Football in Alaska....cool story

[rangerjoe33]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tundra

[Alaska cat]

Originally posted by rangerjoe33
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tundra

That was quite a story, and I had the pleasure of watching it live, it was a hoot, and yes I shook myhead a lot. But for only being around football for theree weeks in their life before it all started was amazing.

You can also look up Alaska football on Maxpreps.com and it is there anything you would ever want to know. In the lower part of the state it is actually OK...but NOT in comparison to Texas. Oklahoma..maybe:)

Although thier big schools like The Colony in Wasilla, or Anchorage South would give many good 3A teams fits

any body want a whaler T-go here
www.nsbsd.org they are a little pricey though as they have to import and export everything, but it goes to support the program:)

You can find more on that first game by going to adn.com and searching for Barrow Whalers

http://www.adn.com/sports/prep/football/story/8101864p-7994370c.html

[Phil C]

Originally posted by Alaska cat
That was quite a story, and I had the pleasure of watching it live, it was a hoot, and yes I shook myhead a lot. But for only being around football for theree weeks in their life before it all started was amazing.

You can also look up Alaska football on Maxpreps.com and it is there anything you would ever want to know. In the lower part of the state it is actually OK...but NOT in comparison to Texas. Oklahoma..maybe:)

Although thier big schools like The Colony in Wasilla, or Anchorage South would give many good 3A teams fits

any body want a whaler T-go here
www.nsbsd.org they are a little pricey though as they have to import and export everything, but it goes to support the program:)

You can find more on that first game by going to adn.com and searching for Barrow Whalers

Alaska did you know that in the summer in Alaska the sun is still shinning at midnight? :eek:
In fact in the summer there are only a few hours of night time. Amazing.

[Phil C]

I checked out the temperature prediction for Nome, Alaska today. The low is -22 degrees F. The high will be -8 degrees F. - it gets pretty warm. HaHa! :)

[Alaska cat]

-8? thats a heat wave this time of year:)

Can be -50 just as easily

Another article

Playing football in Barrow is all kinds of cool!

http://www.nsbsd.org/site/index.cfm/1,1,412,html

complete with charts of first ever game

[Alaska cat]

Phil

Nome is quite a bit south of Barrow...sort of the tropics of the north.:)

[Phil C]

Originally posted by Alaska cat
Phil

Nome is quite a bit south of Barrow...sort of the tropics of the north.:)

:)

[Phil C]

Alaska I had some friends that left Freer, TX (60 miles east of Laredo) that brought some land near Anchorage, Alaska about 30 years ago. They really like it up there. I haven't heard from them since they left and they haven't come back so that is an extra good sign they like it there.

[Alaska cat]

Phil if you have never been there, I go up and back every year and sometimes write travel guides for the trip and post them here:
http://25thaviation.org/travelguides they are loaded with pictures from spring to fall depeninding on when I made the trip. It will give you a preview of what it is like up there at different times of year. I live north of Nikiski which is on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage as a crow flies 60 miles as the road goes a little over 200 :)

[Phil C]

Originally posted by Alaska cat
Phil if you have never been there, I go up and back every year and sometimes write travel guides for the trip and post them here:
http://25thaviation.org/travelguides they are loaded with pictures from spring to fall depeninding on when I made the trip. It will give you a preview of what it is like up there at different times of year. I live north of Nikiski which is on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage as a crow flies 60 miles as the road goes a little over 200 :)

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing Alaska. I have never had the honor to visit that great state but I am sure it is awesome.

[$cooter!]

Im gonna be stationed in Anchorage come May so it's on.

[Alaska cat]

Scooter:

If you are going to be up there in Alaska this summer get ahold of me...I'll take ya fishing, I do that for the Veterans up there and for the guys in the military today..itis my way of saying thank you for serving.

you can always find me at webmaster@25thaviation.org or my cell phone when I am in alaska is 907-354-7062. It only works when I am up there and I'll be along by the first of June:)

So keep track of it

[Alaska cat]

I been working on a home home series with one of the better Anchorage area teams to play Celina..sometime in the future .that will be a logistical nightmare..but I think I can get Alaska airlines to pay for it..would make great PR nationwide for both communities. maybe even ESPN would help out

[Matthew328]

That would be interesting...

