(upbeat music) - I kinda think a Shelley is like the Justice League. Everyone talks about, you know, Brinley Cannon, but they're kind of like the Justice League. They just have a nice set of characters that back them up. - When it comes to high school sports, East Idaho never gets its due. - I ran into Jeremy Hess, the AD of Grace Luther, and he was just excited, and then I'm just talking to him and he goes, "We have seven girls, so just amazing." - But the East Idaho PrepCast has changed that, covering the biggest sports stories from salmon, all the way down to Bear Lake. - And again, Grace is always that team just kind of lurking, like, yeah, there's Grace. They don't have social media, but you know what? They have footballs, they got grass, they got pads, and they use all those very well. - It's the East Idaho PrepCast with Sean Kane on IdahoSports.com. (upbeat music) - That's right, welcome back to another edition of the East Idaho PrepCast, IdahoSports.com, breaking down top stories from Districts 5 and 6 of Idaho High School Athletics. It's Wednesday, September 25th. It's great to have you all with us. My name is Joel Richardson, and let's bring in our East Idaho expert and insider, tennis coach and podcast extraordinaire, Sean Kane. What's up, Sean? - Oh, well, you know, I've been getting a lot of emails, you know, like, don't pick our team, you know. Sean, can you not pick our team for anything? No, I'm just joking, things are good. There's a lot of buzz going on, right? Like, gyms are full, fields are full, like, everything's in full swing, and you kind of get that feeling, and then it's almost over, right? We're like halfway through football, pretty much at the end of soccer. Volleyball will come up pretty quick, too, but it's everything. There's just a lot of buzz around the school today, after school, I'm a teacher at Century. Anyone new here? But yeah, just a lot going on. Century is playing Bear Lake and Butte County in the double letter at Century. So that'll be a follow- - Is that from volleyball? - For volleyball, yeah, they're, Century's gonna play each of 'em, Bear Lake and then Butte and Bear Lake are gonna play each other while they're there. So kind of a cool little mini tournament kind of thing, not a tournament, but a three-way play there. - Yeah, definitely. And if you're getting caught up in so much going on, hey, head on to IdahoSports.com, you get all the scores, you'll get all the prep cast talking about those top games. You will get the live streams for football, and you'll even get some coaches and media poll standings. A few more coaches polls came out today, few controversies there, maybe we'll get to. There's a lot going on, and like you said, Sean, the season, especially for soccer, is more than halfway over. We just have a few more weeks of soccer, and then we get into district play. So yeah, things are a buzz. And suddenly, like that, it's gone. - Let's click. - Yeah, so let's get right into it. We, of course, here on the east out of prep cast, we always start with our athlete and our team of the week. This week, Sean, our athlete of the week, comes from Pocatello Football, the quarterback Hunter May. What a game he had this past Friday. He was 17 and 30, so he's the quarterback, 17 and 32 in passing 220 yards total, five throw-in touchdowns. And Sean, you would think, those are great stats, wonderful game from Hunter May, that senior quarterback, well, that wasn't it, right? What were his rushing stats like, Sean? - Yeah, 210 and two rushing TDs. And the thing to think about Hunter May is, let's go back a couple of years, peel back the pages. Pocatello has an injury. Sophomore Hunter May stepped in as a quarterback, as a sophomore and played in some big games. One, I remember very distinctively, was Pocatello lost to Highland 7 to 14. It wasn't too long ago, he was the quarterback. And then last year, they have Drew Contreras, right? - Yeah, Drew Contreras. - He's leading the team, and Hunter moved into more of a receiver-type role, but Hunter May's settling back in as quarterback, obviously he's settled well. He's set up a house, maybe a nice little suburb, but what a performance, you know, just that team is, you know, what a bounce back, right? You know, they had a rough go against Blackfoot, losing by two on the two-point conversion, but then they go ahead and win in Butte, Montana, against Sandpoint by two on the two-point conversion. They stopped one two-point conversion, got one with the go ahead win. So there was a lot of offense in that game, 49, 48, and potential playoff battle, you could see that coming again, you know, Sandpoint played Pocatello in the first round of the playoffs last year. Pocatello kind of took it to him, it was a hurt, Sandpoint team, so, you know, they were pretty big on, like, we know Sandpoint's coming after us, they want some revenge, and Pocatello was able to hold him off, but congrats to Undermay. - Yeah, congrats to Undermay, our athlete, our East Idaho PrepCast athlete of the week, and then let's get on to our team of the week for the East Idaho PrepCast. The American Falls Girl Soccer team, they've quietly shot, they quietly went on a 10-game winning streak before eventually losing to, was Marsh Valley on Monday, they lost four to one, but tremendous opportunity there for them to go on that 10-game win streak. They're currently 4-1-0, got a check on those ties, right, in soccer, 4-1-0 in conference, and previously they had beaten Marsh Valley 3-2 earlier in September. I had a chance, Shonda, talk to head coach Brett Reed, he's in his fifth, sixth season with the American Falls Girl Soccer team, and man, does he love this team. He talks about them as being a family, they have great chemistry, a lot of these girls, he actually coached them since they were kindergarteners in their little rec league out there in American Falls, and because they've grown up together, they've played together, they've coached together, and here they are as junior seniors playing on this team, and he talks about them again, having great chemistry, feeling like a family. He wanted to highlight Alliana Cruz's, Sean, she has over, she has about 110 goals so far. Varsity goals in her high school career, and she's trying to beat a record, I believe it was 150, 159, set by one of her previous teammates, who has now moved on to greener pastures, graduated a few years ago. Alliana Cruz's, and there were some other players that he highlighted, just a phenomenal team that American Falls Girl Soccer Club. - Yeah, I would agree with you, kind of slowly, quietly in the background, or the American Falls Beavers Girl Soccer. Now we did kind of highlight them a little bit a while ago, but now it's kind of like you start, there's a few games we don't really know, and now we've got a lot of games, but how's the Southeast Idaho Conference gonna pan out? I mean, it's gonna be brutal. One and a half bids to state, you've got American Falls and Marsh Valley, both right up there in the conference, and they're gonna have to play each other more in once. You can just kind of feel that gum, and it's