Kyle Worl, 27, was fresh off his first coaching stint at the statewide Native Youth Olympics when he moved to Juneau one year ago.<\/p>\n
He said it was difficult to leave behind Team Anchorage, his former team, not knowing if he could start an NYO team in his new home from scratch.<\/p>\n
Those doubts were put to rest once and for all last week at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, the site of this year\u2019s NYO Games, where Team Juneau joined the fray with 50 other teams. The Games have been going on since 1971 but Juneau hasn\u2019t fielded a team in close to three decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI told the students they literally made a dream of mine come true to be able to bring a team to state,\u201d Worl said. \u201cIt was really hard for me to leave Anchorage and leave my team and my athletes behind unsure if I would be coaching another team at state any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n The dream sweetened as the Games awarded Worl with the 2018 Healthy Coach Award, which considers qualities such as leadership, traditional values and athleticism.<\/p>\n Ten teenagers make up Team Juneau, one of approximately 50 teams to compete in this year\u2019s Games.<\/p>\n The boys team members featured students from all three Juneau high schools.<\/p>\n Juneau-Douglas High School\u2019s Arthur McVey, Bryan Johnson and Derrick Roberts and Thunder Mountain\u2019s Joe Dundore, Matthew Quinto and Erick Whisenant made up two-thirds of the team. Josh Sheakley represented Yaakoosg\u00e9 Daakahidi High School while Kalila Arreola, Trinity Jackson and Skyler Tuckwood represented Dzanitik\u2019i Heeni Middle School.<\/p>\n Roberts was the only medal winner in the group, coming in third place in the Eskimo Stick Pull. The event \u2014 akin to a seated tug of war using a 20 inch-long wooden pole \u2014 attracted around 70 contestants.<\/p>\n The former football noseguard won all six of his matches in the preliminary round but lost two out of three to Mt. Edgecumbe\u2019s Haley Osborne in the finals. Roberts said it was the first time he\u2019d ever lost.<\/p>\n \u201cI have more respect for (Osborne) because I\u2019ve never been beaten before,\u201d Roberts said of Osborne. \u201cI wasn\u2019t upset at all, it was just surprising a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n