It's that time of year again. Football is back.
Six high school football games will kick off across the state Friday to mark the beginning of the 2017 season.
From new classifications, to out-of-state travel, here's what's new heading into this season on the gridiron.
Renaming classifications
The days of large-school, medium-school and small-school championships are gone.
Starting this season, the Alaska football classifications will be called Division I, Division II and Division III, respectively.
The change goes across all sports, aside from volleyball and basketball, which will still be 1A-4A, said ASAA executive director Billy Strickland.
"In the past we used several different ways to describe how schools were classified," Strickland said. "To simplify it throughout our sports, we've gone to a Division structure."
Now, two-classification sports, like wrestling and cross country, will be Division I and DII; one-sport classifications, like baseball, will be Division I and three-sport classifications, like football, will be DI-DIII.
"It was just a little bit hodge podge, if you will," Strickland said. "Some (tournaments) we called 1A/2A/3A, some we called large school, small school. And to a degree, small school has kind of a negative connotation to it."
Strickland said it might take a little getting used to for the fans, but it should be simpler in the long run.
West coach Tim Davis said the name change won't affect anything on the field.
"We can finally tell our players they're Division I players," he joked. "I don't think that means anything other than the verbiage, semantics.
"At the end of the day, no matter what level you're playing there's 11 dudes on the field that have to put their shoes on and tie them the same way."
[South football team hopes to bounce back]
4 teams to travel Outside this season
Four Alaska football teams are looking for an extra challenge this season.
The Service, Chugiak, Bartlett and Soldotna football teams will face teams in the Lower 48.
"We want to show the kids that you're as good as anybody else, anywhere else," said Bartlett co-coach John Jessen's whose team will play Pleasant Valley in Chico, California, the high school of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
"Our kids up here have an inferiority complex that the Lower 48 is better, so we want to go down there and see what it's like."
Soldotna, which currently holds an Alaska-record 49-game winning streak, will test itself against Crater High in Oregon in Week 4, Service will face Capital Christian in California in Week 3 and Chugiak will play Green Canyon, a new school in Logan, Utah, in Week 5.
[For Soldotna football team, hard work and a hard schedule go hand-in-hand]
Jessen said in addition to being a challenge on the field, the trips offers the teams a chance to visit schools and get a taste of the Lower 48. He estimated around 10 players making the trip for Bartlett have never been out of Alaska.
On Chugiak's trip, the Mustangs will make stops at all four major football schools in Utah: Utah State, Weber State, BYU and Utah.
"My old college roommate is the athletic director at Weber State, so he's going to spend some time with the guys just talking to them about college athletics and some of the challenges he sees," Chugiak coach Roger Spackman said. "That's going to be cool."
Spackman said the trip costs about $1,300 for each player. Thirty-nine Mustangs will make the trip.
To raise money, the Mustangs did everything from selling discount cards and raffle tickets, to planning a school dance and doing odd jobs like lawn work or helping people move.
Eagle River gets new coach
For the fifth time since the program started in 2006, the Eagle River football team takes the field this season with a new coach.
Bob Adkins holds the reins for the Wolves this season after taking over for three-year coach Matt Turner.
Adkins is also the Eagle River boys basketball coach and was an assistant under Turner.
"He was already an assistant coach for football and he's a former Pop Warner coach, so he was already in the community, already working with our kids coming up," said Vikki McConnell, activities principal at Eagle River.
McConnell said Turner left the football program in a mutual agreement. He remains the Eagle River track and field coach.
Adkins takes over a team that went 2-6 last season and 0-4 in Northern Lights Conference play.
He serves as a teacher in the Anchorage School District at S.A.V.E. High in Anchorage.
[High school football nears: Outcomes are uncertain, though clues abound]
Rule changes
A rule change will allow defensive players to face guard opponents this season.
Previously, defenders couldn't raise their arms in front of a wide receiver's face if their back was to the ball.
Another rule change prohibits single-bounce onside kicks. The ball must hit the ground at least twice instead of hitting once and flying up into the air.
Spackman said the rule change was made for safety reasons.
"It's all about if a kick is looking up, waiting for that high kick to come down, he's just a big target," Spackman said.
During the state tournaments this season, the Division I teams — formerly large-school teams — will be allowed more players on the sidelines.
Teams can now bring 65 players to the state tournaments, up from 48 last year.
Preseason football polls
Division I
1) Bartlett
2) West
3) Colony
4) Chugiak
5) Lathrop
Others receiving votes East, West Valley
Division II and III
1) Soldotna
2) Eielson
3) North Pole
4) Thunder Mountain
5) Palmer
Others receiving votes Barrow