newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — Seeing off his Alaska Nanooks rifle team at the airport early Saturday morning was a miserable experience for coach Dan Jordan.

“It was like putting your first child on a school bus. I was not very happy about it,” Jordan said by phone on Thursday.

The farewell was necessary because Jordan will undergo surgery in Anchorage today to correct an injury related to his paralysis.

“This has been dragging out for awhile now. It has to be done,” Jordan said from Providence Hospital.

Though he wasn’t able to witness the No. 1-ranked Nanooks’ wins over Texas El Paso on Sunday (4,612-4,538) and over Air Force on Thursday (4,638-4,601), Jordan has been in regular contact with the team via telephone and e-mail. The surgery’s timing is good because much of his six-week recovery at Providence will occur during Christmas break, he said.

And it’s not like the Nanooks are without supervision for their trip, which includes a USA Shooting air rifle competition today through Sunday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

That’s because Cheryl Plowman, who coached West Valley High School’s rifle team with husband Tom for eight years and has been involved with the Nanooks’ program for at least a dozen years, is with the squad.

“I’m a volunteer assistant coach right now, or the team mom,” Plowman said with a laugh Thursday. “... I’ve done road trips with high school kids before, so it’s not real new.”

Plowman was approached by Jordan and athletics administrator Pamm Hubbard about traveling with the team.

“I retired from the university in July, and I’ve been volunteering at the athletics offices a couple days a week,” she said. “They asked me if I could go, and I said sure.”

By the Nanooks’ lofty standards (a 4,655-point average in their first four dual meets), the team was a bit off-mark against UTEP and Air Force, even though it has improved to 6-0 on the season.

“The kids are kind of struggling, but they’ve won the matches, so that’s what’s important,” Plowman said.

Junior Patrik Sartz has performed the best during the last two meets, averaging 588.5 in air rifle and 580.5 in smallbore. Sophomore Cody Rutter (578 average in air rifle, 581 in smallbore) is the only other Nanook to shoot both disciplines in each meet.

“I’m getting kind of frustrated shooting the same scores competition after competition,” Sartz said Thursday. He hopes to elevate his scores in the USA Shooting 3X air rifle event and land on the podium.

Though Sartz has communicated with Jordan from afar, the coach is certainly missed.

“It’s good to have him with us on the trips, but it’s back in Fairbanks where we really need a coach,” Sartz said. “(The next six weeks Jordan) won’t be there. That’s going to suck a little bit.”

In Jordan’s absence, Pat Pitney (an Olympic gold medalist), Randy Pitney (a former UAF rifle coach) and Amber Darland (a former UAF shooter and Jordan’s fiancee) will help fill the coaching void.

And in late January, Neil Wright, a former UAF teammate of Jordan who later was an assistant coach under Randy Pitney, will lead the Nanooks on a four-match trip to the East Coast and West Virginia.

If Jordan can’t go on that journey, he expects to be fully recovered when the Nanooks go for a fourth straight NCAA Rifle Championship next March.

Jordan also trusts that his charges are doing fine without him as they shoot five matches in seven days.

“They’re a very independent bunch. That’s the way I treat them, to make them shooters that are able to function on their own, travel internationally and compete,” Jordan said. “A (head) coach would definitely be a benefit (on the trip), but I think they’ll handle it OK.”