The rainy night of Aug. 18, 2006, at Soldotna’s Justin Maile Field marked a stark turning point for the Stars football program.
Head coach Rod Christiansen, who would retire in 2018 after 28 seasons with Palmer with the most wins in state history at 159, was in town to face the Stars in the second game of the season.
SoHi was led by Sarge Truesdell, and assistants on his staff included Galen Brantley Jr. and Jeff Baker. The three were all standout athletes at either SoHi or Skyview High School before going on to football and wrestling at Valley City State University in North Dakota, but that experience had yet to translate to consistent success on the football field.
The locus of football power in the area belonged to Kenai Central head coach Jim Beeson and assistant Jim Dawson, who had won the small-schools state football title from 2002 to 2005, toppling the Stars in the title games in 2002 and 2004.
Before the 2005 season, Truesdell and Brantley Jr. had traveled to a VFW hall in a small town in southern Michigan to sit with coaches from around the country and learn about the power T offense, the smashmouth yet deceptive system used by Soldotna to this day.
“We just sat there and gobbled up all the information,” Truesdell said. “We were looking at each other, because in some respects, we knew we found gold.
“This was going to be our system, and we brought it back together.”
In the 2005 season, though, all that glittered was not gold. The Stars went 5-3, missed the small-schools playoffs and ended the season with a 37-0 loss to Kenai.
“It was funny, because in the early years, there were parents and dads who didn’t understand the layered handoff,” Truesdell said of the technique used in the power-T. “We fumbled a couple times in the first game we ran it, and at the booster club meeting that Tuesday, there were a lot of eyes on me.”
The 2006 season didn’t start much better, with the Stars taking a 41-6 shellacking at Colony.
Then came that fated Palmer game.
It was an ugly night of football in the driving rain, with both teams fumbling six times on the natural grass and losing two. Seven passes were thrown. None were completed.
Leading 7-2 in the fourth quarter, Christiansen found a running play Soldotna couldn’t stop. As the Moose chewed up what would amount to 7:30 of clock, Truesdell admitted to his coaches on the sideline he didn’t have an answer for the play.
Out of ideas, he called timeout and sent Brantley Jr., the team’s offensive coordinator, out to talk to the defense.
“It was a desperation move but he understood where the breakdown was up front and he was able to coach on the fly,” Truesdell wrote in a text message.
The SoHi defense held and the Stars, who had just six first downs all game to that point, got the ball back on their own 46 with 4:19 left.
Brantley Jr.’s offense kicked into gear for a crisp, six-play scoring march capped by a 4-yard touchdown by Mike Reed with 2:09 remaining.
The 10-7 victory seemed innocent enough at the time. Christiansen, contacted this week, said he didn’t remember much about the game, but added it sounded like the kind of loss he’d like to forget.
“Probably the only part I remember is trying to figure out how to stay dry on the sidelines,” he said.
The game began a string of football success unprecedented in Alaska. Since then, SoHi football is 168-9.
Truesdell stepped down as head coach to be an administrator after winning the first state title in school history in 2006 with a 9-1 record.
Brantley Jr., the offensive coordinator who solved that desperate defensive problem against Palmer, took over as head coach in 2007.
Today, he is 159-9 and can pass Christiansen for the most wins in state history Friday when the Stars host West Valley at 6 p.m.
Turtle on a fence post
After tying Christiansen’s mark Saturday with a 35-7 victory over Teton High School of Idaho, Brantley Jr. was quick to deflect credit.
“I feel like a turtle on a fence post. Other people put me there,” Brantley Jr. said. “I’ve had phenomenal assistant coaches over the years, and players. I feel like I’m just a part of the success the program has had.”
Truesdell, who went on to administration at Soldotna Middle School, Skyview Middle School and Soldotna High School before retiring after the 2023-24 school year, isn’t having it.
“People will ask me what the secret sauce is for SoHi football,” Truesdell said. “He’ll deflect the whole time. Really, he is the secret sauce.
“There’s lots of good coaches around. There’s lots of really hard-working coaches. I used to break down film at 2 o’clock in the morning because I knew other coaches were sleeping. There’s lot of coaches like that, but there’s not many coaches like coach Brantley.”
Truesdell said even college coaches that come up for summer camps are in awe of what Brantley Jr. has created at Soldotna.
Todd Syverson agrees. Syverson was the principal at Soldotna from 2005 to 2015 and is a football guy himself, having coached Skyview High School for the first five years of its existence. His sons, Tate and Chet, both played for Brantley Jr.
