It's Whaler Football Season!

As one of the adopted squads for football here at OSG HQ, it's time to keep up with the 2009 version of the Barrow ((Alaska)) High School Whalers ((pictured, thanks John Wagner/Fairbanks Daily News Miner)).

Their regular season starts this weekend...

((HT: Fairbanks Daily News Miner))

Head coach Mark Voss doesn’t have to worry about smoky conditions caused by wildfires disrupting Barrow High School’s football practices. It’s because there’s tundra and no trees in the northernmost city in the nation.

He also doesn’t have to worry about having experience in key positions this season for the Whalers, who last year reached the small schools state semifinals and finished 8-2, the best record for the program since it began in 2006.

Barrow went 5-1 in Greatland Conference play to share first place with Eielson and Nikiski.
Among the 29 players for Monday morning’s practice at Cathy Parker Field were 15 players from last season, including senior quarterback Albert Gerke, who led Alaska signal callers last season with 1,785 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Both totals were small schools single-season state records.

“He’s become a leader; he’s making some real mature decisions and part of that is from having that experience on the field,” Voss, who has coached Barrow since its first season, said by telephone.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound quarterback has the option, too, of handing off the ball to fellow senior Anthony Edwards. The 5-9, 225-pound running back can be a bruiser or he can be elusive.

“When it’s tough yardage — picking up two or three yards — he can put his head down and go,” Voss said. “When’s he’s hitting (holes) off tackle, he can pop in and then work outside.”

Edwards’ junior season featured a career-best 269-yard performance with one touchdown in a 46-18 win over Houston last Oct. 4 in a small schools state quarterfinal, the first high school football playoff game above the Arctic Circle.

Gerke and Edwards can rely on a mostly veteran offensive line that’s bolstered by four seniors-
6-0, 240-pound guards Forrest Ahkiviana and Alastair Dunbar and tackles Jordan Grimes (6-1, 200) and Brian McBride (6-1, 205) — and one promising freshman — center Eric Pili (5-10, 240).

The quintet also plays on the defensive side of the ball.

Barrow has the fortune, too, of playing its first five games at home, starting at
1 p.m. Saturday with a semifinal rematch against the state runner-up Kodiak Bears, who downed the Whalers 19-13 on Oct. 10 at the Anchorage Football Stadium.

Following the Kodiak contest are conference visits by Nikiski (Aug. 15) and Eielson (Aug. 22).

“Nobody said that playing small schools football was going to be easy,” Voss said. “Kodiak is a good test; it will let us know where we’re at.”

Here's your refresher course on why this is a perpetually-cool story...

Starting with the Tom Rinaldi story from ESPN

Here's J-Dub's interview with Cathy Parker at the time she was raising funds for the Whaler Turf on OSG's Sports Radio's "Count/Pointercount..."

ESPN's Wayne Drehs gets full credit for starting the momentum