Sports

A new trophy will be placed in the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears trophy case on Monday morning.

The shiny silver football is symbolic of Saturday’s well-fought medium-schools championship game that Juneau dominated much of the time.  Juneau also brings home the sportsmanship award.  The game was played at Anchorage Football Stadium.

As Rosemarie Alexander reports, the final score of Juneau 49, Soldotna 56 is the outcome of a game that could have been won by either team.

The game was barely underway and junior running back Eric Nordgren was already in the end zone. Then a pink flag fell to the field and Juneau’s first touchdown was called back on a penalty.

Crimson Bears Head Coach Rich Sjoross said he’d never seen a game with so many momentum swings.

“They’re down, we’re up; we’re down, they ’re up.”

I reached Sjoross on his cellphone just after the awards ceremony.

That play, he said, also set the emotional tone for the game.

“We scouted them, came up with a play, hit an 80-yard touchdown and then it comes back on a penalty.  So we go from elation and they go from disappointment and then the penalty flag comes late and then we’re disappointed and they’re elated,” Sjoross said.

A short time later, the Soldotna Stars scored then Juneau took over. The Stars struggled to contain Bears’ running back Demtrius Campos, who is small, light and negotiates traffic well.  Before the end of the second quarter, Campos, Nordgren and junior wide receiver Adam Empson scored four Juneau touchdowns; Soldotna had three.

The game was seen statewide on GCI cable channel one.  The Alaska School Activities Association has signed a seven-year agreement with the company to broadcast all state playoff games.

This was an exciting one for television.

“It’s one of those games that ages all the coaches, but it’s great for TV,” Sjoross said.

Tied game

“Snap, the kick is up and it is good and Soldotna has come from two touchdowns down to tie this one up 42 to 42,” a play-by-play announcer said.  

Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network’s Bob Barger was on the sidelines.

“Hey, if you have a seatbelt on the recliner at home, ladies and gentlemen, bucket it in because it’s going to be turbulent here in the fourth quarter, I assure you that.”

The game was tied twice in the second half.  In the fourth quarter the Stars picked off a Crimson Bears’ pass then scored, breaking a 49 to 49 tie; it was the 15^th touchdown of the game.  The score was 56 to 49, with seven minutes remaining.

The game ended with Soldotna in possession inside the Juneau five-yard line, where the Stars ran out the clock.

After the game, Soldotna quarterback Colton Young told Barger that Juneau was the toughest team the Stars have played all year.

Here’s how Barger described the Crimson Bears:

“Sure they came out on the short end, but they controlled a good part of this game and to me, they’re a champion, too, they’re a runner up. They’re not a loser, they are a runner up.”  

Juneau had 405 yards total offense; Soldotna, 486.  Juneau had 4 penalties for 45 yards, with two touchdowns nullified.   Soldotna had one penalty for five yards. Every extra point Juneau’s Manasse Maake kicked was good. Same for Soldotna’s kicker. The Stars failed on one two-point conversion.

Sportsmanship Award

The Crimson Bears were number one in sportsmanship for medium schools, an award given by the Alaska Schools Activities Association.  According to Coach Sjoross, the 2013 Crimson Bears are the first JDHS football team in 25 years to get the sportsmanship award.

“You know in today’s society, that’s a big deal.  With many issues with coaches and players, and fans with referees, and all that kind of stuff, you know you just read stories all throughout the nation,” Sjoross said.  “To get a sportsmanship award from a group of people that really don’t know the kids other than to evaluate them on the field, that’s a pretty special thing.”

In other Alaska high school football news, Nikiski won the small schools championship game against Monroe, on a score of 36 to 28. West Anchorage beat Service, 28 to 16, to claim the large schools trophy.

For those who have GCI cable, all three championship games can be seen on demand.

A special election on Monday could put Eaglecrest Ski Area on the map outside Alaska.

Eaglecrest is included in Powder Magazine’s Ski Town Throwdown, competing against Whistler/Blackcomb Ski Resort, near Vancouver, British Columbia.

Whistler/Blackcomb is many, many times larger than Juneau’s city-owned ski and snowboard area.  But if enough people vote for Eaglecrest, not only will there be bragging rights, but Powder Magazine will feature Eaglecrest and Juneau in one of its monthly editions.

General Manager Matt Lillard says the international magazine reached out to Eaglecrest to include it in the competition, which has several rounds.

