Written by: Will Hoenike
Head coach Gerry Hunter and the Rockland Bulldogs are coming off of an eight-win season that saw the team reach the semifinals of the 1A Division 2 (now known as 1A) playoffs, overcoming an 0-2 start to win the Rocky Mountain Conference.
In order to duplicate that success in 2024, the team will have to somehow replace one of the top athletes in Idaho, Teague Matthews. The first team All-State quarterback earned a preferred walk-on opportunity with the football team at the University of Utah, a Power-5 program in nearby Salt Lake City, Utah. Coming from a community of about 300 people, replacing a singular talent like Matthews with a singular player likely isn’t realistic. But there are talented players in the program who are ready for their opportunity to shine.
“We will have some guys that have been waiting for their turn,” Hunter said. “They are hungry to get on the field. It will be great to see them perform with the starters.”
Matthews piled up nearly 4,000 yards of total offense in 2023 as the team’s quarterback. Junior Isaac Held, a receiver last season, could slide over to the quarterback position, as could sophomore Xavier Parrish. Neither will be expected to take over games the way Matthews did but both will be allowed to run the offense and let their natural talents shine through.
“We throw the ball well,” Hunter continued. “Both Xavier Parrish and Isaac Held are great athletes that can throw the ball.”
Whoever is throwing the ball has a premier pass-catching target in senior Aidan Radford. As a junior in 2023, Radford caught a team-high 49 passes for 871 yards – nearly 18 yards per catch – and 18 scores en route to second team All-State accolades. The team also returns sophomore Zach Permann, who 18 receptions for 272 yards and four scores as a freshman.
Matthews ran for over 1,500 yards as a senior, which represented more than 76 percent of the team’s total rushing yardage last season. The top returning back is senior Ethan Crump, who ran for 164 yards and averaged nearly five yards per carry. Though Hunter acknowledges the team will be aggressive through the air, he’d like to see his team have success running the ball as well, which likely means a strong showing from Crump and Permann out of the backfield. The team will need to develop its offensive line quickly as the new-look group could include junior center CJ Wilson along with senior David Jensen and junior Ethan Munk.
The coaching staff feels strongly about its coverage on defense, led by Radford and Permann at the cornerback position. Crump earned all-conference recognition as a linebacker last fall and will be joined by Held and Jensen as key performers for a defense that allowed 29 points per game last fall – an entirely respectable number in the 8-man game. Controlling the opposition’s run game will be important to the team’s success this fall.
The Bulldogs open with a team that beat them twice last season, once in the regular season and then in the semifinals: the Camas County Mushers. Both teams will be breaking in several new players in key roles so it will be a great test for the Mushers and the Bulldogs. The game will be played in Fairfield, followed by another road game at Dietrich. Rockland does not play at home until September 13 in the conference opener against Challis.
The marquee game on the schedule is the finale, October 25 at home against North Gem. The two old rivals figure to once again be jockeying for playoff position, if not a conference championship that afternoon.