Hawks, Huskies open Division III football postseason

After working through months of the unknown, the Houston Hawks will be able to defend their state football title.

Houston, the 2019 Division III state champions, open the 2020 postseason against Nikiski Saturday at 2 p.m. in Nikiski.

“When the season started we were happy to have each practice. We didn’t know if we were going to have the next practice,” Houston head coach Glenn Nelson said.

Houston is one of four Mat-Su football programs part of an amended three-division pigskin postseason adopted by the Alaska Schools Activities Association amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hawks and Redington Huskies are both among six squads in the three-week Division III postseason. The Huskies are slated to play at Valdez on Saturday.

“I wasn’t sure that it was going to work with us not playing a conference game,” Nelson said.

The Mat-Su Borough School District restricted competition to only within the borough due to COVID mitigation protocol. The Hawks defeated DIII rival Redington in the regular season, before playing both Division I Wasilla and Division II Palmer twice, and Division I Colony once. Nelson said the chance to play the larger Valley programs was a big deal for the Hawks.

“It was definitely a blessing,” Nelson said. “I can’t begin to explain how much that means. Playing Wasilla, who is so much bigger. Playing Colony, who is so much faster. Playing a tough Palmer team. We get it handed to us one week and we beat them the next time. Those games are invaluable.”

Houston’s season included a 32-31 win over Palmer, its first varsity football win over the Moose in school history.

Houston draws a Nikiski team that finished 1-2 during the regular season. The Bulldogs scored a lopsided victory over Seward, but suffered tough losses to Homer and Kenai.

“We had some success against Nikiski last year at Nikiski. Beating Nikiski has been tough for us historically,” Nelson said.

Monroe Catholic and Homer received first-round byes in the Division III playoffs. Monroe will face the Houston-Nikiski winner, while Homer will play the Valdez-Redington winner. Both games are slated for Oct. 17 at a location still to be determined. The Division III title game is Oct. 24.

Nelson said a late fundraising effort helped make Saturday’s postseason road trip possible. Due to mitigation efforts, the team will not be staying overnight on the Kenai Peninsula. The team will also not be able to make the usual stops at restaurants or convenience stores. Instead, parents have volunteered to bring food to the team. Nelson said the team was able to raise about $8,500 for food and transportation for the postseason. The head coach said one of his players, junior Eric Preboski, helped the team greatly in these efforts. Nelson said he’s thankful for those in the local business community who recognized his players’ efforts to work through adversity.

Colony and Palmer also advanced to the postseason. The Knights are part of the Division I playoffs and the Moose are among Division II playoff teams. The DI and DII playoffs start Oct. 17.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.