by Jeff Fisher
With only 30 schools playing 11-man football, Alaska is the smallest state in the nation when it comes to the sport.
While the Last Frontier State isn’t chock-full of recruits year-in and year-out, it has produced nine NFL players with former Denver Bronco and Washington Redskin turned ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth being the most recognizable name of the nine from Alaska. This year not one player has received a star-ranking from 247sports.com.
For those of you wondering, Schlereth played his high school football at Service High School before moving to play college football at the University of Idaho. Schlereth was drafted in the 10th round of the 1989 NFL draft by the Redskins. He went on to a a 12-year NFL career during which he was named a an All-Pro guard once and won three Super Bowls – two with the Broncos and one with the Redskins.
Schlereth’s alma mater, Service High, finished runner-up in the state’s Big School classification last year, losing to West High in Anchorage 28-16.
Over the last ten years, Service has been won two Big School titles (2008 and 2011) to go along with three runner-up finished an a 60-36-1 record.
Soldotna is the Medium School defending champs coming into the 2014 season after closing out the 2013 season with a 56-49 win over Juneau-Douglas in the championship game. The Stars, who are 88-13 in the last ten years, has won eight state titles in the past decade. The Stars’ 88 wins in the last ten years is the most by an Alaskan school, Juneau-Douglas is second with 73 wins over the last ten years.
In the Small School division, Nikiski is the defending champ after a 36-28 win over Monroe Catholic. The Bulldogs have appeared in three straight championship games, winning the titles in 2011 and 2013.
2013 Alaska State Champs
Big School – West
Medium School – Soldotna
Small School – Nikiski
Key Dates
st day of practice – August 4th
1st day for games – August 21st
Playoffs begin – November 7th
State Championships – December 4th & 5th
– See more at: https://highschoolfootballamerica.com/hsfa/2014/06/26/2014-alabama-high-school-football-season-key-dates/#more-561
1st Day of practice – August 4th
1st Day of games – August 15th
Playoffs begin – October 10th & 11th
State Championships – Small School, October 18th; Big School & Small School October 25th
