FAIRBANKS -- The Barrow High School football team wasn't distracted last year by the media attention for the first game on its blue artificial turf which sits about 100 yards from the Arctic Ocean.
It wasn't distracted last week, either, by wintry weather at its first practices.
The Greatland Conference squad opens its third season with a nonleague game against the Skyview Panthers at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cathy Parker Field, named for the Jacksonville, Fla., football mom and bank executive who started an $800,000 fundraising drive to put an artificial turf field in the northernmost city in the nation.
Parker, whose drive is ongoing (information is available at projectalaskaturf.com), was inspired by an ESPN "SportsCenter" segment in November 2006 about the Barrow-Delta Junction game that August, the first football game above the Arctic Circle. The teams played on a dirt field less than a mile from the location of the new field.
Parker's efforts and her trip to Barrow last year for the first game on the new field drew coverage from NBC, CNN, ESPN and the Los Angeles Times.
Amid the attention, the Whalers remained focused for an 18-16 win over the Seahawks.
"You would think that a big guy with a camera on his shoulder following you down the field, or whatever, would be distracting," Barrow coach Mark Voss said Friday from Barrow. "These kids were really good at not letting it be something that would distract them."
Last week, the Whalers proved to be good at working through snow and temperatures in the 20s. There was hardly any snow in Barrow at this time last year.
"They've able to make their cuts and we've been practicing in some hard winds too," Voss said. "They were 40 miles per hour one day."
The Whalers hope to build on last year's 4-3 overall and a 3-3 conference mark after a 1-5 record in 2006.
"We were ranked in the state and when we played in Valdez (a 20-12 loss in September), we were one touchdown away from getting into the playoffs," Voss said. "A lot of people were amazed that we were able to progress and get that far.
"Hopefully, we'll take ourselves into the playoffs this year."
By DANNY MARTIN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner