All-star team gives colleges an eyeful

ANCHORAGE — In recent years, prep athletes in sports such as basketball, volleyball and hockey have been able to showcase their skills to an Outside audience as part of traveling all-star squads. Each year, more and more Alaska athletes are heading to the Lower 48 for tournaments in search of scholarships and success.

But football players from the 49th state have not had the same opportunity. Now, Service High assistant coach Numi Illalio is trying to change that.

Illalio has put together an all-star team made up of more than two dozen Alaska high school seniors who will compete in the Tanoa Bowl in Auburn, Wash., Saturday.

Colony seniors Trey Farber and Rio Stewart, and Wasilla senior David Green join players from Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai and Juneau on the team that will take on an all-star team from Northwest Washington in the inaugural Tanoa Bowl.

“It’s a really great opportunity for all of us who live in Alaska,” Farber said by cell phone from Washington Wednesday afternoon after a team practice. “Coaches are here to watch us. It’s a good time to get some notoriety and introduce people to Alaska football. A lot of people don’t know we play football in Alaska.”

Farber’s statement supports Illailio’s motives for creating this team to participate in the all-star game.

“We know there’s so much talent in the state of Alaska, we just want to help these kids out,” Illailo said by phone from Washington.

Illailo, a veteran coach who has spent time at Service, Juneau and East, has helped a number of his former athletes make the jump to high levels of college football. Now he wants more Alaska players to have the opportunity. Illailo has seen athletes from a number of other sports travel south to get noticed, and he said he always thought, why not football?

“There are always critics saying that will never work,” Illailo said. “But by golly, my phone is ringing off the hook with college coaches calling.”

Illailo said coaches from states across the Western U.S. as far south as Arizona are expected to be at Saturday’s game. Coaches will watch the Alaska team practice while in Washington. A representative from the recruiting website scouts.com has also taken a look at the Alaska talent.

Illailo said he created the team with three primary objectives in mind — represent the state of Alaska, help open the door for the rest of the local football community and to tell the college coaches not to shy away from Alaska players. Illailo said a scout told him during a practice that Alaska has so many athletes that nobody has really tapped in to.

The 2010 team features athletes from several regions in the state, and Illailo said he hopes to see more interest in the future and continued representation from throughout Alaska. Illailo said a fairly specific criteria was set to determine which seniors would be added to the all-star roster, and that criteria is similar to what Division I coaches use to narrow down lists of recruits.

“It’s the three A’s,” Illailo said. “First is academics, No. 2 is good attitude and (No.) 3 is ability.”

The team has met every weekend since early November, hosting three practices per weekend at The Dome in Anchorage. Illailo said officials at The Dome helped him secure practice time.

The Valley players made the commute to Anchorage three times each weekend to practice.

“We’re having fun,” Farber said. “These guys used to be rivals, now we’re all buddies.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.