a double elimination bracket more than likely, and they're gonna have to play each other more than once. So, it'll be really interesting to see how that pans out, but congrats, American Falls are doing a great job. Coach Reed, fifth season, it's kind of like football, you get to that fourth of fifth season, that's when he got your players, have been there for a little bit, and it's showing that the system and the coaching and all that, and the Girl's Hard Work is doing well. - Yeah, and here at the East Out of Prepcast, we love our East Out of Sports. We try out to have favorites, and I think we do a pretty good job of staying neutral, but as I was talking to Coach Reed, I couldn't help, but yeah, feel for this team and just all the work they've put in, the family culture that they have, they started doing a cheer early on, where they would say, American Falls family, and they noticed that as they played teams a second time, especially as conference players started, some of these teams have taken that cheer and used it for their own cheers, you know, Marsh Valley family, and Coach is fine with that. He mentioned that he thought it was interesting, but he liked it because if he can allow that culture to permeate that culture of family and togetherness throughout the league, he wants the best competition, and he feels like that ups the competition as other teams try to become, have that tight chemistry, have that tight family. I also asked Coach Reed, hey, tell me about any pranks or any kind of funny stories, and he mentioned that the players had their TikTok dances, and they've gotten Coach on some TikTok dances, whether he knew it or not, and he tries to keep it light, they do some yoga together, they do a lot of kind of mental exercises to stay strong mentally, especially during that 10-game win streak. He said there was pressure there to keep it going, and so they do some things that maybe aren't conventional, but he likes to keep it light and keep the players loose and playing, and man, it's worked so far, Sean. Yeah, imitation's the best form of flattery, right? - Right. - I mean, that's what you gotta do. I mean, I'm not gonna be in any TikTok video, so I can tell you that right now that I'm aware of, but it's the little things that make the difference. It's the relationship. You know, Reed, Coach Reed is really built on that relation. I feel that in this, that he's got that relationship going, and that's what builds the trust, the camaraderie, and that's when you come together and you do something special. Everyone can do everything good, but who can do it? Great. And that's what Reed's doing right now in Marsh Valley, or excuse me, American Falls. - American Falls, yeah, no, it's okay. And you mentioned earlier that they'll play each other a few times in the district tournament and perhaps in the playoffs and at state. They have played each other twice, and they're one-one on both those. Marsh Valley won the second one, and American Falls won that first game. And so congratulations to the American Falls girls soccer team, those beavers, playing really well. They had a little hiccup against Marsh Valley on Monday, but doing really having a great season and doing well in conference play. Let's, we got a couple comments coming in. This one from Sam Buffington. Thanks for doing this. Sam, thanks for being here with us. It's always a pleasure. Thanks for commenting. And another question from Sam as well, is the girls state soccer tournament in Florida and East Idaho this year. I'd have to look it up really fast on the IHSA website unless you know off the top of your head, Sean. I want to say, I don't know. I'm going to find it really fast. If you could just like, you know, wax eloquently about tournaments. Well, you know, it's either up north or it's in Idaho Falls. I feel that, and sometimes Boise. So it's three places. We've got a 33% chance here, Sam. And, all right, I have the answer, Sean, and for ready for it. Unless you want to guess. No, it's a, yeah, it's a real-life fields in Post Falls, Sam. So Post Falls has got the, it's got the foray north, exactly. So that's where the foray tournament is going to be. And hopefully a lot of East Idaho teams there, again, foray Southeast Idaho Conference gets one and a half bids. Last year, American Falls, girls, soccer team, they lost to Buell in that play-in game. But I believe Marsh Valley did go. I think they were a three or four seed, if I'm not mistaken. And Marsh Valley played well, I believe Marsh Valley got third in the four eight state tournament last year. And Sam Bonney says, "Thanks, guys. You're welcome, Sam." Anytime for our good friend, Sam Buffington, up there in north Idaho. All right, let's move on. Congrats to our athlete of the week and team of the week. Now with recap, Sean, some of the biggest games and matches from this past week, a few football games. We had some high scoring action, Sean, from East Idaho teams. A couple of those Rigby Beat West out of Utah that Salt Lake, that really good Salt Lake school, 35, 33. I mean, we're talking 88, excuse me, 68 points total. And then Highland beat Thunder Ridge, 37, 27. Sean, walk us through that Highland Thunder Ridge game. What happened there? What a game. A lot of points, man. A lot of points and a lot of turnovers. Highland fumbled the ball four times. Highland doesn't fumble the ball four times. The score might be a little lopsided. I think Highland is maybe wins this a little easier. But give credit to Thunder Ridge. Thunder Ridge doesn't have their starting quarterback portment in. They have Ezra in-- or in Moss, Ezra Moss in-- Ezra Moss? Yeah, he started last year. But Portman was slated to be the starter this year, but broke his collarbone. So Moss is back in this game. And it was difficult. Highland defense is strong. But Thunder Ridge took a lead a couple times and just couldn't really sustain the lead, because Highland would go on these six-minute, eight-minute drives, which they've done. I remember this last year. Anytime things start going awry, Nick Sorel and the Highland Rams put together these long, sassainal drives that just suck the life out of the other team. And that's what Highland was able to do. And yeah, the turnovers are fumbles. I mean, it was really hard for Highland to get any sort of momentum. But I will tell you, in the second half, Cedric Mitchell, he was our Idaho Sports.com player of the game. He put the team on his back, literally caught the ball, carried the ball, kind of wondered where he was in the first part of the game. But Thunder Ridge has a good offensive defensive line. But when it needed to happen and when Highland needed something, Cedric Mitchell was big time. It was also interesting to see Keaton Belknap in action live, the Marsh Valley transfer. He had kind of a hard game too, because he fumbled twice. But I think this conference, there's a lot more question marks than answers, because Thunder Ridge is playing probably the best they've played in the last few years. The coach has been there. It's a really interesting story, like both coaches are in their third