“Right now we’re just focusing on beating out Whistler/Blackcomb. They’re obviously a much bigger area with definitely a much bigger following than us.  So we’re going to try to get everybody out there and win this round then we’ll start focusing on the next one after that,” Lillard says.

Ski Town Throwdown is a competition among a variety of ski towns and resorts across the U.S. and Canada.

“If we can keep going it just shows that we’ve got passionate skiers, a great area and it just gets our name out there more and more,” Lillard says. 

Fans vote through Powder Magazine’s Facebook page one day only.  For Eaglecrest, voting will be open for 24 hours on Monday, Oct. 28.

The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears should be considered proud runners-up for Alaska’s medium-schools football championship.

While the Bears lost to the Stars, it was a well-fought game, with Juneau ahead most of the time, and the two teams tied for much of the second half.

The game was played at Anchorage Football Stadium and carried in Juneau on cable television and KINY Radio.

In a cellphone call just after the game, head coach Rich Sjoross aptly described it as a game marked by constant momentum swings.

Juneau brings home a silver football trophy and another award that they should feel very good about:  The Alaska School Activities Association gave the Crimson Bears the Sportsmanship Award.

Check back later for statistics and more details of the game.

Juneau is buying bike racks that double as public art with locally inspired motifs.

The city is paying Minneapolis-based Dero Bike Rack Co. $20,883 for the custom order.

“When these racks are installed – this is just going to be glorious,” said Bob Aldrich, who’s in sales at Dero. “These are the coolest racks that we are fabricating this year, without a question.”

Dero makes thousands of racks a year. Juneau is buying 15.

“Every one of which is a one-of-a-kind, unique design that will be present nowhere else in the universe as presently constituted,” Aldrich said.

The designs include a Tlingit-style raven, a boat, waves, mining tools, an umbrella, and of course, rain boots. Each rack will accommodate at least two bicycles.

Juneau Engineering Director Rorie Watt says the racks are in keeping with a 2009 urban plan that encourages accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians.

“We thought it would be nice to have some bike racks that, you know, had a little flair to them,” Watt said.

Aldrich said they hope to ship out the racks in mid-November.

Project manager Skye Stekoll says some of these racks will replace old ones, some will displace racks in good shape to lower profile locations, and some are going to spots with no racks at all. They’ll be installed next spring.

The Juneau School Board says a community committee can review its ban on middle school travel for athletes, but it’s not likely anyone from the board will participate.

During the fifth hour of the board’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday night, long after the public had left, members agreed with Juneau parent Jon Kurland, who recommended the new approach.

At the beginning of the meeting, about 6:30 p.m., Kurland said a community task force, comprised of parents, district officials, teachers and coaches, would use a better and more transparent process to come up with an alternative to the ban imposed for the 2014 school year.

Kurland earlier this month sent a letter to the board, criticizing members for the way they reached their decision on the policy, with discussions held in the summer when many families were unaware a change was afoot.

Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School restricts sports teams from traveling to other communities for competition.  The board on Sept. 10th extended the restriction to Floyd Dryden Middle School teams.

Kurland believes a task force could come up with a more reasoned policy.

“I heard board members express a variety of policy concerns related to this issue, related to budget expenditures, related to the cost of substitute teachers, other ancillary costs, ensuring an equitable process between the schools.  I think you could charge a stakeholder committee with addressing all of those things,” Kurland told the board.

Public opposition to the policy has been growing, including among students at  DZ, where principal Molly Yerkes limited travel this year.

DZ seventh grader Connor Norman presented the board with a petition signed by DZ students.

“My sister and I collected 146 signatures from students at our school who believe that you should consider changing your mind about banning middle school sports travel,” he said, several hours before the board finally took up the request.

Connor said it was unfair for the school board to take away students’ sports travel, or the fundraising they must do for the travel.

At 11 p.m., during the Board Member Comments section of the agenda, the board took up Kurland’s idea.

Members said if a revised policy is drafted and presented to the board by March, they would agree to consider it at the April and/or May meetings, for possible adoption at the start of next school year.

The middle school travel ban affects only athletics and does not extend to other activities student groups might travel to; it is set to go into effect on July 1, 2014.

On Wednesday, board president Sally Saddler said neither the board nor the administration would be involved in the community committee.

Public opposition to a middle school sports travel ban adopted by the Juneau School Board last month continues to be one-sided, and the anonymity of the ban’s community supporters is breeding skeptics of the official explanation.