[$cooter!]

Originally posted by Alaska cat
I been working on a home home series with one of the better Anchorage area teams to play Celina..sometime in the future .that will be a logistical nightmare..but I think I can get Alaska airlines to pay for it..would make great PR nationwide for both communities. maybe even ESPN would help out hey i would like to help out on that. My email address is :

keenanwatson2001@hotmail.com

[52madmidget]

Hey, I played for Dimond High!!! Class of 1996! But any native alaskan will tell ya, Hockey and Basketball is the sport of choice. I cant play football all that well, but I can check the hell out of a wing!!

[$cooter!]

Yeah I seen Chalmers play. Basketball is the sport in the AK.

[Pmoney]

hey i cant find where the website is selling the t-shirts?

[Alaska cat]

Originally posted by 52madmidget
Hey, I played for Dimond High!!! Class of 1996! But any native alaskan will tell ya, Hockey and Basketball is the sport of choice. I cant play football all that well, but I can check the hell out of a wing!!

See thats not all that different Vernon runs a wing T...just check the hell out of it on D:)

I helped the diamond team 2 years ago with D, and they did good...I didn't this last year and they seem to have forgotten everything..lol they got killed

I agree though Hockey is King up there Go Aces!! 2005 Kelly cup Champs!!

[Alaska cat]

Originally posted by Pmoney
hey i cant find where the website is selling the t-shirts?

have to call the administraitor...first guy on the top of the list of phone number

or check with me in a couple days..I am going to get a bunch made down here if they will send me the stitch pattern and artwork

[Da Mules]

my nephew played LB and FB on the Chugiak state championship team in 1996

[Alaska cat]

Originally posted by Da Mules
my nephew played LB and FB on the Chugiak state championship team in 1996

chugiak used to be the power now it has shifted to Anchorage South...seems up there you can go to whatever school you want...and everyone abandoned Service, and Chugiak etc and they all wound up at South...a 2nd year new school that has now won everything.

There is a girl kicker up there that is a freshman..they fired the boy..and she kills them from 50, first one she ever kicked was from 45 and got the team into the playoffs with no time left..was first time kicking off astro turf too a pretty little blond chick 5'4 about 100 lbs soaking wet...with pink socks:)...her bit of feminizing football

[Alaska cat]

Thisis from earlier until I can find the one I'm looking for there is actually several girl kickers up there:)


Gridiron girls
High school football isn't just for the boys

By J.R. Rardon
Anchorage Daily News

Published: August 23, 2001
Last Modified: August 24, 2001 at 05:19 AM


Anchorage Christian School football coach Pete Carroll was clearly frustrated by many facets of his team's 54-19 loss to the Kenai Kardinals at Anchorage Football Stadium on Saturday. But he managed to sum all of them up with a single comment.


"Man, we got beat by a team with a girl on it," Carroll said.

Unfortunately for the Lions, they got plenty of looks at Kenai senior Jamie Montgomery, who came on after each of Kenai's eight touchdowns and who made six of her eight extra-point kicks.

Montgomery, a three-year veteran of Kenai's volleyball, girls basketball and girls soccer programs, is trying her hand -- er, foot -- on the gridiron for the first time. And she is not alone.

Houston senior Kerrie Aldeman and Skyview junior Jamie Beever have also parlayed their success on girls soccer programs into spots as place-kickers on their varsity football squads.

"It was just something I wanted to try," said Montgomery, who made her first five point-after attempts of the season before having two kicks blocked against ACS. "My friends encouraged me to do it. My mom didn't like it at all, because she was afraid I'd get hurt."

