Alaskans grin and bear high temps

After being repeatedly pestered with questions about the Alaskan snow, sun and lifestyle, the players on Phoenix 96 Alaska figured they might as well have a little fun with their mainland inquisitors.

So the U-15 boys' soccer team convinced fellow players at the 27th annual Schwan's USA Cup that they ride polar bears.

No, seriously.

"Some people don't know that Alaska's just a state. Some people think we're our own country," center midfielder Daniel Remington said. "I've never even seen a polar bear, but we say it just to mess with them."

After a few days at the National Sports Center in Blaine, the Fairbanks natives are used to the laughable inquiries:

Is it dark all the time in winter? How far is the nearest town? Do you live in igloos?

"Sometimes we make jokes, like when we told people that we rode from Alaska to California because snow planes don't land there," Phoenix midfielder Biz Weis said. "We'll say we live in a three-story igloo. I had one kid ask if I even mow my grass because of all the snow."

However, for teams hailing from subarctic climates -- or from anywhere, really -- the extreme weather that's wreaked havoc at the Schwan's Cup has been no laughing matter.

Rain postponed play throughout the weekend and turned the usually pristine fields into swampland. High humidity on Sunday forced a three-hour break. Tuesday's torrential downpour pushed games back over two hours, reversing a previous decision that moved contests up a time slot to avoid the midday heat.

"We say it's something you're going to remember for the rest of your life," said John MacPhail, coach of the U-16 Yukon Strikers from Whitehouse, a small town in northwest Canada seven hours from the Alaskan border. "After this year, we'll talk for years back home about how hot it was."

Later on Tuesday, the Cup went to "black flag" status, which canceled all play in progress. Because Phoenix was down at halftime, it never got to finish its opening match and officially lost 2-0. The squad finished USA Cup pool play with a 1-1-1 record.

It's been a dizzying week for the dehydrated players -- and equally dizzying for fans trying to keep up with the schedule changes.

And for Phoenix 96, which also went 2-0-1 in the group stage pool at the USA Weekend Cup, the humidity necessitated substantial adjustments from back home, where summers, albeit still hot, are rarely this muggy.

In the weeks leading up to the tournament, Phoenix coach Howard Maxwell, who has brought Alaskan teams to Minnesota for seven years, acclimatized his players by making them practice in sweatpants and sweatshirts.

Being from Alaska means being treated like, as Maxwell put it, an "exotic," a label equal in its benefits and drawbacks that extend far beyond the persistent questions about adjusting to the weather.

"One of the problems is we're treated like an international team, so a lot of the times in pool play, we'll play locals from Minnesota or Wisconsin," said Maxwell, a 1981 Minnesota graduate. "But it's kind of neat for the boys. All the girls teams were coming to talk to them at the opening ceremonies, so they get their egos stroked because they're from somewhere cool."

Tactical advantages on the pitch can also exist, a consequence of the sometimes naïve perception of subarctic teams.

"People underestimate us coming into games," said Remington, an avid back-country skier. "They think we play in the tundra or something."

They might not play in the tundra, but apparently Phoenix 96 competes in a place where polar bears are acceptable modes of transportation.