WHO SAYS YOU CAN"T GO HOME

THIS IS MY STORY- WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME (TO PLAY HOCKEY)

Alaska Fairbanks goalie Wylie Rogers tells his first-person story.

	Printer-Friendly Format E-mail this article Sophomore goalie Wylie Rogers is 5-4-0 with a 2.60 GAA this season for the Nanooks

Jan. 4, 2006

Who says you can't go home

There's only one place that call me one of their own

Just a hometown boy, born a rolling-stone, who says you can't go home

Who says you can't go back, been around all around the world and that's a matter of fact

There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home

-- Bon Jovi - Who Says You Can't Go Home

While Wylie Rogers is no rock star, the sophomore goalie did make it back home to do what he loves. He started playing in the Great White North but took a detour to Michigan before returning back to Fairbanks. The sophomore forward tells of his travels for the game and what made him return to play for the Nanooks in his own words "You Can Go Home Again."

"You Can Go Home Again"

By Wylie Rogers

I never imagined when I was young and sitting in the crowd at the Carlson Center watching players like Tavis MacMillan, Dallas Ferguson, and Wade Klippenstein play for the UAF Nanooks, that I would someday wear the blue and gold jersey myself. And better yet, that those three players would be the coaching staff while I was playing. Kids growing up in Ann Arbor want to play for the Wolverines, Lansing is the Spartans, and what young Minnesota hockey player doesn't dream of playing for the Golden Gophers? It was different for me growing up around Nanook hockey. Don't get me wrong, I loved the atmosphere and the team, but UAF wasn't a big name school that kids would get excited about playing for. I think that those days have been over for some time now due to so many aspects of the Fairbanks community.

In my freshman year of high school, Fairbanks didn't offer the opportunity for me to excel in my hockey career at the time. Being from Fairbanks, I did the one thing that no kid will ever hear the end of (from childhood teammates). I went to Anchorage to play, the rival town of Fairbanks in more than just hockey. I would go to high school in Fairbanks for the day on a Wednesday and right after classes I would board a plane and fly 45 minutes to Anchorage for practice that night, and fly home and be in class back in Fairbanks the next day. Fridays after school I would fly down for games on the weekends and come home again for Monday classes. It was a grueling year of hockey for my family and me but it was a sacrifice that we had to make.

I left Fairbanks after my sophomore year to go play hockey in Michigan for the Metro Jets in the Central States Junior B Hockey League. This was my first year away from home and I had to experience a lot without my family close by. Just like every hockey player that had left home to go play outside it can be very exciting but challenging at the same time. After winning a National Championship with the Metro Jets, I signed on with the United States National Team Development Program's Under-18 team for my final year of school.

That was the year that I grew more as a hockey player than anything. The training program and hockey schedule was a task of its own, not to mention the school that was being missed for overseas trips. I was able to fly to Europe to play in tournaments and experience places and cultures new to me in Prague, Czech Republic, and Stockholm, Sweden. It had always been a dream of mine to wear the USA logo and play for my country in international tournaments and it is an experience I will never forget.

As a freshman, Rogers was named to the 2005 CCHA All-Tournament team.

I still had no idea what college I wanted to attend or even who was interested in me at the time. Every player on my team except for two had committed to a Division I school. Growing up in Fairbanks I had an idea of what the team used to be like but I hadn't really kept up with the progress of the program for a while. I flew for an official visit back home and it didn't take any time at all to realize that I wanted to be back in my hometown playing for the college that I grew up watching. For those of you who haven't been to Fairbanks, it's a town that is regularly in the 70-degree range in the summer and is known to hit minus 50 below in the winter. If there was anything holding me back from making my decision it was the weather! I committed to UAF before their Saturday night game during a meeting with the head coach at the time (Guy Gadowsky - who is now with Princeton) in the locker room.

After playing the following year in the BCHL for the Victoria Salsa, I began my college career at UAF. Like I said, growing up in a town like Fairbanks for me as a kid I didn't have dreams of playing for the local college. The program over the years has changed due to the coaching staffs, past players, and the fans of Fairbanks. If there is one thing that I will never forget until the day I die, it is the feeling that I get when I put on the jersey and get called out for the starting lineup in my hometown, in front of my closest family and friends, and thousands of the most loyal hockey fans I have ever met. I have gotten to know over these last two years that kids in this town are now growing up saying "I want to play for the UAF Nanooks someday."

We are proud of you, Wylie! Love, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Mike