season. Both coaches come from Highland. Nix or Elle just stayed. Mikey's at Thunder Ridge. But they're kind of both in the same coaching tree, that Gino Mariani coaching tree, kind of like a Bill Belichick coaching tree or something. So there's no surprises on what they're trying to do. They know each other very well. But a good game, I would have to say Thunder Ridge can't be upset. They played the best. I think they've played as a team. They've never beaten Highland in their school existence, and they had an opportunity there too. So it was a good game. It's just going to be really interesting to see when these teams play Madison and Rigby, right? Because right now, Rigby's lost some games, but they've been playing really well. And Madison hasn't lost. Highland hasn't lost. There's a lot at stake in this conference when all the teams are playing so well. Yeah, so congrats to Highland, so keeping that streak going. But Thunder Ridge playing a great game. And like you say, more question marks after that win because it was such a high scoring game. And Highland's defense didn't keep them at 14 or 7, but they scored 27 on Highland. So very curious to see Highland, Rigby, Madison, Highland, and then very curious to see how Thunder Ridge does against those Highland, excuse me, Madison and Rigby as well. Preston Burley, Preston beat Burley 45 20th. That's the first win of the season for Preston. Unfortunately, there was an injury for Burley, starting quarterback, Cubie Mack Jensen. He's a star quarterback. One of the best quarterbacks in the state. He's out for the season due to a leg injury that he sustained, Sean, during the second drive. And Preston just took advantage of the defense of Burley's defense and went deep ball over and over again. And ended up winning that game 45-28. We already talked about the pokey standpoint game, pokey pulling that one out 49-48. And then let's go to another large high scoring game. Well, yeah, we'll do two more. This one was high scoring, it was Marsh Valley, blanking so to springs 50 to zero, bringing Marsh Valley to three and one. Sean, I'm very interested in what Marsh Valley has going on. Conference play starts October 11th. We'll listen to the schedule for Marsh Valley. They got filer, they have a buy. Then three conference games ending with American Falls at home. Marsh Valley has a good chance to run the table here. Yeah, you've got Marsh Valley, you know, playing well, have they played as hard of opponents as some of the other schools. I don't know, that would be my question there. I think you've got an American Falls team that's also doing very well. I mean, let's not go too far back. American Falls almost beat Aberdeen, and Aberdeen right now is a team on a mission. So it'll be really interesting to see if they can, you know, win all these games. And then that, whatever happens, that game against American Falls at the end of the years, going to more than likely be a must win for either team. I'm going forward for some sort of playoff berth. You can just see that kind of brewing up in the pot. Yeah, and so that does it for our kind of high scoring football games. One more that we wanted to highlight. Kimberly, Sean, beat Sugar Salem, 17-14. Sean, is it time to worry about if you're a Sugar Salem fan, if you're a Sugar Salem, you know, follower, they've not lost two in a row after going on that massive win streak that covered, I believe, two seasons plus. Four, and Sugar was bumped to second, and now they've been bumped to third in this week's coaches poll. I mean, we'd have to give Lance Taylor one of our broadcasters the call to find out the last time Sugar Salem football lost two games in a row. You might have to go to that Rolodex of information. Are you worried? I mean, I don't think so. I think what you gather from this more than anything is Kimberly is maybe a team. People aren't getting enough credit for, you know, they're able to, you know, put together this end drive that had a bunch of penalties and somehow managed to get down and kick a field goal to win as time expires. They run, you know, one play just to get it to the middle of the field, call that last time out. Their time management and that drive is phenomenal. You know, I think you just, you know, you don't want to take anything away from Sugar. I think they're so great team. They're going to be playing later. But maybe you just have to say, yeah, Kimberly's a lot better than maybe what the rest of the state's given the credit for. I like that both can be true. Kimberly can be very much better than we realize and Sugar is going to be okay. I would agree with that. That's going to do it for football this week. Let's move into Girls Soccer. Shot some great games. Pocatella played twin recently, one, three, two. And then on Monday, Skyline played Bonneville at Bonneville one, six, one. Very important game there. As now Bonneville is tied with Hillcrest. For that second place is Skyline takes commanding control of first place and then other games, American Falls. Lost to Marsh Valley, 4-1, as we already talked about. And then on Tuesday, yesterday, Idaho Falls lost to Hillcrest 4-0. That was a three versus two by one, just by a tie. And so of those games, Sean, which ones are more interesting to you? I mean, you know-- In terms of like standings now. Well, I don't know. District six, I feel like sometimes we could throw the regular season out the window. For sure. It might matter where you get spotted in the tournament. And hopefully you get, again, someone that you feel more confident about, maybe. Or maybe you don't. But I think upsets are just, you know, breakfast. You eat it every day, right? That's what's going to happen. And that district six. You know, I think Pocatello, that's a good win. It twins always very strong. Girls program from the Valley there. But yeah, I would look-- I'm kind of surprised by Hillcrest winning 4-0 against an Iowa Falls team. I also think it's pretty good. But sometimes, I mean, soccer games, looking at the score, could you tell you absolutely nothing about the game? I think that's the one thing with soccer. It's really hard to get a picture of the game unless you were there. Because it might have been a lot closer. It's just kind of how soccer rolls, right? You just-- it's-- the score is not so indicative of how the game actually unfolded. Yeah. And then you have Skyline. And you mentioned-- you can throw the rigorously at the window. So right now, we're really playing for district seating, right, proceeding for the tournament. Skyline in first, Hillcrest second, Bonneville third, tied with Idaho Falls like we mentioned, except for that tie, the Idaho Falls, they do have a tie. So they're just behind Bonneville and then Shelly and Blackfoot, 1 in 4 and 0 and 6, respectively. So if you're a Skyline, you're feeling good. But like you say, upsets are like eating breakfast. So I wouldn't be surprised if Skyline loses maybe one game in that tiebreaker has to be quantified. Boys soccer, last Thursday, Thunder Ridge, played a caneridge. That ended up being a tie. Remember, caneridge is in 6A in