“You’ve got to have the mastermind that sells the program, that sells the weightlifting, that sells the commitment to go to camps,” Syverson said. “Galen just checked every box, and that’s why he wins.
“That’s why there’s only nine losses in that crazy coaching career.”
So who’s right?
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Soldotna football would not be what it is without Galen Brantley Jr., but Galen Brantley Jr. would not be who he is without Soldotna.
Nobody’s most likely to succeed
Brantley Jr. said when his family relocated to Soldotna, every classroom he had attended in California through sixth grade was bilingual so he was behind the students that had grown up in Soldotna.
“Nobody in my family had gone to college before,” Brantley Jr. said. “My sister, who graduated the year before me, was the first one in my family to graduate from high school.
“To be honest with you, I never even felt like college or college football, for that matter, was even a possibility.”
Brantley Jr., just the fourth coach in SoHi history, said he is a product of Bob Boudreaux. Boudreaux coached at Service and Kenai Central, then at SoHi from its opening in 1980 until 1996. In 22 seasons, he went 105-69-1, good enough for No. 2 on the Alaska wins list when he retired.
“Bob was one of the first that really even gave me the idea that it was a possibility to go and do something beyond just going and getting a job when high school was over,” Brantley Jr. said. “He was the first one that saw something in me.
“He thought I could go and play at the next level. I was just a really lucky individual.”
Brantley Jr. said another mentor when he was a student, and then a coach, at SoHi was the late Mark Devenney. In 1992, Brantley Jr. became the first SoHi athlete to win a state title under Devenney when Brantley Jr. won the first of two shot put crowns.
Peninsula sports are a little odd in that some sports have peninsula schools competing against all school sizes, while some don’t. Winning state team titles against all school sizes has always carried a bit more weight, and Devenney did it six times — three in track and three in cross-country.
“Mark was a phenomenal mentor for me,” said Brantley Jr., a 1993 Soldotna graduate. “I still believe he’s the best coach that’s been in Alaska at any sport, and I’ll die on that cliff.
“I was lucky enough to be able to compete for him, and to come back to coach with him. The amount of life lessons that just came out of being exposed to him is unending. It really is.”
Groomed to coach
Truesdell went to Skyview, so he said he really didn’t become friends with Brantley Jr. until they ended up at Valley City State as social science majors and study partners.
“The thing that always baffled me about Galen was his memory,” Truesdell said. “I don’t know that I would say it was photographic, but it was close.
“I always remembered how hard it was for me to remember details, and he could spit them all right back to me.”
Brantley Jr. said he had more great mentors in Valley City, including then-head coach Steve LeGrand, current head coach Dennis McCulloch and assistant Gregg Horner.
After graduating, Brantley Jr. taught and coached football at Bishop Ryan Catholic School in North Dakota from 1998 to 2000. The football team won a state title in 1999.
Brantley Jr. said Chad McNally, the offensive coordinator at the time, and Doug Patterson, who currently coaches college football at the Division II level, were more great mentors.
“I was just lucky enough to be a part of a staff of a whole bunch of guys that went on to coach college and were very serious about their football,” Brantley Jr. said.
The SoHi coach said the coaches would not even let him have his first position group meeting until he first presented that meeting to the coaches.
Back to Soldotna
When Brantley Jr. returned to Soldotna to join Truesdell’s staff in 2002, Truesdell said the Lower 48 seasoning was evident.
“I was fancying myself the kind of person to have multiple formations and run multiple kinds of things,” Truesdell said. “He taught me that’s kind of fun. That’s like playing a video game. But if you want to win football games, the system is key.
“So when I was head coach, he was bringing in systems he still has in place today.”
Brantley Jr. said his experience at Bishop Ryan gave him a leg up on the competition.
“I felt like I was in a situation where I was groomed to coach, instead of just thrown into the fire,” he said.
Truesdell gave credit to Beeson and Dawson for making it hard on SoHi. The former SoHi coach said his staff had to puzzle out how to defeat Kards. Once that puzzle was solved, there was a template to dominate.
“I think that’s what people lose sight of, is that the first one was hard,” Brantley Jr. said. “At that point, it was just a matter of trying to keep things going and build good routines and kids, and the culture just took on a life of its own.”
Pieces of the puzzle
The pieces of the puzzle in place for Soldotna football include community, year-round strength training, detailed coaching, and solid assistant coaches and administration.
Christiansen said the continuous success of Soldotna, which includes a 59-game winning streak from 2012 to 2018 plus 12 state titles and 11 undefeated seasons for Brantley Jr., does not happen without the right community.
