Longtime readers of this site are familiar with the story of the Barrow (Alaska) High football team. In case you are not, here is a quick refresher.
Back in 2006, we got a tip from a reader that Barrow was starting a football program. School officials took the unusual step to combat high dropout rates and drug and alcohol issues. Note that Barrow is 340 miles north of the Arctic Circle and because it's too far north for anything to grow, the team played its first season on a gravel field.
ESPN's Wayne Drehs saw our coverage and pitched the story to editors. A few weeks later, he was on a plane to chronicle the Whalers' first game.
That's where Cathy Parker steps in. She saw Drehs' story on ESPN and was heartbroken the kids were playing on a gravel field next to the Arctic Ocean. Parker, who lived in Jacksonville, started a website — Project Alaska Turf — and raised $500,000 to cover the cost of the field. It was shipped to Barrow, which can be reached only by air or — for a few weeks in the summer — barge. The field was in place for the start of the team's second season.
Parker has now released a book about the experience titled, "Northern Lights: One Woman, Two Teams and the Field That Changed Their Lives." It's available on Amazon.
There is more in store. A film is being planned, but it's a story for a another day.
One other thing. The residents of Barrow. the northermost community in the U.S., voted in October 2016 to change the city's name to Utqiagvik, the city's traditional Iñupiaq name.
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