the high country conference. So that game was a conference game, tie game there. Then on Thursday, going down to 5 a high country conference, Blackfoot, B. Idaho Falls 4-0. And I talked to the Idaho Falls coach. They really wanted that second game. They're looking forward to playing Blackfoot. Blackfoot has been so good this season. They are the strong number one. They will get that number one seed. You never know what will happen in the district tournament, like you said, Sean. The Blackfoot right now is on a tear. They're 5 and 0 in conference, so in possession of first. Then also this past Monday, two days ago, Idaho Falls v. Hillcrest 3-1. That was a 2 versus 3 game. So I believe Idaho Falls is now in commanding control of that second place. Yeah, they are. Commanding control of that second place, which gives them, I believe, a buy in the district tournament. So that's good for Idaho Falls. And finally, in 4A for Boy Soccer, the first conference game of the season for the Sugar and Teetown Sugar, defeated Teetown 4-1, Sean. Yeah, you know, Scott Terry and the diggers picking up, you know, picking up the slack on the winning for Sugar Salem during the week, right? I mean, if it's not football, Sugar Salem's going to win something. And, you know, always, always a competitive, you know, there's only three teams in the conference, right? The last few years has been pretty dominated by Sugar Salem and Teetown competing for that spotted state. I don't think anything changes there, but yeah, Sugar continuing to do well. Yeah, and Sugar is one of the own conference now, 9-1 overall. That max prep's ranking matters. And they've got that so far. That's going to do it for Boys and Girls Soccer. So it's moving to volleyball really fast, Sean. On this past Thursday was a huge game, no, wrong one. Thursday was Madison, played rugby 3-0. Madison won, again, Madison on their own massive winning streak. And then the same day, Blackfoot down to 5A high country conference. Blackfoot defeated Shelly 3-1. And then on Saturday, Bear Lake defeated Preston. First conference game for Bear Lake 3-1. And Bear Lake, they're feeling really good about their season. Of course, they're up with Preston in that, I believe, that's 3A conference. 4A. 4A. 4A. 4A. That's right. Because all the teams moved up, but Bear Lake went one further. Wanted to push themselves in volleyball. So good job for Bear Lake to keep that going. First conference game and first conference win for them. And then on Thursday, last Thursday, North Fremont, this was a big one. North Fremont beat Firth 3-2. They went to five sets. North Fremont is now 2-0, 8-11 overall. But kind of a surprising possession of that first place as North Fremont was going into this game at 7-11, had the worst overall record. Yeah, I mean, that's why you play the game's role. You've got to go out there. You've got to put the goals, like ball in the goal. And again, I think you're going to see these teams play again. And maybe that district tournament. But yeah, very, very interesting. Firth, very competitive, and North Fremont as well. Yeah, and for volleyball, right? These two teams were fighting for that first, second place. Ryrie was right there at 12 and 4. Suddenly, Ryrie's 1-1 in conference play. So North Fremont takes the first place. Firth in second, and Ryrie in third, when a lot of us were thinking Ryrie volleyball was going to be taking command of that new conference in 3A. Some other volleyball scores that are of interest. Last Wednesday, Soda played Westside. Huge game there. Westside won 3-0. And suddenly, Soda, who is having a good volleyball season in conference, has now lost two games in her own. They're going to be fighting for the rest of the regular season to get that good seat in conference play with two losses. Yeah, and volleyball is one of the sports, too. Their overall record can be-- you could have a team in the first place in the conference and have a bad overall record. You've got to dig into their regular season and see what they've done, what tournaments they've played, what's their early season, non-conference look like. So volleyball is kind of a sport. You really have to take a deep dive into some of the schedules and look at it. And so it's kind of interesting. You think, oh, they have the better record. They're going to be the best in the conference, or they don't have a good record. It can kind of throw that out the window when you get into the conference play. Yeah, good point. And because of that loss and then they lost the next day, Thursday, those are those two losses we were talking about. So uphill climb for Sota Springs, but Declo Westside doing well in conference play so far. And then finally, this was the big game that I teased earlier. Pocatello versus Wood River, arguably two of the best teams in 5A volleyball, went to five sets, Sean. Pokey winning 3-2, went 18-25 Wood River, then 25-12 Pokey, 25-22 Pokey. Wood River comes back 25-23, excuse me, to make it, to take it to the fifth final game. And Pocatello took Wood River, no problem, 15-5. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it. We thought it would be something like this, two really good teams playing every point possible. You can play when you match up. It wasn't 3-0, it was a five setter. But you know, Pocatello, 15-5 in that final frame, I think that just shows the death of that Pocatello team that's coming back with most of the people from last year and doing really well. And it's kind of interesting too, because on iOSports.com, the coaches pull for volleyball just came out today. Right, tell us what that's on. And what's there? Well, and you would be wrong. The coaches think Idaho Falls is the best team in 5A, followed by Pocatello, Lakeland, Bonneville, and Columbia, and Wood River, I think was on it previously, is no longer in the top five on the coaches' goal. But yeah, I mean, solidifies Pocatello's spot and they're definitely in Idaho Falls. You know, Idaho Falls volleyball isn't someone where we've been in the direction of too much, but a very, very good program, not too far removed from winning state championships at a higher level. And now at the 5A level, and they've done really well, between Idaho Falls and Bonneville and Idaho Falls, they just produce volleyball teams year after year after year. And probably some of the kids from Madison probably are in these same clubs and stuff too, right? 