One of the promises made by supporters of building a new high school were more opportunities for Juneau\u2019s students to become engaged through sports and activities. In recent years, those promises have not held true.<\/p>\n
Creating two teams for every sport and activity (except hockey and tennis) may have been sound in theory but has failed in reality. Those failures are difficult to ignore for those involved with Juneau prep athletics.<\/p>\n
The Juneau School District was granted permission Friday to combine four Alaska Scholastic Activities Association sports and activities for the coming school year. We say it\u2019s about time, because if teams aren\u2019t merged the problem will only get worse.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happening among high school sports is systemic of what\u2019s happening elsewhere in the state and in our city as funding is lost. Budgets are tighter everywhere. The result for high school teams has been fewer opportunities for more students.<\/p>\n
Teams now take fewer trips outside of Juneau due to a lack of funding, and when they do travel fewer players are brought along. Other teams struggle to have a team at all. <\/p>\n
Some examples:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Juneau-Douglas High School, once a perennial football powerhouse, could not field enough players for a JV team last season. That also limited opportunities for Thunder Mountain\u2019s JV football team. \u201cI only have 28 guys out, so we couldn\u2019t run a good JV,\u201d JDHS football coach Kevin Hamrick told the Empire last season. \u201cThe community is split between two schools and that is the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 In basketball, the JDHS girls team could only afford to send seven players north to play in the Kenai River Classic to start the season. One starter was injured in the first half of the first game, leaving six to compete in the three-game tournament. Those six athletes played lots of minutes, but just as many varsity teammates were benched in Juneau.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Also in girls basketball, if not for a team competing in the Capital City Classic adding a game to its schedule, TMHS would have had to wait three weeks into the season to play its first game. The Falcons were left out of the Capital City Classic this year. All the other basketball teams played in three or four games before the Falcons took to the court for the first time. When the Falcons did finally begin their schedule, every other team had registered half a dozen games or more. <\/p>\n
\u2022 The JDHS and TMHS wrestling teams can\u2019t find enough bodies to fill all the weight categories. When the two teams meet, some wrestlers have no opponent to face. The problem is the same when competing against smaller Southeast schools. There are now fewer than 20 wrestlers for both teams combined.<\/p>\n
The JDHS boys basketball team brought home the state trophy this year, but they did so in spite of having two schools. What we\u2019ve seen in far more other sports is a constant struggle to be average. If teams can\u2019t compete \u2013 and win \u2013 student-athletes won\u2019t want to participate. We\u2019re seeing that now, and how more and more teams are needing underclassmen to bolster their roster in order to field a team at all.<\/p>\n
The reality of our high school sports situation is that Juneau doesn\u2019t have the money, athletes or experienced coaches to sustain two teams for every sport and activity at this time. <\/p>\n
Having two schools go head to head, sharpening each other\u2019s talents in combat on the field, the court, the diamond and the pitch, was a wonderful dream. <\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s time to wake up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"