J's World: Rumored elimination of a division would damage development of prep football in Alaska

The rumors are swirling across the gridiron. Major change could come within the next few weeks.

Major damage.

The development of prep football in Alaska is once again in danger.

There are a number of factors in play, but most lead to the potential of Alaska’s three divisions of football reduced to a pair. I’m not a huge fan of awarding three state champions in a current field of 30 total teams. But it’s the only way we can keep a somewhat even level of playing field.

Let’s take a look at the latest developments.

The Juneau School District issued a press release Oct. 19 announcing its formal request to the Alaska Schools Activities Association to consolidate the Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain teams and create a cooperative program at JDHS.

Based on the overall debt amassed by both program, mostly due to travel costs, that move is likely to be approved. That would drop Alaska’s total to 29 football teams. It also creates further problems at the Division II level. Another member of the Southeast Conference in 2017, North Pole, has already been approved to bump up to the Division I Railbelt Conference.

The loss of North Pole and Thunder Mountain leaves only Juneau-Douglas and Ketchikan in the Southeast.

It also means there could potentially by only seven teams at the Division II level.

Obviously that’s not good.

But eliminating the Division III level and bumping the 10 DIII teams back to Division II level does not work either.

We’ve already seen that.

Just ask Houston what it was like to get clobbered by Soldotna and Kenai every year.

Asking the Division III teams to regularly compete at the Division II level would put the future of many Division III programs at great risk.

Seward, Valdez, Houston, Redington, Voznesnka, Nikiski.

These are programs simply not built to clash with teams such as Soldotna, Kenai and Palmer.

Nikiski and Vozensenka forfeited games in 2017 because of lack of available players. Valdez and Seward have low numbers. Even Eielson, a small-schools power for decades, has struggled with turnout.

Before a third class was added prior to the 2015 season, Houston had been a medium-schools (now known as Division II) team. It just about killed the program. The Hawks were drilled by the likes of Kenai and SoHi on a regular basis. Houston won only 11 games during a five-year span. Kids didn’t want to play.

In 2014, Houston High School basically went on strike, and played as an independent that season.

Since joining the Division III Aurora Conference in 2015, the Hawks have been competitive. Houston has won 16 games in three years, and played for a state title in 2016.

Push the current Division III teams to the Division II level, and most teams will experience what Houston did.

But it’s not like you can push most of the Division II schools to Division I.

Let’s take Palmer for example. The majority of Division I teams hail from schools with more than twice as many total students as Palmer. In the last two years, Palmer has only two wins against Division I programs and eight against Division II teams.

Aside from state power Soldotna, owner of the record 59-game winning streak, most Division II teams would struggle regularly playing big DI programs such as East, West, Chugiak and Bartlett.

I’ve always said, the most important job of a coach, in any sport, is putting athletes in the position to succeed. ASAA needs to put Alaska’s football players and programs in a position to succeed. Cutting a division would create the opposite for the majority of Alaska’s football programs.

There’s only one realistic future for many of small programs in the state. That’s eight-man football. The fact we don’t have eight-man in this state is insane.

Just imagine the development of the sport we could see in this state. It could open the door for a number of other schools to add football. Schools that can’t realistically field 11.

And that could also help develop 11-man football.

If an eight-man team can sustain success for a number of years, interest will grow. Maybe there’s an opportunity for one of those eight-man teams to transition to 11.

ASAA needs to think big picture here. Yes, it’s sort of goofy to crown three champs in a state with only 30 teams. But look at the playoffs. Other than a fairly boring Division I quarterfinal round, all three divisions produced some great football. The Division I and Division III title games were decided in the final moments. Bartlett scored in the final seconds to edge West Anchorage for the DI championships. Barrow stopped Homer just short near the goal line on the final play of the game to preserve a win in the DIII championship. In the Division II title game, Palmer gave six-time state champ SoHi its toughest test of the year.

Prep football in Alaska is far from perfect, but where it stands is much better than it would be if a division is eliminated.

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