This past weekend Paul Kingsbury and myself got in the car and drove all throughout the state of Idaho, along with eastern Oregon and Washington, to head up to Spirit Lake and train a new broadcast crew.
Idaho is one of the few states in the country where it takes less time to slide into two other states to cut time off of a destination within its own borders. Needless to say, the trek from Kuna to Spirit Lake for some St. Maries at Timberlake football on Friday was 7 hours instead of 8 for that reason alone, putting perspective into just how far some of these teams travel annually for tournament play specifically (Malad and Bonners Ferry know all about this). A couple of years ago when the Dragons played in the 2A state volleyball tournament at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, a 596 mile trip through Montana was the shortest route.
That being said, with the state of Idaho spanning so many miles from north to south and even more distance separating out of state/country family and friends, it makes what we do here at IdahoSports.com so important for those who can't make the trip to follow along from wherever they may be.
All these things come together to form all the reasons we are so excited to be expanding with a broadcast crew on the ground in district one. For the 2017 football season we welcome in Missoula Osprey play-by-play voice and USC graduate Cooper Perkins, along with former Lake City and Bonners Ferry coach Ed DePriest onto our team. Ironically enough, Ed is a big UCLA fan, so you could say we are pretty interested to see how that rivalry in the booth shapes out come November 18 when the Bruins and Trojans square off.
Our first game as part of the expansion came this past Friday as defending 2A state champion St. Maries headed into Timberlake to take on the 14-time defending 3A IML champs in the White Tigers. We want to share special thanks to the entire staff at Timberlake High School for their above and beyond hospitality, including Vice Principal Ryne Eberlin, who actually picked us up in a golf cart to take all the equipment to the press box, along with Athletic Director Jim Simpson, who is doing a fantastic job in his first year in the new role.
The game was a 26-7 victory for the Lumberjacks, as Kaden Hammond threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns and Tyler Lohman caught six for 107 yards, receiving both of the touchdown passes from Hammond.
After a pit stop to grab some food after the game, we headed to Grangeville where we rolled in at around 4:30 in the morning, ready for some more football in the morning from McCall.
3A perennial power Gooding was set to host Priest River on a neutral site at the home of the Vandals for a 2 p.m. MST kick. We showed up ready to get another live and free video webcast to the viewers. Unfortunately as is sometimes the case when it comes to relying on internet to put out broadcasts, we were not able to put out the video live, instead settling for audio only during the live action. Thank you to the fans from both schools for their understanding, as the full video archive of that game should be up within the next couple of days.
All-in-all it was a great weekend full of football, as both Paul and myself were on the broadcast of three different games this weekend. Not to mention we ate pretty well on the trip... Special shoutout to the Shari's in La Grande, Oregon and the McCall Pancake House. We definitely recommend both.
Looking ahead at the remainder of our district one regular season coverage, we are thrilled about the schedule we have put together, which should help shape playoff positioning. All of these scheduled broadcasts can be viewed below. Each kick time is slated for Pacific Standard Time.
September 29, Lake City at Sandpoint, 7 p.m.
September 30, Genesee at Wallace, 1 p.m.
October 6, Moscow at Lakeland, 7 p.m.
October 13, Lakeland at Sandpoint, 7 p.m.
October 13, Post Falls at Lewiston, 7 p.m.
October 14, Prairie at Wallace, 2 p.m.
October 20, Flex Scheduling (Game TBD)
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