'Cause you got Madison, that's pretty much a unanimous number one. I don't know if they were or not, but in my book they are at 14 and 0 and 3 and 0 in the conference. But yeah, that East Idaho, that East North, East North, really East, but North part is kind of where volleyball, you know, it's just so good there. It's always so dominant. - Head coach of Pocatello Paige Latham got the chance to chat with her. She mentioned that Pocatello had some tough serves along with how they spread out their offense, where three of their hitters were in the double digits for kills. So when you have that kind of production from lots of different hitters, you can move the ball around in the other team. In this case, Wood River, they don't know what to watch for. And you're on your heels versus on your toes, 'cause you're looking at three different hitters who can pound this ball and get that point from Pocatello. So Pocatello's feeling really good. Yeah, but right now they're ranked number two. Idaho Falls number one, talk to the Idaho Falls AD. You mentioned them. And he said, man, can Idaho sports, can you guys get to a volleyball game? Idaho Falls, you know, which would be a blast. I think live volleyball is so fun. It's super intense, it's loud, constant shearing. That would be awesome. I'd love to talk to our boss, Paul Kingsbury, to get us out there. I also noticed I was left in the North Idaho prep cast. Sean, get a little controversy going, but they were all talking about Lakeland, Sean. Lakeland, the team to beat North Idaho. They were talking, they were talking about Lakeland. Let's get out of town, Sean. They're talking about Lakeland and girls basketball too, right? Pokedale beats them, you know, it's the same, it's probably a lot of the same girls. You're saying Pokedale had a lot of people that, you know, could attack the ball. Let's not forget this Pokedale volleyball team has Abby Lusk and Kena Garza, you know, two six footers who are boss or D1, you know, commits in basketball. So they've got a lot of power, a lot of hype. And I can tell you, I don't want to try to get a ball from Kena Garza. No, I don't, or Abby Lusk. I'm like the Scotty Pippin of women's basketball. I always say Abby Lusk is she's like the Scotty Pippin of volleyball too, but yeah, they're pretty good. But no, you can't take any credit away from Lakeland. I think now though, has Lakeland played anyone in the top five or down there in also receiving votes and maybe they've played Lewis and I don't know off the top of my head, but Pokedale has played Wood River, you know, they've played some really tough teams. And so yeah, I mean, we'll just have to wait and see. - Well, we'll have to wait and see. Cannot wait for that game. I would love to have Lakeside Pokedale in that championship game, but yeah, I was watching. I suddenly tuned, right when I tuned in, they were talking about girls vlog on how good Lakeland was and they had a great match up this last weekend. I was thinking, I don't know, I don't know, Pokedale is really close, if not better. - Well, the problem is on their show, they're always talking, well, Lakeland played, Walla Walla, Toucan, Washington, and they're the seven A champs. And I mean, I don't know what that means, Joel. I only know the champions here in our state. - That's right. - And so that's what I compare, you know. I go to the gas station because that's what we have in Pokedale and I look at Blue Trophies and it's beautiful. - We get gas and we buy trophy cases because we change trophies and they're big trophy cases. I love it. Hey, and if you want to listen to North Idaho PrepCast, if you want an or watch North Idaho PrepCast, want to watch this one, go back and listen to it and tell us all that all the takes were getting wrong, all the takes were getting right, including how great East Idaho Sports is. Tune in every week, right? On the, on atosports.com's YouTube channel, Facebook page, X account. And then you can also listen to this podcast on atosports.com wherever you get your podcasts. - But I don't want to get too mean though, Joel, because they did allude to a little bit that there will be some collaboration between us coming. They've been trying to keep me and Ryan apart for a very long time and it's going to happen, whether anyone likes or not. But yeah, Ryan does a great job really connected to all those coaches. And he's definitely always might go to Guy when I'm prepping for games and stuff against teams in the North and it's what a resource I have. You know, I can just hit him up and get all this great information about these teams. So great job up there in the North. - No, yeah, Ryan Skaggs is an awesome job. I want to be as connected and knowledgeable in high school sports as Ryan Skaggs. And Ryan Skaggs is for not just North Idaho, but all sports, he seems to just know so much about all these high school athletes, their teams and their history. So now shots north via North Idaho prep cast. Ryan Skaggs, but we're coming for you Skaggs. East Idaho sports are coming for North Idaho sports. And yeah, we're going to do a crossover in a couple of weeks, which will be a total blast. Sean, let's finish off with some swimming. We're going to talk about swimming, my favorite sport. We had a triple dual meet, Sean, Rigby's Skyline Century. - And there were some great performances, man. Skyline Girls, Rigby Boys and Centuries, Kieran Patterson, walk us through some of the performances, man. - Yeah, the Skyline Girls, 200, Emility, that's a hard work for me to get that relay, which was always really fun. You know, they got two, 10, nine seconds ahead of second place. So nine seconds and swimming's a long, you know, yeah, you're like, you're looking, so great performance there. And then on the boys' side and the same race, Rigby, also won with 153 and they had a five second lead. Not as much. I mean, it's kind of still similar, I think with five seconds to nine seconds, you're going to have that space, which if you're watching, it's hard to believe that you can get that much space when they start off so close. So nice job by them. And then Patterson of Century, first in the 200 free broker, own school record of 209 and first in the 100 fly. So nice job from some East Idaho swimming up there at that triple dual. Yeah, Skyline Girls, Rigby Boys and Century's Karen Patterson, bringing it in the pool. Good job there and swimming is coming up pretty clearly. And I want to get my soapbox about swimming, but I won't right now, swimming here in East Idaho, or I guess Idaho in general. But we'll allow, we'll keep Brandon Bayney, we'll allow Brandon Bayney to have, you know, the soapbox for a while. Let's go to, we already talked about Sean, some of the standings for Girls Boys Soccer. We'll do that, we'll do volleyball in a few weeks, since volleyball just has a few more weeks until they're getting close to the end of their season. But really fast on any surprises for Girls or Boys Soccer. Again, Highland is solid first for Girls Soccer. Then, and five of you got Skyline, Hillcrest, Bonneville, IF, but Skyline with strong number one, Pocatello is doing great job, Sugar obviously doing great. And then we already talked to American Falls Marsh Valley, they're both one-on-one against each other. Anything else that you wanted to highlight for Girls Soccer standings? Oh, we can't hear you, Sean. - This is kind of the path I had to beat myself. No, this is kind of the path we saw coming. I still think that American Falls Marsh Valley is gonna really, that's gonna be quite the battle. Everything else is pretty much chalk as of right now. - Okay, I agree. And then for Boys Soccer, Thunder Ridge in first place, then Ring B Canyon Ridge are kind of right there. And then Blackfoot, they're dominating like we already mentioned, Sentry