University of Alaska ski team raises $628K to save program

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The University of Alaska ski team has raised enough money to save the alpine squad from elimination.

A $12,000 donation two days before Christmas Day lifted the team’s collections to $628,000 in cash and pledges, enough to save the program, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

The University of Alaska’s board of regents voted in September to eliminate three sports, including alpine skiing, hockey and gymnastics. The board also said it would consider reinstatement for any program that could raise two years of operating costs before the next meeting in February.

The hockey program needs to raise $3 million and the gymnastics team needs to raise $880,000. They haven’t met their goals yet.

“The kind of support we’ve seen and the timeline it arrived in should demonstrate to the regents and president and chancellor that this is a quality program and it should stick around,” Ski Coach Sparky Anderson said Monday.

The $12,000 donation came Dec. 23 while Anderson was on the phone with William Bamber, the father of freshman skier Moro Bamber of Toronto.

“He said, hey, you’re really close, let’s just make this happen. He wrote a check and he did it online so it was immediate, (and) that effectively gave us the best Christmas present the athletes and the team could have wanted,” Anderson said.

The University of Alaska Foundation must next certify the donations.

Anderson said he then hopes university Athletic Director Greg Myford and interim Chancellor Bruce Schultz make a case to the regents that a reinstatement is warranted. He is hoping to have an answer by Jan. 8.

“I’m trying to get them to be on board with the fact I need to get back to recruiting and coaching, and I have to have honest conversations with the families of kids I’m trying to bring to school here,” he said.