The Barrow Whalers have nothing to do with whales.

Oh, sure.  There are whaling captains who lead their crews in small boats hunting the giant mammals of the sea as they have done for thousands of years.  But the Inupiat residents of the town voted recently to return the community to its traditional name, Utquiagvik.  Those sea-going hunters are now Utquiagvik whalers.

But the Barrow Whalers exist still in the high school football team.  Yes, the northernmost community in the United States has a football team.  The field it plays on borders the beach of the Arctic Ocean.  The Barrow Whalers football field, complete with bleachers and a broadcast booth, is unique in the world of sports.

The Whalers have their challenges, the greatest of which is distance.  Ketchikan is in the same conference as the Whalers.  The distance between Utquigvik and Ketchikan is 1,330 air miles, roughly equal to traveling from the Canadian-North Dakota border to Atlanta.  And there are no direct lights.

The team itself plays with enthusiasm.  Their overall record this year was five and five.  They did somewhat better in conference play, coming in with three wins and one loss.  Though they are ranked twenty out of twenty-five teams, to their credit they ended the season ahead of Ketchikan, Homer, and North Pole, all larger communities with far fewer challenges in fielding their teams.

The Barrow Whalers.  Football in the Arctic!  Only in Alaska!