J's World: Urban Dictionary and the end of the streak

The most recent addition to the Alaska prep football landscape made its debut during the opening week of the 2018 season.

Juneau.

Just Juneau.

No mascot. No logo. Just Juneau.

The new team, which draws from both high schools in Alaska’s capital city, Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain, had a moniker for a moment. After the Alaska Schools Activities Association granted the Juneau School District’s request to offer a co-op football program rather than a team at each school, a committee was put together to choose a brand new identity for the brand new program. In an effort to recognize each of the past programs, the name Thunder Bears was selected. It’s pretty simple, taking a piece from each of the old teams, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears and Thunder Mountain Falcons. Seems like a safe choice, right?

Not so much.

Before everyone on the island could start cheering, “let’s go Thunder Bears,” school district officials were made award of a negative connotation associated with the name on the website urbandictionary.com.

I get that. You have to be careful these days. But if the first choice can’t be used, there has to be something else.

Anything.

The Capitals. The Senators. The Prospectors. The Miners.

The Halibut. The Pilots. The 49ers. The Mendenhall Glacier Climbers.

Anything.

So my next thought to try to combine pieces of the old teams again. Then it hit me.

The Crimson Falcons.

It has a ring to it right?

The Juneau Crimson Falcons.

Almost sounds like a superhero character. This could work. This could be the one.

I break into radio guy voice.

“Crimson Falcons, touchdown!”

Sounds good.

Just to be safe, I Googled it.

Urban Dictionary strikes again.

I’m not going to repeat its definition listed for crimson falcon. This is a family newspaper. But Urban Dictioinary ruined what I thought was a fairly decent idea. And frankly, there are some things you can’t unread. Damn you urban dictionary! It’s like you start talking about football, and suddenly find yourself trapped in a game of Cards Against Humanity.

So, I guess it’s just Juneau. Maybe it’ll catch on, the one-word name, like Cher or Madonna.

OK. I think it’s time to move on. But if you are wondering, it was a rough debut for Juneau.

Palmer 31, Juneau 8. We’ll be talking a lot more about the Moose in coming weeks.,

In other news, the streak is over.

Alaska’s state record streak of 59 straight wins is now history. West Anchorage used an 18-13 win at Soldotna to hand the Stars their first loss since Palmer beat SoHi 27-7, Aug. 11, 2012. Six state championships and more than 2,000 days separated the losses.

Let’s put this in perspective.

In 2012, there were about 500 Blockbuster video stores still open across the United State. Today, there is one.

In 2012, Soldotna’s seniors were in the sixth grade. The freshmen were in the second.

SoHi’s loss to Palmer during the opening week of the 2012 season was actually its second straight loss. Kenai Central beat Soldotna 28-12 in the medium-schools state championship game.

West snapped the streak in dramatic fashion, scoring on the final play of the game. It’s also the second time West has snapped a long SoHi streak. On Aug. 8, 2009, West beat SoHi 34-21 to break a 39-game Stars winning streak. The second-longest streak in Alaska history started with a 10-7 win over Palmer Aug. 18, 2006.

In 11 years as head coach, Soldotna’s Galen Brantley Jr now sports a 107-6 career record. In 113 career games, Brantely’s teams have suffered losses to only West, Palmer, Kenai and Colony.

In case you are wondering, Barrow now has the state’s longest winning streak. The defending Division III state champs have one seven straight.

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