Barrow prepares for first playoff football game above Arctic Circle
Published Saturday, October 4, 2008
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BARROW — Curtis Smith seems deserving of a game ball from today’s historic small schools state quarterfinal at Cathy Parker Field.
The North Slope Borough School District employee spent part of Friday afternoon shoveling a 1 1/2-foot-deep snow drift from the south end zone of the blue artificial field where the Houston Hawks will face the Barrow Whalers at 1 p.m. in the first high school football playoff game played above the Arctic Circle.
Whalers players practiced in high 20-degree temperatures and a 35 mph wind that created 3-foot waves in the Arctic Ocean, which lies fewer than 100 yards from the field. Fellow school district employee Kyle Kennedy drove a four-wheeler with an attached brush to clear off the north end zone and other parts of the field, while Smith had to use muscle power to remove the snow that started to fall earlier this week.
In early August at the field, Barrow conducted the first practice for its third season of football. At the time, Smith was driving trucks in Fort Worth, Texas, often in 100-degree weather.
On Friday, he was pushing a snow shovel to ensure Barrow and Houston could drive clearly into the south end zone.
“It’s pretty tough, but you’ve got to do it. They’ve got to have their game tomorrow,” said Smith, who also drives buses for the school district.
Jasmine Elkins plans to be at that game, regardless of the weather.
“They’ve come a long way, and we’re all really proud of them. It gives Barrow a really good name,” said Elkins, a Barrow High School sophomore, after Friday’s pep rally in the school’s gymnasium. “It really brings our school together somehow. We’re crazy about our school pride, and the Whalers just make it so much easier to be proud of our school. They’re a really good team, and they’ve come a long way.”
Today marks the second time the Whalers will make history.
North Slope Borough School District superintendent Trent Blankenship was the driving force to add football to Barrow High School’s extracurricular activities, and on Aug. 19, 2006, Barrow played the Delta Junction Huskies in the first organized football game above the Arctic Circle. The contest, a 34-0 loss for the Whalers, took place on a dirt field next to Ilisagvik College, which served as a research facility for the U.S. Navy during the Cold War.
Jacksonville, Fla., resident Cathy Parker saw a segment about the game on ESPN’s SportsCenter, and it led the bank account executive and football mom to generate a $500,000 fundraising drive to bring an artificial turf field to the nation’s northernmost city.
Whalers players and coaches have attended football camps in the Lower 48 during the past two summers, helping them to improve from a 1-6 overall record in the program’s inaugural season to a 4-3 mark last year and a 2008 regular-season finish of 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the Greatland Conference, sharing first place in the conference with the Eielson Ravens and Nikiski Bulldogs. Barrow is ranked third in the Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network’s poll of small schools statewide.
“When you sit down and make goals, we couldn’t have dreamed of probably a better scenario than what we have right now,” Whalers offensive coordinator and assistant coach Jeremy Arnhart said Friday after the Whalers’ final practice before their first playoff game.
“From the beginning team, we’ve improved every game,” he said. “Every season, we’ve gotten a little bit better, and we hope to continue that so we can have a tradition up here. That all comes with having good players and a good coaching staff, and they work together and our kids are hungry to play. If they like to play, they like to learn, and if you put the combination together, it just works well.”
Zac Rohan, a senior nose tackle and offensive guard who practiced in shorts Friday despite the weather, was among the pioneering Whalers in the first game two years ago and will take the field today for Barrow’s playoff debut.
“It’s awesome,” Rohan said. “It’s pretty cool to end your senior year with a (regular-season) championship. I hope we got to state; I’ll be able to finish BHS football with a good ending.”
Today’s winner advances to the semifinal round next weekend at the Anchorage Football Stadium, and the semifinal winners play for the small schools state title there on Oct. 18.
This season’s success extends beyond the blue football field with the gold numerals — Barrow’s school colors.
It’s had an impact on the entire city of about 4,500 people and a school district that Blankenship said is the size of Minnesota in regard to square miles (about 89,000).
“Being the fact that we’re considered remote, we don’t have a lot of amenities that Fairbanks, for example, or Anchorage would have for their young people,” Leon Boyea, a North Slope Borough Police captain, said on a flight Friday morning from Fairbanks to Barrow. “The football program has given both young men and women an outlet that they normally don’t have.”
Boyea, 51, played high school football, hockey and baseball in Malone, N.Y.
“Growing up, sports was an important part of our school lives. It gave us an outlet,” he said. “When you’re out there tomorrow, you’re going to see the support of the (Barrow) community. It’s been huge.”
The success of the Whalers this season led the school district to add eight-man football to the sports offered at high schools in seven villages and at Hopson Middle School in Barrow.
Mabel Kaleak and her family plan to be among spectators today for the Houston-Barrow playoff game. She saw the impact football had on her son, Lawrence, a seventh-grader this season on the Hopson Middle School squad.
“Lawrence has improved his attendance and attitude towards school,” Mabel, an executive assistant with the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation, wrote in an e-mail. “Last year before football, it was a battle to get him out of bed. Now, he makes sure we wake him at 6:30 every morning with an awesome ‘I will do it,’ attitude.
“I’m glad Barrow is finally finding incentives for our kids to want to go to school instead of dreading it. We all gotta just keep encouraging our kids and sooner than we know, they’ll be running our corporations and becoming good leaders and role models.”
The Whalers are running into history today, hoping to run further in their first postseason.
Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586.
Community Discussion
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I love it when we show the positive side of football. It can be an incredible force for good. The best thing of this whole Barrow football deal is the improvement in the lives of the young men on the team. If you make better men you get a better country. Sweet.
What a great story about athletic really bringing a community and generations together.
Good luck Barrow, congratulations on what already has been a very succesful season.
Awesome story Danny, can't wait to read your account of the game today. Have fun man!
Congratulations Whalers on a great season. Good luck and have a great game. History in the making!
Rural Alaska has been know nationally as the ice bucket for it's basket ball power, now it can become known for it's seal (not pig) skin power. Just goes to show you how one woman in Texas could make a difference for a lot of kids in rural Alaska.
GO WHALERS! So happy for Barrow and it will be awesome to be at the game.
I would love for somebody to read this article and then try to explain how athletics isn't an integral part of the education of young people. We have heard it during school budget discussions and lately with the mishaps at the Lathrop-West Valley game.
School is about learning more than reading, writing ant math. Congratulations to the North Slope Borough School District for recognizing how important a total learning experience is and making it happen for their kids.
Good Luck Barrow Whalers! and Have Fun!
Barrow should be proud of its youth .... A good showing for the nation. Fun with sanity. Very nice.
Nice work Danny and good luck to the Whalers... WHAT A GREAT YEAR!
Great job and good luck Whalers and thank you Coach Mark Voss.
Congratulations Whalers.
7 and 1 in just your 3rd season.
Truly professional work.
Your friends down here in Jacksonville are praying for you.
Midnight sun Baseball, first football playoff above the arctic circle. Only in Alaska. GOOOOOOOOOO Whalers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome story,Danny.I'm glad you made it up for the game.Thanks also to Houston for coming,I know it wasn't very good conditions to play in,but you don't have anything to hang your head about.Today was our day,next time may be yours.To Cathy Parker and all the folks that made this field become a reality,may the Lord always shine his light on you.Thank you all,Dave Gerke
P.S Nightline will have a story on Monday for those who would like to see more
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