrich said.
Champions Choice hockey supply store in Anchorage provided the custom jerseys, and the kids from each school’s Life Skills classes were able to pick which comic book superhero logo they wanted on the front of them. West chose the Dark Knight of Gotham while Chugiak picked the super-soldier, serum-induced First Avenger.
Before the game, each student from the Life Skills class in attendance was given the jersey of a player to wear while in the stands.
The two schools tried to make this event happen last year, but the timing and logistics didn’t work out.
“We try to do so many different fun things with our group, we’re really involved with the community and it just takes a couple of months of planning,” Chugiak Life Skills teacher and event coordinator Kaleb Kuehn said. “It fell through and I needed the time to get the jerseys made because they’re all custom done, and with the timing, (we) couldn’t make it happen.”
To see their shared vision come to fruition on Thursday night was a sight to behold.
“It’s fun when you look up in the stands and they’re pretty full and there’s a lot of kids in there, and I know all the kids in there from my classroom at Chugiak,” Kuehn said. “There’s a couple kids that came back who graduated the past couple of years.”
He believes that it was a good educational experience for both the Life Skills students and the hockey players about what inclusivity through sports can look like.
“They got to spend time together to get to know each other and kind of break that barrier and that uncomfortableness they may feel about it,” Kuehn said.
His Life Skills students love hanging out with the athletes and were elated to wear varsity jerseys. A special education student from each school participated in a ceremonial puck drop alongside collegiate players from the University of Alaska Anchorage hockey team.
“I reached out to some of the UAA hockey boys and asked them if they could come out here and do a puck drop,” Kuehn said. “A couple of the boys are actually from out here in Eagle River, and they were more than happy to come out and support not only the game, but our program with Life Skills and special needs.”
He has a connection to both schools. When Kuehn — who grew up in Washington — moved to Alaska, his first teaching job was at West, where he still coached boys soccer.
“West was my first home, and I really felt like that program we helped build is still thriving and the people who are involved are not only the teachers and students but the whole student population,” Kuehn said. “It’s great to see different communities within our one big community start to all get together and move toward the right thing.”
As far as the action on the ice, all those in attendance were treated to a hard-fought and tightly contested game that saw West ultimately prevail 4-2 with a pair of third-period goals.
“I thought Chugiak played a great game, they’re well coached and gave us everything we wanted and then some,” Larkey said. “They played really tough and so did we. It was a back-and-forth seesaw battle.”
At one of its games earlier this season, West held a fundraiser for cancer research, and the team will also play a “Red Out” game against South in support of the American Heart Association next week.
The Eagles have done other community service activities, including decorating the Anchorage Pioneer Home assisted living facility during Christmas time and playing bingo with the residents, and the team will try to get some of the residents out to a game this year.
“We try to do community-based activities where our whole team can be community based,” Larkey said.