Teams lose footballs at practice all the time. When it happens, a player simply hops over the fence and goes to pick it up.

But that’s not as simple when the ball lands in the Arctic Ocean.

The Ice Bowl at Lambeau Field. The Snow Bowl in Foxboro. The Fog Bowl in Chicago. Those elements would seem tropical to the young men playing at Barrow High School.

Three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, the temperature on average fall and winter days drops well below zero in Barrow, Alaska, where the sun disappears for about one third of the year.

The town is so remote that the Barrow Whalers play their games on a field that sits between a small lagoon and the Arctic Ocean. For away games, the team typically piles a multi-hour bus ride on top of a flight out of Barrow. There is only enough room in the budget to bring 19 players to each road game. The Whalers sleep on air mattresses in the hosting school’s gymnasium the night before taking the field.

But there are bigger problems in Barrow than its isolation and cold weather.

Alaska has the highest domestic violence rate of any state in the country. Suicide, depression, alcoholism and drug use are all prevalent issues in Barrow.

The first episode of Sports Illustrated’s “Inspiring Stories in High School Football” series tells the story of how head football coach Brian Houston is trying to change the culture in Barrow through the high school football program.

“I think football is an avenue that we can help do that, to get the message out that we don’t have to be number one in depression, we don’t have to be number one in domestic violence, we don’t have to be number one in suicide. There’s hope for us here,” Houston told Sports Illustrated.

Barrow has posted a 40-34 record since the program’s inception in 2006, including a state championship in 2011. Houston, however, is more concerned with what his players do outside the white lines, encouraging them to work hard and not to fear failure.

“My goal in football is to help develop positive, healthy men in our community,” Houston said in the piece. “Will I see it now? No, I probably won’t see it until 10, 15 years from now, until they have their own families.”

While many players never return to Barrow once graduated from high school, often going to college or getting jobs elsewhere, running back David Elavgak is committed to improving the quality of life in his hometown.

“He just shows me which way I have to take,” Elavgak told S.I. of Coach Houston. “I gotta take that respectful path. I gotta be a leader around here, that’s what I want to be. I wanna go to college and come back and do something great.”

Houston’s commitment to Barrow and his players’ commitment to him shows how a football program can improve a community and the lives of its citizens.

“The things that these kids are gonna grow up to be and the experience that they gain from playing football, we’re gonna change this community and we’re gonna make it a great community, living in Barrow,” Houston said.