When Juneau-Douglas beat South High last weekend and advanced to Saturday's state championship football game, James Lockwood felt conflicting emotions.
As president of the Juneau Youth Football League, the nonprofit that supports football in Juneau, he was, of course, elated.
But he also felt a twinge of dread.
Traveling to Anchorage to face South cost $11,000 in airfare, van rentals and hotels. Coming back a week later to face Palmer at Anchorage Football Stadium is going to run another $14,000.
Lockwood worries the extra expense will bust the youth football league's seasonal travel budget of $180,000. Credit cards may be needed to make up the difference.
"It does put you in a strange situation. You want to win, of course," Lockwood said. "But a gnawing little voice tells you, 'If we lose, we'll save $14,000.'
"It's a good-news, bad-news situation. The good news is, we're going to the state championship. But the bad news is, we're going to the state championship."
This is the reality for most Alaska high school football programs located off the road system. School districts in Juneau, Kodiak, Ketchikan and Sitka provide little or no money for football, so programs are possible only because of aggressive fundraising by nonprofit football associations.
Making matters more difficult, the associations must also pay the bulk of travel expenses for visiting teams, usually up to 22 plane tickets, or, in Kodiak's case, 50 tickets on the state ferry.
That's quite a challenge in spacious Alaska, where getting to a conference game may involve a flight the equivalent distance from Chicago to New York.
Juneau plays in the Railbelt Conference. With teams in the Valley, Fairbanks and Southeast, the conference spans an area the size of Florida.
FUNDRAISING FIRST
Barrow, which has garnered much media attention as the first high school football program above the Arctic Circle, also must pay visiting teams' travel expenses. But Barrow receives some funding from its school district.
Barrow plays in the Greatland Conference. With teams in Eielson, Delta Junction, Seward, Houston, Nikiski and Valdez, the Greatland spans the length of the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline. Players spend plenty of time fundraising.
Head coach Mark Voss said he spends as much time raising money and arranging travel logistics as he does coaching.
Sitka gets about $10,000 from its district, said coach Steve Gillaspie. But travel expenses are so great that Sitka opted out of playing in the Greatland Conference this season to play a shorter, and cheaper, independent schedule.
Sitka pays about $9,500 per game bringing in schools for home games and at least $12,000 per road game, Gillaspie said.
At these schools, a player's ability to sell ads or raffle tickets is just as crucial as the ability to block or tackle.
"We do more fundraising than anybody in the state," said Juneau wide receiver Alex Fagerstrom. "(The people in the community) are the ones getting us to this spot. We can't come (to Anchorage) if they don't buy raffle tickets and if they don't buy program ads to support us."
$330,000 BUDGET
Fagerstrom isn't kidding. The Juneau Youth Football League raised $330,000 this year to support high school varsity and junior varsity teams, as well as a youth league. Corporate sponsorships, gate and concessions, plus grants from a youth activities fund, generated by city sales taxes, helped fund the league this year, Lockwood said.
But players also shoulder a heavy financial load. Each is responsible for selling $500 worth of raffle tickets, $750 in program ads and working 200 hours in Chore Busters, a program in which anyone can hire players for $12.50 an hour to do odd jobs.
On top of that, players pay a $395 fee, and a $100 deposit for equipment.
Kodiak is in a similar situation. Two weeks ago, it had to come up with money it didn't have after making the small-schools playoffs.
Kodiak ran up a bill of more than $16,000 for two games: a flight-and-bus trip to Eielson High in Fairbanks for a first-round game, then ferry and bus to Anchorage last weekend for the state championship against Soldotna.
Luckily for Kodiak players, the Kodiak Island School District fronted the money. But the nonprofit Kodiak Football League had to quickly raise as much as possible to pay it back.
To do that, residents called a local radio show to sponsor players or offer donations. Off-season fundraising is still necessary, said Dave Jones, one of the league founders.
"If you want to send us money, feel free to do so," said Kodiak coach Dave Simmerman by cell phone last Thursday, just after he and his team boarded the state ferry Kennicott for a 17-hour ride across the Gulf of Alaska to Whittier, on the way to the championship game.
The Kodiak Football League must raise about $80,000 a year for its varsity and junior varsity programs. About $50,000-$60,000 goes toward travel.
A variety of fundraisers are used in Kodiak -- bake sales, car washes, raffles. This season, two tickets to the California-Tennessee college football game were raffled off, Simmerman said. The tickets were donated by a Kodiak resident with connections to the Cal athletic department. There was another raffle for tickets to the University of Southern California-Cal game Nov. 10 at Berkeley.
Like Juneau, Kodiak players mow lawns, haul firewood and perform other jobs around the community. Players also paid a $200 fee to play, Simmerman said.
OFF-THE-FIELD DEDICATION
Juneau and Kodiak coaches said the extra effort just to play football breeds a certain type of athlete -- one particularly dedicated to the program.
"(The work) makes it more special," said Kodiak senior Michael Odell, the Bears' star running back. "It makes you want to play more."
Despite the commitment each player makes, there's no guarantee he will be on the traveling squad. If the team must fly, players not among the top 22 stay home, Simmerman said. And the varsity roster can change week to week.
"That's the worst decision I have to make. To pick the top 22 athletes and leave the remaining 38 at home," Simmerman said.
Juneau head coach Bill Chalmers said one of his most important players rarely got on the field this season. Sophomore receiver Chris Hoffman's slight 160-pound frame kept him from playing much, but his success selling raffle tickets was crucial to the team's success.
"He's a wonderful human being. He didn't get to be a first-string football player, but he's a great salesman," Chalmers said. "He took some of the books of raffle tickets from players who aren't so great at it, and he sold three people's worth. He just said, 'Whatever I can do to help the team.' "
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