doing a great job, really no competition, unfortunately, from Pocatello impressed. And really, Keri Sentry is one of those teams that we talked about the beginning of the season that we were watching in the century has not disappointed. And then, and to go back to Thunder Ridge, they haven't disappointed either, but we'll wait to see what happens in the state. And then Sugar and Teton, whichever one wins, claims that one seat in their district tournament. And that'll be very important. And finally, American Falls Boys, they should win on claim that first in the district tournament, but anyone there that hasn't gone chalked that surprises you, Sean? - No, but I think the really interesting game will be this Saturday as Sentry travels to Wood River. They're both one and two in the coaches poll right now on idlesports.com. They're one and two in max, perhaps. I think, you know, we're gonna have, you know, some sort of picture out of this game, no matter what happens, Wood River, definitely a hard place to go and play a game. So we'll see what happens. The thing is, the game happens. You know, if Sentry wins, it's good. If Wood River wins, it's good. I don't think it matters much. They're both kind of in the direction to be one or two at that bracket when it comes to state. - Right. Well, you've already mentioned it. Let's go right into it for our biggest games coming up. Let's go into Boy Soccer. Thursday, we got one, one on one. We already mentioned these teams. Rigby at one, one on one, can you reach? This is two versus three. Then on Saturday, Thunder Ridge turns around and plays can you reach? And this is a one versus three for Thunder Ridge. Thunder Ridge doing everything well so far. But man, this would be the wrong time to have a hiccup. - Yeah, I kinda like Canyon Ridge moving to this conference. - Me too. - They're not far removed from, you know, almost winning the consolation in 4A last year against a very good idol falls team. So it'll be interesting seeing how Canyon Ridge, they lost to Blackfoot last year at state, which we know Blackfoot's really good. They go on to take basically fourth place. They don't give out fourth place. But then Canyon Ridge beats Caldwell, which has been a very dominant force in 4A. The Scanner Ridge team was ranked high last year, proved it, went to state, won some games. So, you know, now up in a higher division for soccer, you know, can they play with this division and come out with a state berth? I mean, I think you're gonna have some more question marks. Maybe after this game, then answers. But, you know, it should be a good one. - Yeah, well, and then after Thunder Ridge and Canyon Ridge play, then Thunder Ridge plays Rigby. And that's a one versus two. As long as Rigby doesn't lose the Canyon Ridge, that's a one versus two matchup. And that's gonna be very interesting. If Thunder Ridge has a hiccup this week and next, of course, these games are Thursday and next Tuesday, that's gonna be very interesting for those district tournament standings. Finally, for 5A, then we have Skyline plays Hillcrest. That's the third versus four. Again, Blackfoot, this is boy soccer, Blackfoot dominant. They're the first seed right now. They're in first place. So this is a third versus four for third place battle. Skyline can be Hillcrest. They established that third place and that just slightly better seed. And maybe one of them could avoid playing Blackfoot in that semi-final. - Yeah, I would definitely say Skyline boy soccer is a team. You don't wanna play first round of the district tournament. That's a team I've actually gotten to see play. They're very physical. They're very strong. They're gonna play hard. They're gonna grind it out with you. And you gotta be willing to play that grind game against them. And they're just like that team in the dark alley. You don't wanna play. You wanna try to avoid it. So big games coming up. - Yeah, and then girl soccer. This Saturday, we mentioned this a little earlier, three and two Bonneville plays at four and one Hillcrest. This is a two versus three fight for second place. Sean, who do you like in that one? - You know, I think Kilcrest right now is playing pretty well. I mean, Hillcrest is definitely the runner up to Skyline right now if we looked at it on paper. But I think Kilcrest is a very good team. I kinda like Kilcrest, but again, Bonneville team, again, I don't think that's a girls team you wanna have to play again. First, like, you know, maybe you inch out a one zero, one nil game in the regular season. And then however it falls, you have to play them again. And just that's another team. I just don't think you wanna play. You wanna get a win and avoid having to play them. Unless maybe it's a championship game, right? And then you're excited to play no matter who it is. - No doubt. Now, and you mentioned this last week, the high country conference for both boys, maybe less so for boys, but especially for girls soccer, it's like on any night, anyone can lose. And I would say for boys soccer, if you're two through five seeds, right? Two, three, four, maybe two, three, four, you never know who's gonna win that game. They're starting to get some separation. I don't fall as is in that second place right now, but still, yeah, you'd rather play someone else from a different conference, frankly, than having to play your own conference week in, week out. Just because, yeah, you never know who's gonna win, who's gonna lose that game. And then let's go on to foray for girls soccer. American Falls, four-in-one playing Marsh Valley, four-in-one, sorry, they're not playing, but watch both those teams, their schedules, what we've already mentioned, both these teams, but they, both of them, if they went out, they, one of them will get the number one team in the district tournament. I'm not sure who, because that tie with Marsh Valley tied, I believe it was Snake River, Sean. So if American Falls beats Snake River, I think they're playing tonight, actually. The game is already over. If someone out there knows the score, hit us up at Sean, at Sean Kane, one, eight, two, and I'm on, that's on Twitter. And then I'm at Instagram @jolehrichardson. Let us know what that score was, very interested in that one. Because if American Falls beats Snake River, I believe they take that first place, unless there's something with head-to-head nachps and scores. But anyway, if both those teams went out, one of them gets the number one team in the district tournament, much easier to not to avoid that play-in game than we already mentioned. That play-in can be so tough. - Yeah, and that's kind of the case, and it just kind of depends. Every district has some different rules about if it's head-to-head, common opponent, whatever it may be, it always can become a little dirty when there's not very many teams, right? And depending on who you played. So either way, you want to win out the rest of the time and slow-fire spot. - Yeah, and then let's finish off with golf. Well, we'll kind of almost finish off. We'll do golf and then we'll finish off with football for our picks of the