Floyd Dryden Middle School eighth grader Kathy Tran is one of many venting about the policy – and the way it was adopted.

“They said that there was a lot of people that supported this ban. And I was like, ‘Who?’” Tran said.

In more than a dozen interviews with board members, school officials, students and parents, no one has been willing or able to answer that question. Not one person spoke in favor of the ban during public testimony at the school board’s two meetings on the policy.

Board members say there is community support for the ban, but are unwilling to identify from whom.

“At this point, you know, we’re hearing it off the record,” said school board member Barbara Thurston, one of the three “no” votes.

Meanwhile, parents are organizing opposition. About 40 people picketed a school board meeting last month at Thunder Mountain High School. A Facebook group called Save our Middle School Sports created in February has 209 members. And in a nearly empty room in a nearly empty mall on a Tuesday, a dozen people were putting together a repeal campaign.

Jennifer Lindley, a Floyd Dryden mom and repeal organizer, said the school board acted undemocratically.

“They voted in favor of an unspoken minority that none of us can seem to find,” Lindley said. “I don’t know who my counterpart is.”

School board members on both sides said there is no hidden agenda, and that the board itself raised the travel policy issue.

The four school board members who voted for the ban argued it reduces the burden on already strained budgets and reduces the fundraising borne by local businesses and the community. They said it eliminates unfair differences between how travel requests are handled at Juneau’s two main middle schools.

School Board Vice President Sean O’Brien, said casting his “yes” vote was “agonizing.”

“The challenge is, is we have an obligation to kinda create a, a relatively equitable playing field,” O’Brien said.

Floyd Dryden Principal Tom Milliron uses a case-by-case approach, weighing the amount of time lost in the classroom against the potential benefits of travel.

Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School Principal Molly Yerkes does not allow out-of-town sports travel. She said it’s not right to spend so much time and effort arranging travel when staffing cuts have left her school without a fulltime certified nurse and sometimes a single adult supervising 150 students at lunch.

Neither principal asked the school board to weigh in, though Yerkes said she does support the ban because it clarifies district priorities.

O’Brien said significant differences in kids’ opportunities, like sports travel, could lead to school shopping.

School board member Lisa Worl voted against the travel ban. She said the travel policy is one of many differences between the schools, for example, with classes offered and community involvement.

“So there just is a real difference between the schools. I mean, there’s no right and wrong, it just is.”

Worl said the travel ban sets a board precedent favoring uniformity over local control.

If the budget and staffing situation changes, Yerkes said she expects the school board would lift the ban and said she would reinstitute out-of-town travel.

“And so I think that Molly Yerkes has done the best that she can with what she has, and focus it on more of an intramural, cause that way she can get more kids to play in sports,” Worl said.

Opponents say the budget effects of out-of-town travel are negligible, because it’s paid for almost exclusively with fundraising. The school district pays indirect costs, such as substitutes for teachers traveling as coaches. They say if Juneau cannot or is not willing to support fundraising, it fails.

The Juneau Chamber of Commerce, whose members independently bear much of that cost, has not taken a position. President and CEO Cathie Roemmich says her board of directors intended to discuss the ban last month, but put it off because several members were out of town.

The district did erroneously identify one party in favor of the ban, its Activities Advisory Committee.

A district memo plainly states, “The Activities Advisory Committee is in agreement with the revision.”

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth,” said Activities Advisory Committee member Tom Rutecki. He’s been a member since it was founded in 2008. The committee discussed middle school travel last school year, but never made recommendations to the school board.

“And I pointed that out to them, I sent them individual emails, and I said, ‘Why are, why are you saying this? We never did this,’” Rutecki said.

It was not corrected in the memo, though Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich verbally noted the error during the meeting. He declined interview requests about the ban.

Seventh grader Leah Kleinman plays basketball at Floyd Dryden. The night the school board adopted the travel ban policy, she presented a 350-signature petition opposing it.

“You play, and you have fun, then you want to like, travel somewhere,” Kleinman said. “It’s like, ‘Hey guys, let’s go Ketchikan, yeah.’ But, now it’s like, you’re just gonna stay there and you’re just gonna play DZ. And then they will eventually stop coming to us.”

That’s already begun, even though the ban doesn’t take full effect until next school year. Middle school officials in Ketchikan and Sitka say their athletes aren’t as likely to come to Juneau, if Juneau stops traveling.

Floyd Dryden students Kathy Tran and Leah Kleinman said they have learned something from the ban: There’s a lot of politics in sports.