Nome-Beltz Track & Field and NYO teams join forces
This year, Nome’s Native Youth Olympics, or NYO team and the first-year track team combined forces and trained for their sports together. This training across disciplines saw students all the way to their respective competitions, with three athletes competing in both the NYO states competition in Anchorage and a state track event in Wasilla, on the same weekend.
The combined practices came about when NYO Coach Vanessa Tahbone found it difficult to engage kids about participating in this year’s games. Competing with winter sports like basketball and cheerleading, her initial efforts to get kids thinking about NYO in the winter only brought a few to practice. Training officially began the week after spring break. With Ryan Fox also starting Nome’s first track team around the same time, Tahbone had the idea to combine the practices.
“I’m a really big advocate for students being in multiple sports and supporting them. And to me any type of conditioning, is very, very important,” Tahbone said.
And it worked.
The similar training styles prepared both teams for their sports and they had the added benefit of practicing with a larger group of peers. With the help of NYO coach Hank Irelan, the indoor practices after school brought in 23 kids training for track and traditional games. The first hour they practiced together and then for the second half of practice kids broke off to hone their event wether it was shotput, Eskimo stick pull, discus or toe kick.
“Usually when two sports overlap it’s not a good thing because one takes away from the other one, but in this case, it worked out really well the whole season,” Fox said.
The last weekend in April culminated in big showcases for both teams, with State NYO in Anchorage and the Nanook’s first outdoor track meet in Wasilla. Orson Hoogendorn, Wyatt Ahmasuk and Son Erikson participated in both, driving back and forth between events. It was all three of their first times participating in NYO. Ahmasuk placed fourth in Eskimo stick pull, reporting how big the guys he went up against were. After earning the medal, “He [Ahmasuk] immediately got in a car, drove an hour to the valley and raced an hour later, it was pretty cool,” Fox told the Nugget.
There were nine athletes at the track meet. Hoogendorn placed third in the mile race and fifth in the 400 meters. Lauren Kingstrom placed fifth in the two-mile race. They were competing against much larger and well-established track programs, but Fox is proud of their performance.
Nome’s NYO team was also made up of returning athletes, Alohna Johnson and AwaLuk Nichols and middle schooler Ryan Michaels.
Tahbone is grateful for three track athletes who previously had not trained in NYO events and likely wouldn’t have done it if not for the combining of practices were able to experience the games. “You know, it really opened their eyes to saying like, ‘Oh, this is a lot of fun. You know, I thought it was going to be different,’” Tahbone said.
To combat the low turnout for Nome’s NYO team, Tahbone is bringing back Elementary School NYO. “Interest starts from a young age, it’s just like any other sport,” Tahbone said.