week. Hey, with golf, Sean, there's something really interesting going on. Of course, for this week is the Emotion Bowl Week. We also have the Black and Blue, which we'll get into just in a little bit. But for the Emotion Bowl, we also have Sean the Tiger Grizz Cup. Tell us about that. - Well, it's something I just learned about Joel. - Yeah, brand new. - Yeah, I don't know if they've been doing this for a while or just started, but at Sage Lakes, the winner gets to spray paint the golf course, well, the flagpole, the school, the school, they don't get to just put like tigers or grizzly bears all over the golf course, but they get to decide the flagpole to be the school's color, just like in the Emotion Bowl, they get to paint the goalposts for that year. So kind of fun, kind of an interesting twist to it. Something to play for, kind of cool to know when you go out there that that's for your school, that color of the flagpole. So very fun. - Yeah, definitely. So looking forward to that. That's going to be tomorrow, nine September 26th, like Sean said, at Sage Lakes, winner sprays the golf course flagpole, their school color. And then here we go, Sean. It's football on Friday, Thursday and Friday. And Saturday, it's Emotion Bowl Week. It's black and blue bowl week. It's, it's rivalry week and we love it. So here we go, Sean, we're going to work, I'm going to give you four choices for football games. One, two, three, four. And you can choose one of those games and who you think is going to win. So here are four games. You got I.A. versus Skyline at the Emotion Bowl. You have West Side at Declo, Pocatella at Highland. That's going to be the Gate City game night. And you have Mackie at Rockland. Of those four games, which one do you want to choose and pick? - Well, I don't want to choose any of them at this point, but no, I'm going to go directly to West Side versus Declo. - Nice. - I think there's a lot of everyone's got a feeling, you know, strong feelings one way or the other. And I definitely, I'm putting on my bandana and IPatch 'cause I'm going West Side Pirates. - All right. - All right. - Are you ready? - Oh, nice. Sean, this is part of the game and I have to play as well. I'm also going to choose West Side. It's not because I love Pirates, although I do. It's not because, well, you know, the fake, you know, Johnny Depp wins. And it's not because I don't love Depp, it's not because I'm an East side a Ho fan. I think West Side really is the better team. I think Declo is still really good and it can still push West Side, but I think head to head match up, it's going to be, it's going to be a West Side game. Look, it's going to be a defensive battle. Let's be honest, right? And I think whoever scores is going to win the game, Sean, it's going to be really exciting looking forward to that one. Sean chooses West Side, I choose West Side. All right, that's Sean's pick West Side versus Declo as the interesting game for him. For me, oh man, I'm going to choose the, I'm going to choose Mackie and Rockland, Sean. And I'm going to choose, I'm going to choose Rockland. I've chosen against them, just kind of in my head almost every game, well not every game, but every game when they've gone, when our idol sports broadcasters have picked, I've picked against Rockland. So I'm going to Mackie Rockland. Awesome conference game is the first conference game for Macklin, excuse me. Rocklin's already won a conference game, so they're one own conference, but they're two and two overall, but I'm going to Rockland. Who do you got, Sean? - Oh man, this is a tough game. This is a game that I saw and knew it was going to be one to circle. Now, I will give you some bad news. Rockland is decimated by injuries right now and started track. I think last week maybe 10 guys played, they're on their third string freshman quarterback. I don't know, they're barely going to have enough to put on the team, but I'm also going to go Rockland. I don't think Mackie's quite there at one and two. They beat Canis County, but they've lost poorly to deep stretch and Tri-Valley. So I'm still going to go Rockland, but I could be wrong. Like me picking your team is not what we want at this point in the season, but I still have faith in Rockland in this game. And I'm not sure quite Mackie has the resume right now of the games they've played to beat Rockland, but I do think the game will be much closer than it might have originally been when you looked at on the schedule. - I think that's a title of our podcast, Sean. Me picking your team is not what you want. I'm writing it down right now. - Yeah, I'm so glad we didn't pick the ones that I'm, you know, broadcasting, you know. - Right, I immediately went away from those ones. I'll tell you that right now. - Totally. Yeah, no, I've learned early on, as I've started doing this podcast with you, Sean, that I avoid picking the plans that I'm broadcasting. So yeah, good call there, good call there, man. But I'm very looking forward to very much the two rivalry games, Pocatella, Highland, Black and Blue, it's the 67th edition, Sean Highland leads by a whopping 52 to 14. Last year, I believe it was Pocatella's year. There was a lot of rumors going on out, you know, Pocatella's gonna take it to you, guys. Highland, Nick Sraw is reading the article from last year and Nick said people would come up to a brown town and say, they're gonna get you guys. This is their year. And Nick Sraw said, you know, Pocatella was built. That team was built to beat Highland and Pocatella still couldn't finish the job on Highland one. - Yeah, and I broadcast that game last year with Lance Taylor and Pocatello. Did have a chance to tie that game up. Couple passenger filaments, penalties near the goal line. And then there's one more chance. The ball is in the thunder's hands and just can't hold on to it. And it falls short. - Twice, right? - Twice, they had two of them. Yeah, it was so close. And I mean, that's just the tie of the game up, right? That's not the win the game. It ends up being 24/17 Highland wins. But again, you know, go back two years when Hunter May was the quarterback and there wasn't that buzz like there was last year that the Thunder could, you know, finally come back and win that game, right? Or, you know, win that game. But you think back two years ago, Hunter May quarterback, the Thunder just lose seven to 14. So, I mean, you can throw everything out the window. You know, I got to talk to Nick Sarrell a little bit just about it. And, you know, obviously after last week against Thunder Ridge, they got to get rid of the turnovers and keep the long possessions, which I talked about there very good at doing. And then defensively, they've just got to, you know, he made it very, very apparent you got to contain May, Cordell Williams. So, three guys can do a little all, you know, Taven Williams was maybe going to be the quarterback. And I think he has thrown the ball a few times for him this year. And then Cordell's just, you know, another player that can do a lot of things. But I can tell you, Highland's got a lot of defensive players that can