For Wallace, Rivalry With Kellogg Rates Right Up There With Playoffs
With his team idle last week, Wallace High School football coach Dave Rounds had a wonderful opportunity to scout the Miners’ possible opponent in a playoff for a berth to the State A-3 playoffs.
As the lone A-3 independent team in District I, Wallace faces the second-place finisher in the Central Idaho League for a playoff berth.
The CIL’s runner-up was determined last Friday when Lapwai defeated Grangeville 22-6. Wallace will take on Lapwai on Oct. 27 in Moscow.
With last Friday night off, Rounds, naturally, was in Lapwai on a scouting mission. Right? Wrong.
Rounds decided he needed a break from football and went hunting.
Had he decided to scout an opponent, he would have been in Bonners Ferry, not Grangeville.
See, there is at least one thing as important to Rounds as the playoffs. Maybe more important.
In a word - rivalry.
Kellogg and Wallace, cross-Silver Valley rivals, meet Friday in Kellogg in a game that’s a continuation of the 20-all tie the teams engaged in the second week of the season.
Rounds’ dislike for Kellogg goes back to his playing days at Wallace.
“This could be one of the most important games for me in a long time,” Rounds said. “You know me and Kellogg. We’re pulling out all the stops. They’ve got to be favored against us. They took it to us in the first game.”
Some would say that Kellogg shouldn’t have walked away with a tie in the first game. The Wildcats led 20-0 before Wallace rallied late. Kellogg missed a field goal as time expired.
“I’m more concerned about beating Kellogg than anything,” Rounds said. “We’ve had the advantage of two weeks to prepare.”
Rounds said he had spies in Bonners Ferry and Grangeville last week.
“There are Wallace alumni in ever city in Idaho,” Rounds said, laughing.
Kellogg remembers blowout
Lakeland’s 48-13 Intermountain League loss Friday at St. Maries wasn’t, as stated in the game story Saturday, the worst setback a Hawks team suffered in more than a decade.
Kellogg fans politely reminded us this week that the 1990 Wildcat team thundered Lakeland. In fact, they recall “turning the lights out” on Lakeland.
A check of the archives reveals the Kellogg fans have a keen memory.
Lakeland, coming off two straight State A-2 championships, traveled to Kellogg and was promptly waxed 36-0. In fact, the game was called with 8:32 left in the fourth quarter because of a 32-point “mercy rule.” The mercy rule for games involving larger classification schools was abolished after one season.
The Kellogg victory snapped Lakeland’s 20-game IML winning streak, dating back to 1986.
While we’re talking about Kellogg, kudos to first-year coach Shawn Amos.
Most folks expected the Wildcats to be improved this season largely because of Amos. But Kellogg’s 19-6 win over Bonners Ferry last week guaranteed the Wildcats’ a fourth-place finish in league.
Kellogg could finish 4-4-1 with a win Friday over Wallace. It would be the Wildcats’ best record since 1991 (5-4).
Wendy’s girl
Sandpoint basketball and volleyball standout Alli Nieman has been named one of 1,020 finalists in the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award program. Twenty athletes were selected from each state.
As a state finalist, Nieman was selected among 10,000 nominations by principals nationwide. The Wendy’s High School Heisman was established by a partnership between the Downtown Athletic Club (creators of the college Heisman trophy) and Wendy’s International, Inc.
The award honors seniors for their athletic accomplishments, academic excellence and community service.
One of a kind
There’s nothing in the state that rivals the rivalry between Highland of Pocatello and Pocatello. Especially in football. Last week, No. 1-ranked Highland and second-ranked Pocatello, both undefeated at the time, squared off at Holt Arena before a crowd estimated at 11,000. Highland held off the defending State A-1 Division I champs 33-27.
ESPN reportedly sent a crew to Pocatello to shoot highlights for its weekly television show “Scholastic Sports America.” The teams will likely be seeded in opposite brackets in the state playoffs and could meet again in the state title game.
The game also featured an interesting coaching matchup: father vs. son. Brent Koetter, an all-state quarterback in the late 1970s at Highland who coached Pocatello to the state title last year, was hired at Highland last spring. His dad, Jim Koetter, former Idaho State University head coach, was rehired as head coach at Pocatello. Dad coached Pocatello to state titles in 1989, ‘90 and 92 before giving the job to his son two years ago.
Player in coma
Former Bishop Kelly baseball standout Brett Bibeau is in a coma in a Boise hospital, the victim of an auto accident involving a drunk driver. Bibeau, honored by Gatorade as Idaho’s player of the year in 1993, lost just one game in a brilliant four-year prep career at BK. That loss occurred in the 1993 State A-2 championship game. The winning team? Lakeland.
, DataTimes