Perhaps mom should have more closely monitored Jamie's friends growing up. Among her close pals are football players Scott Kornfield, Wally Walker and Dane Myers, a 6-foot-1, 260-pound all-state lineman for the Kardinals.

"It's not really surprising to me," Myers said of Montgomery's appearance on the team this year. "She's the toughest person I know. When she has the pads on, she's a football player."

Beever was actually the first of the girls to get on the scoreboard, making her first extra-point kick in an opening-day loss to Palmer and converting her second try Saturday against Seward before her last attempt was blocked.

And Aldeman, who missed her only attempt against Kenai on opening day, joined the group when she made her only PAT attempt in a 51-7 loss at Nikiski Saturday.

"I was excited about it," said Aldeman, who spent the previous two years as a football team manager. "It was really cool. I was hoping for more (attempts) in the game."

Girls at Alaska high schools have increasingly staked out spots on teams traditionally reserved for boys.

Hockey players like Chugiak's Pam Dreyer, Palmer's Kerry Weiland and Soldotna's Kris Romberg all parlayed experience on their male-dominated hockey teams into scholarships with women's college programs. Skyview's Melina Hutchison broke new ground in 1998 when she became the first girls to qualify for -- and win a match in -- the state wrestling championships. Last year, five girls earned spots in the state's two state wrestling tournaments.

So where is this year's surprising development on the gridiron headed?

"I'm not a big proponent of girls playing football," said Jim Beeson, who has never before had a girl in his 12 years as Kenai's head coach. "But if anyone can do it, Jamie can. She's a very good athlete, and she's not afraid to stick her nose in."

After kicking from behind the relative safety of the front line on Kenai's five first-half scores Saturday, Montgomery was inserted at wide receiver in the second half. She had one ball thrown to her on a slant pass at the goal line and it was broken up by ACS defender Todd Alden, but she delievered a key block from her end position on a second-half touchdown run by teammate Dakota Craig.

Through it all, her mother, Nancy Montgomery, watched and cringed from the sidelines.

"She commented to me one day that she was going to practice," said Nancy, whose husband Jim is an assistant coach for the Kenai team when he's not working on the North Slope. "Then she came back from practice and informed me she was playing football.

"I just kept thinking, she's gonna get smooshed."

Jamie Montgomery left the AFS turf Saturday having received a few bumps, but no major hits.

"I wasn't worried about getting hurt," said Montgomery, who is generously listed on the Kenai program at 5-9, 165 pounds but is probably closer to 5-4 and 125. "But I was apprehensive about doing what I was supposed to be doing. A lot of the guys on the team are my really good friends and they're helping me learn.

"Because I don't know much about football."

But, like Aldeman and Beever, Montgomery is no stranger to sports and competition. All three have been members of their respective schools' girls basketball and soccer teams. Beever and Mongomery have also played volleyball, and Aldeman has been a member of the Houston cross country team and cut her football teeth as the Hawks' team manager.

"I've always been a tomboy, at least that's what everyone says," Aldeman said. "My parents weren't too into it, and they took a little convincing."

Like Montgomery, she mainly had to convince her parents, Charles and Kathy Aldeman, that she wouldn't be crushed by defenders. Charles Aldeman, who played football on the Palmer-Wasilla High team through the mid-1970s, wasn't so sure.

"She said, Y'know, they can't hit the kicker,' " he said. "And I said, Yeah, if it was me I'd take you out in a heartbeat, just to make a statement.' "

Kerrie Aldeman admitted to some mild kidding from her male teammates, but says they have been supportive of her arrival and trusts them to protect her on the field.

Beeson claims he has as much interest in Montgomery's health as her mother because Jamie is a key player of the Kenai girls basketball team he also coaches.

"When these guys show up, they're not gonna let anything happen to her," Beeson said. "Besides, I think if anyone tried anything they'd probably have to answer to Dane."

While the mothers may hope their daughters can avoid the worst of football's contact, they're clearly having an impact so far this season.

"She's out there to be a football player," Beeson said of Montgomery. "Not just a girl in a football uniform."