do things. So, it could be a very good contrast of an offensive team versus a defensive team. I just don't know if Pocatello can take those, you know, what they're going to do if the offense doesn't have the ball, because that's what Highland did against Thunder Ridge. It just took the ball of the offense's hands with those long, sustainable drives. - I agree. I don't think Pocatello has the defense to keep Highland off the field. And that will be the difference. Pocatello's got to match Highland's physicality. And on offense, so that's on defense. And I don't think they can, frankly. But I think Pocatello, they have enough weapons on offense that if they, if it does get into a shootout, watch out, Highland. Pocatello could sneak this sneak a win here. I don't think it'll get in the shootout. I think Highland's defense is too good. But Pocatello does have those weapons, obviously, including Hunter May, which Highland has to contain. But I think it could be close to people realized but I think Highland wins this game once again. And then the Emotion Bowl. Shonska, we're both you and I are going to be at. It's going to be our game of the week. These games the week, in case you don't know, if you're new to this, we've started some new adultsports.com where we add a little polish to the game of the week. We add another a few more cameras. We add a production guy and it really is a good time and we get you good footage. We get you down in the field coverage of both sidelines, words from coaches, et cetera. So great opportunity there to watch the game of the week. And this is going to be IF. I don't fall as versus Skyline for the Emotion Bowl. This is, I believe it's the 55th Emotion Bowl if I'm not mistaken. Should be Skyline's the win but rivalry games get weird, John. - Yeah, you know, last year, I was at this game last year broadcasting and Idol Falls gave Skyline everything they could handle. And I would say I felt Skyline was more lucky to come away at the win than winning the game. Just some turnovers and things. But you know, if we look at it right now, you definitely would have to favor a Skyline team coming out and winning their offense. I think just has a little too many weapons for this Idol Falls Tiger defense. But again, this rivalry game throw it out, fill all the bleachers, grab some popcorn, you know, you settle in. And this is a Saturday game too. So, you know, kind of a fun experience. But yeah, it should be, I think you're still going to have some heated moments and battles but Skyline, you know, had a big win the last week and they're kind of riding a wave right now kind of in control of their own destiny as maybe the number one 518 in the state. - Yeah, and Idol Falls, they're nothing to shake your fist. I mean, they've been in their games. They've been close in most of their losses. They just have a few mishaps. And then it seems like after that, you know, big turnover or a fumble, the wheels start to come off. So I just think it's maybe just the lack of experience for Idol Falls. But you don't, you take away some of those mishaps and Idol Falls can keep this game close and maybe sneak out with a win here. So looking forward to that one, that's going to be a Saturday, this Saturday, seven o'clock mountain time game of the week. If you can't be there at the game with your popcorn, like Sean mentioned, fill in those bleachers, catch the game on idolisports.com. And that Pocatoe Highland game is going to be Friday. That's going to be our Gate City game night, starting six, seven o'clock and coverage will start at 650. So Sean, this weekend, you're going to be at two places, Friday and Saturday. - Yeah, you know, the talent goes where he's needed, Joel. I mean, that's what it comes down. No, gonna go Pocatello versus Highland, black and blue. I, you know, I'm a Pocatello high school graduate myself. I've been to many of these games throughout the years. It's a, it's a, it's an experience. If you ever, ever been to one, I recommend going. And it's up at Highland Iron Horse, which I think is just a phenomenal stadium. It's cut into the ground, got the golf course on the one side. It's, there's not a bad seat. - Yeah. - It's a stadium, there's not a bad seat. You know, last year of this game was that lookout and there wasn't enough seats. The whole edge of the fence was covered with people. I think, I think we'll have enough seats. But, you know, I'd get there early and then plan on not getting out of the parking lot quickly. But it should be a good one. And like you said, Idaho Falls, Skyline, it's one of the always the most explosive games of the year. And you know what, you know, when we're talking about it and it's the same thing every year, like it's always like, you know, and we're not, I think it's just two years ago, Idaho Falls one, a big upset, you know, but it's always kind of the same thing. Oh, yeah, Skyline is the team. But every year, Idaho Falls is pushing them to the brink and then, you know, just two years ago, winning the game. So, you know, don't, don't, you know, don't just look at the rankings and the statistics. Just know when these two teams come to play, it's more than just a game, it's a, it's personal. - Yeah, and Ryan Scaggs agrees with you. North Idaho PrepCast coming alive. The game isn't a flop. Yeah, really looking forward to it. - Like you guys say, when it's a rivalry game, you throw all that out the window. Motions are a high and mistakes are gonna be made. There's gonna be fumbles, interceptions, looking forward to that one. Then one more from Ryan saying three weeks, boys, or we're gonna go cross over episode with the North Idaho PrepCast. Get your, get your ties, get buttoned up. It's gonna be wild. - It's just like law and order, you know, like the actual story of the characters in law and order, you get a little bit at the end of every show. Just like a little, oh, they're, they're dating. Oh, that's kind of what this is. It's a big buildup. - That's right. - And the ending might not be that great. - Hey, the end is gonna be amazing. And Ryan Scaggs can't wait. We can't wait. It's gonna be a really good time. But until then, I'll be at "Minical Burley" this Friday. And then I'll be with you, Sean. - The Battle of the Ore. - The Battle of the Ore. Yeah, "Minical Burley". This isn't the Magic Light Prep, PrepCast. But dude, it's, it's the river rivalry. And they battle for an Ore, man. Looking forward to that one. Burley is, is, man, strapped with injuries. But they're gonna come and play every down. They're gonna play tough. Burley always plays tough. So looking forward to that rivalry game. And then that's Friday night for me. And then I'll be up at, at Raxton with you, Sean, doing the Skyline Idol Falls game for the emotion bowl. Until then, I'm Joel Richardson. That's Sean Kane. Thanks for being with us on the east.oprepcast.outlesports.com. Catch us next week. And then a few weeks after that, we'll do our cross over with Ryan Scaggs. Great to have you with us. And until next time, take care of yourselves and be excellent to each other. Good night, everybody. [BLANK_AUDIO]