“You need to build a community of people that know they’re kids now, but they’re going to get older and be right there as part of the tradition,” he said.
Brantley Jr. said growing up in Soldotna and understanding the people there helped him.
“I really believe we have some of the toughest, most resilient men anywhere in this state you could find,” he said. “I’d put them up against anybody, and we have over and over again.
“Realize that’s a strength, then find the systems that display that.”
Truesdell said Brantley Jr.’s strength training program also stands out. Truesdell said when he coached, he would wait for athletes to show up. Brantley Jr. starts creating them in ninth grade.
Truesdell said the really neat thing is Brantley Jr. will show up at 6:30 a.m. if players can’t fit a strength training class into their schedule.
“We’re year-round weightlifters, for four years, and by the time they get to be 18 years old, they’re pretty physical individuals,” Brantley Jr. said.
SoHi has never had to contest a state title against all the big schools, but Cook Inlet Conference schools have had a consistent presence on the schedule, especially starting in 2014, and SoHi has only lost twice to those schools.
“He makes the kids believe, year in and year out,” Syverson said. “Our kids are always stronger and faster than the competition, but not bigger.
“Because of speed, technique and strength, they’re able to hold their own or win.”
Christiansen said the Soldotna offense is hard to prepare for because it takes such mental and physical discipline. He said many teams allow players to get away with missed assignments. Not Soldotna.
“If you think a guy might have the ball, you have to tackle him,” he said. “Because there’s a good chance if he didn’t have it on that play, he’ll have it on the next play.”
Syverson said the coaching on display is a pleasure for an educator like himself to watch.
“He can see where kids need to be on the field for their success and the team’s success,” Syverson said. “He’s truly a master teacher out on the field.
“He takes that teaching from the classroom and puts it out on the field.”
Surrounding yourself with good people
Christiansen is quick to point out Brantley Jr. can’t do it all by himself.
“Consistency with the coaching staff is key,” he said. “You can’t do football coaching alone. You have too many variables.
“There’s 11 guys on offense, 11 on defense and special teams. People don’t really appreciate what goes into preparing for a football game.”
Brantley Jr. said one person he was fortunate to be surrounded by is Syverson, a great mentor for a young head coach.
In Brantley Jr.’s early days at SoHi, he was laid up after knee surgery.
“And Todd shows up at my door with dinner and dessert for the night, so I didn’t have to deal with cooking,” Brantley Jr. said. “He had a personal touch as an administrator that very, very few could compete with.
“He always did the extra, so it was really easy to do your best for him.”
Syverson, who worked with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District from 1990 to 2015 and coached Truesdell in football for four years, said what has happened with SoHi football is something in which the district can take pride.
“The Sarge Truesdells, the Galen Brantleys, those folks you know gave everything and were outstanding Alaska athletes,” Syverson said. “They went out and played four years, then they came back and gave that same enthusiasm, dedication and love of the game.
“It just makes my heart feel good. It’s been really fun for me.”
Brantley Jr. said he was lucky to have assistant Tai Lepule drop into his lap in 2008 and continue to stay with the program.
In addition to bringing dinner, Syverson also helped Brantley Jr. with some other essential ingredients.
Before the 2014-15 school year, he helped manage the smooth merger of SoHi and Skyview after Skyview closed its doors. Former Skyview football head coach Eric Pomerleau became a valued assistant as part of the deal.
In 2012, Syverson hired Phil Leck as a science teacher. Leck has been on Brantley Jr.’s staff ever since, though Leck took a big step back when he became athletic director in 2022.
Leck also took over the track program in 2015, helping make the football players on the team faster and stronger.
Brantley Jr. also said his family has been a vital part of the team. He said his wife, Stacy, and children, Emma, Galen and Elias, deserve credit for supporting him while he puts so much time into football.
“She’s always known I’m passionate about it and always allowed me to do it,” Brantley Jr. said of his wife. “There’s a special place in heaven for coaches’ wives.”
How much longer can this last?
Brantley Jr. said the future is something he is not thinking about. He said he’s proud SoHi gives every opponent full attention. The wins record will not change that.
“We never let them look ahead to the next game,” he said. “People will circle their calendars. We refuse to allow them to do that.
“And I’ve always been that way myself.”
Both Syverson and Christiansen said they’ve been around long enough to know records are made to be broken. That said, they both have a hard time envisioning somebody replicating Brantley Jr.’s success.
“Boy, I just don’t see this one being broken,” Syverson said. “I think this was a special situation and a special community.”
