Chugiak High School football started with the bad taste of being beat last season by five points in the state championship game.  The average lineman of the 1995 opposing team was 250-pounds.  The Mustangs made up of juniors and sophomores were determined to win it all this year.

They saw how skill and technique was not enough to win the big one.  They spent the next year in the weight room and invited Dr. Greg Shepard from Utah for a Bigger Faster Stronger clinic.

By the time August rolled around, our team strength was up 35%.  We had 23 players who could bench 250-pounds and squat over 400 lbs.  We were the pre-season pick to be number one in the State of Alaska.  We knew that we had to do everything right and play as a team to be able to get to the big dance.

We had an All-America running back, Yohance Humphrey, who will be a University of Montana Grizzly next fall.  Our line was all juniors but we had an All-America wrestler at guard, Chuck Halstead.  At right tackle was 6'4", 255-pound Roger Patterson being recruited by Air Force, Nebraska and the University of Washington.  Center, Ryan Landers at 6'3", 230-pounds.  At left tackle was Joe Clark at 6'3" and 210-pounds.  He was our little guy but he could end up with a baseball scholarship.  Our only senior was Scott Johnson at 6'2" and 260-pounds who is trying to decide at which college to play.  Our fullback Junior Mamae at 5'11" and 235-pounds was hard to tackle.  He looked like a helmet and shoulder pads coming at you.  Our tight ends were both 6'4": junior Ben Walls and sophomore Levi Rollman.  Ben's brother plays for Benedictine and Levi's brothers are also in college.  Ben Walls was our iron man award winner.  He worked out the hardest, improved the most and was one of our team leaders.  Ben played Sam backer and tight end.

The first game with Fairbanks' number one team turned out to be a romp.  We had 42 points and 3 quarters with 18 first downs.  Headlines in the newspaper said, "Chugiak Walks the Walk."  The Fairbanks Malamutes were limited to 2.2 yards per carry.  The only blotch on the game was the broken leg of line-backer Ben Walls on the fourth play of the season!  We later found out from Dr. Brett Mason that Ben needed surgery to repair a spiral fracture.  We then knew that we were going to have to do it (win) without him for the season.

After the first game, we received 15 first place votes to grab the number one ranking.  The next game came against our rivals, the Service Cougars.  This is always a war.  Our kids were not to be denied.  We took them apart 27-19.  Yohance Humphrey had 255 yards on 24 carries.  We averaged 11.8 yards per carry in the game.  Service had huge lineman at 6'5", 285-pound, and 310-pounds, but our Mustangs out finessed them.

The third game of the season started with the long flight to Juneau, Alaska.  Knowing that we would have to play on the glacial silt field below Mendenhal Glacier was heavy on our minds.  Five thousand fans, including the governor, were on hand to see if they could upset us.  The rain poured down but we were stubborn with a 34-24 win.  It was tough to tell the winners from the losers after the game.  We have a tradition of always holding our helmets up at arms length to our crowd after the game, and the Juneau team did the same to their side of the field.  It was a well played game with no fumbles.  Juneau was ecstatic because they had played us so tough.  After we got the silt washed out of our clothes, we flew back to Anchorage rated number one in the state for the third week in a row.

The next game was played on the astro turf in Anchorage.  The opposite team had a new coach and was very optimistic.  We beat them 28-0.  When we stood next to them before the game I noticed that they were the same height as us but their jersey sleeves were half empty (not enough muscle).  I took a second glance and saw that the entire team was too lean.  As I turned to my players I said, "Boys, this is going to be a lesson in weight training."  The game was not without event.  Our running back, Yohance Humphrey, ran for over 200 yards but tore a corner off his medial meniscus.  After being "scoped", he had to sit out for three weeks to heal.  It seemed that God had a lesson to teach us.  If we did not have a real sense of faith, we could have gone over to the dark side of despair.  We had to keep our eye single to the glory of our goal.  Now that we had lost 2 All-State players to injury, we had to decide how to use smoke and screens to hide our weaknesses.

Our coaches convinced our players that they were going to have to pick up the slack.  Our goals were team goals!  So we prepared for the team that was third place in our conference.  We did not allow them to cross the 50-yard line the entire second half of the game.  The first series of offense we lost our All-State offensive tackle to a knee sprain.  We did not skip a beat!  We put in our second string offense tackle and he did a great job!  Our kicker just kicked a 40-yard field goal to go ahead with 50 seconds left.  Somehow, they managed to drive the ball down to our 23-yard line.  With time running out while signaling for a time out, time expired.  The place erupted with kids jumping all around.  But the referees put one second on the clock, saying West High did call a time out before the clock read 00:00.  With that second on the clock, they kicked a 23-yard field goal to win the game.  Another test for the Mustangs.  The only thing I could tell my team was God had something in mind for us.

Now we had lost three All-State players but we shut out the next team by rushing for 268-yards using 10 different backs.  Even though we had some key players out, due to injuries, the team improved and continued to win.  Our All-American running back had four carries for 76-yards, but was still limping.

The play-offs started with a few of our hurt players coming off injured reserve.  Star running back, Yohance Humphrey and All-State player Roger Patterson had recovered from knee injuries and joined a team that won two games without them.  Our experience really paid off this year.  Before, it seemed like we were asking people to give blood at the hospital.  We kept getting better through the play-offs, even winning in a snow storm.  But it was not over yet.  The Semi-final game also came down to the wire.  Our running back ran for 311 yards and looked like he was about 90% in comparison with his usual game performance.