There’s been a change in leadership for several of the Interior boys soccer teams ahead of the fast-approaching 2025 season.
Damon Crutcher, a head coach for Eclipse Soccer Club and co-head coach of the Lathrop girls, is taking over as West Valley’s boys head coach.
The other Interior team that advanced to the 2024 ASAA Division I Boys Soccer State Championships, Lathrop, also has a new head coach. Tre Matthews has been elevated from an assistant to the lead role.
Josh Million is now the head coach for North Pole. Russell Walker, Nick Herzberg and Rob Martinez were the head coaches for North Pole, West Valley and Lathrop, respectively, last season.
Those changes are no small development for what have been the three top Interior teams. West Valley and Lathrop have both made the Division I boys state tournament each of the past four seasons, while North Pole has reached the Division II boys state tournament each of the past four seasons as well. The Wolfpack haven’t lost to an Interior team since 2018.
Several Interior teams will begin play in the southern portions of the state over the coming days and play in the Interior as soon as next week.
West Valley, which finished fourth at the state tournament last year and went 10-4-2 overall, starts its season at Juneau-Douglas this Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19. The Wolfpack first play in Fairbanks on Thursday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. before hosting Bartlett and Dimond the next two days.
West Valley’s first game against Lathrop is Tuesday, May 6. The Malemutes and Wolfpack play again seven days later. The Wolfpack’s final home game is Saturday, May 17 against Hutchison at 5 p.m.
Junior defender Quinn Willis is back after being the lone member of the Wolfpack to be named to the 2024 ASAA Division I All-Tournament team. Fellow junior captain Koen Aitken returns after being named to the 2024 Railbelt All-Conference second team.
The Malemutes, who went 8-8 last season and finished sixth of eight teams at the 2024 ASAA Division I state tournament, will also play Dimond and Bartlett on April 25-26. The Malemutes host North Pole on Tuesday, April 29 and their final game in Fairbanks is also against the Patriots, on Tuesday, May 20.
One of Lathrop’s three ‘player of the game’ honorees from the 2024 state tournament, junior Jeremiah Barber, is back. Another junior, Elijah Hoop, was a 2024 Railbelt All-Conference second team honoree and junior Nelson Wappett was named honorable mention all-conference. A fourth junior, Lucas Naber, returns after scoring five goals last season, according to stats logged in MaxPreps.
North Pole plays earlier than Lathrop and West Valley, starting its season Thursday, April 17 at Houston and visiting Wasilla on Friday and Palmer on Saturday before playing the first game in Fairbanks this spring, Tuesday, April 22 against Monroe Catholic. The Patriots play West Valley on Thursday, April 24 and Lathrop on Tuesday, April 29.
North Pole lost leading goal scorer Will Good to graduation but returns junior Zach Denny, the lone Patriot named to the 2024 ASAA Division II All-Tournament team, as well as senior Niko Alvarado (10 goals), junior Kyle Heineken (five goals) and sophomore goalkeeper David Hollett, who earned a ‘player of the game’ honor at the state tournament for a 1-0 shutout of Homer. North Pole (9-6 overall) finished sixth at the Division II state tournament last season.
Brittany Milton is back as Monroe Catholic’s boys soccer coach. The Rams finished No. 9 in the Division II RPI rankings last season, one spot out of the state tournament. Outside back Talon Loving — who led the Rams in goals last year — is returning for his senior season after signing with Crown College, an NCAA Division III program, last month.
The Rams already have a road win over Houston under them. They’ll have two games apiece against Mid Alaska Conference foes North Pole and Hutchison and one game against both Lathrop and West Valley from April 22 to May 22 before closing the regular season at home against Redington on May 24.
Hutchison (0-7 last season) currently has five games on its schedule, starting with a trip to play Houston on April 25.
The 2025 Alaska Soccer State Championships will be held May 29-31 at Colony, Palmer and Wasilla High Schools in the Mat-Su Valley. All games in the Fairbanks North Star Borough will be held at the Artificial Turf Complex fields at 1966 Davis Road.
A girls soccer preview will be published later this week.
