After coming up short with a surplus of individual talent, Houston football is chasing a championship as a team

The Houston High football team made it all the way to Alaska’s Division III state title game last season, but fell well short of a championship in a 46-12 loss to rival Redington.

While that team had no shortage of standout individuals, this season’s edition of the Hawks is winning with a different approach.

“Last year there was too much talent and not enough team,” senior lineman Josiah Bowman said. “This year we have a lot of brotherhood within our teammates.”

The Hawks have a lot of returning players from last year’s state runner-up team and just wrapped up an undefeated regular season where they went a perfect 7-0.

“We have so many kids that play really hard, follow directions really well, and just work as a team,” Houston co-head coach Jared Barrett said.

“Coach Barrett and coach (Charles Whittington) were out here making us work and our goal was to get back to the playoffs and win state,” senior linebacker and running back Trenton Hawes said.

Houston opens the playoffs at home Friday, hosting Barrow in a game set to kick off at 6 p.m.

Defense has been the calling card of this year’s team. Houston has only allowed a combined 29 points all season and pitched four straight shutouts to start the season.

Hawes says communication between the coaching staff and players has been the key to their dominant defensive performances.

“We didn’t have a lot of communication between coaches and players (last year) but this year we have that,” he said.

Adding that element to all the talent they brought back on both sides of the ball allowed the Hawks to take their game to the next level, Hawes said.

Losing to their rivals in the last game of the season last year left a sour taste in their collective mouths that fueled their drive to come back better than ever.

“It was a great motivation that we were able to come back from it and move on, look past it, and come back this year 10 times stronger,” Bowman said.

They avenged that defeat in the last week of the regular season when they beat the Huskies 49-14. After a tightly contested first half, the Hawks’ defense didn’t allow a point in the second half while pouring on 29 unanswered points of their own.

“I think we overlooked Redington for a little bit thinking that we were going to push them over,” Barrett said. “It’s a rivalry game so they were able to get a couple scores on us but in the second half we shut it down from there.”

The last time the Hawks finished the season as state champions, both Hawes and Bowman were freshmen on varsity in 2019.

Hawes would be “ecstatic” if he were able to end his high school football journey the same way he started it, as a champion.

“It’s one of the few things that few people are able to say,” Hawes said. “That they’ve won more than one state championship or won a state championship in the first place.”

Bowman, too, wants to go out as a two-time state champion.

“You don’t see that every day and you’re lucky to even win a single championship in high school let alone two,” he added. “Hopefully we can get up this Friday and get another chance at that.”

Staying locked in while riding high

Barrett is “very confident” that this year’s team has what it takes to go all the way and not just make it to the state championship game, but secure the second ever in program history.

“I tell them that they need to take it one play at a time, one down at a time, one game at a time, and just keep everything in play and keep maximum effort,” he said.

The coaching staff’s mantra all year to the players sounds like a passage from the book of six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick.

“Alignment, assignment, do your job and do that every single play,” Barrett said. “Play with focus and let the scoreboard take care of itself.”

The coaches keep their players level-headed by preaching focus on their primary objective every day in practice.

“Every single play we want to play for a touchdown, every single play (on defense) a turnover, and every single play we’re trying to take it to the house,” Barrett said.

Barrett said their toughest game of the season came against Division II Chugiak. Even though they still beat the Mustangs by two possessions, it was the only game in which they scored less than 40 points all season.

“That was a tough game, they were hard-hitting,” he said. “They brought it to us pretty hard.”

The Hawks won’t take any opponent lightly going forward because they know they’ll get everyone’s best shot.

“Every team plays us like its their last game and every team plays us like its the state championship game because we are the team to beat,” Bowman said.

Alaska prep football playoff schedule

Division I

Friday’s games

No. 7 Dimond at No. 2 Bartlett, 3:30 p.m.

No. 6 Service at No. 3 Colony, 7 p.m.

No. 5 East at No. 4 West, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday’s games

No. 8 South at No. 1 Juneau, 3 p.m.

Division II

Friday’s game

No. 2 (RBC) North Pole at No. 1 (NLC) Soldotna, 4 p.m.

Saturday’s game

No. 2 (NLC) Chugiak at No. 1 (RBC) Lathrop, noon

Division III

Friday’s game

No. 3 (MAC) Barrow at No. 1 (MAC) Houston, 6 p.m.

Saturday’s game

No. 2 (MAC) Homer at No. 1 (DLC) Nikiski, 2 p.m.