Playing For The Future

Rick Giampietri views a spot in post-season football play not so much in the context of winning state, but as a means to prepare for the future.

“The playoff experience is unbelievable,” he said, calling it a springboard to next year for younger players.

Central Valley’s football coach settled instead on the next best thing. His young Bears won their final two league games to finish 4-4 (4-5 overall) in the Greater Spokane League, one win away from the playoffs.

“The game we had to have was the first one against Mt.

Spokane,” he said. “We had a 12-point lead with nine minutes to play.”

The Bears lost and played catch-up the rest of the year. But they weren’t the only team to miss the playoffs. None of the Valley’s teams advanced.

University finished 5-3 and tied for fourth, letting the playoffs get away after starting the season with five straight wins.

“We lost and the season’s over, there’s no moaning about it,” said coach Mike Ganey. “We’ve got to get ready for next year.

East Valley, which lost four games by a total of 14 points, was 1-7 in its GSL debut and 2-7 overall. Like the Bears, the Knights finished with a win.

“That meant an awful lot to us,” said coach Jim Clements. “The winter would have seemd so much longer if we hadn’t won our last game.”

West Valley was winless during its season, playing half its schedule against schools with nearly twice its enrollment.

All four coaches saw positives in their recently completed schedules and all anticipate better things for next year.

Titans were relatively young

University brings back more than a dozen players who either started or contributed heavily.

Among them are receiver-defensive back Don Turner, instrumental in U-Hi’s early success, all-purpose player Kyle Gazaway, starting offensive linemen Chris Paxton and John Cox, running back Bruce Hart and defenders Rocky Visintainer, Jeremy Bright, Chris Gross and Ryan Ellersick.

“I feel we’ll be stronger defensively,” said Ganey, of a team that finished fourth in yards allowed.

Offensively, the key will be who emerges as quarterback.

“We’ve got a good crew of receivers, a good line and running back,” said Ganey. “We’ve just got to find a guy who can pull the trigger.”

Bears were even younger

Central Valley will return with even more experience than the Titans. Giampietri used 18 juniors or sophomores at varying times.

Among them were six members of the final incarnation of a line, which he said improved team chemistry.

Josh Rowe moved from guard to tackle opposite Zac Holmes, George Augustini and John Scandalis were the guards and Andrew Bower took over at tight end.

“I feel real good about the line we finished the season with,” said Giampietri. “It should, hopefully, kick right off into next year.”

They’ll block for a backfield of quarterback Jeff Liepman and rusher Chase Rasmussen. Defensively, Brad Wagner and Motie Curtis lead the returnees.

“Finishing on a high note with two wins was a good feeling for those kids,” said Giampietri. “It has to carry over.”

Narrow losses only EV regret

The lack of wins was discouraging to EV coach Jim Clements, but not the effort EV put forth.

“On behalf of the kids I will say they hung in there,” he said. “I think every time we were on the field they felt we had a chance to win. Unfortunately we didn’t quite get it done.”

Weekly inconsistencies, one time offense, the next on defense, or on special teams led to a series of near misses.

Much of the Knights lineup will graduate, but Clements said there are replacments in the wings.

“One thing we did was play a lot of linemen this year,” he said. “We’ve got some kids coming back who show a lot of promise.”

Chad Mathison started, Courtney Howard, Allen Coburn and Geoff Christensen were among those to gain experience. Arin LaMountain and Brendan Bersey saw backfield time. Josh Harnack and Scott Downs are quarterback hopefuls.

“We became very fullback oriented on offense this year,” said Clements. “ We’re going to have develop more balance and spread the wealth a bit.”

Defensively the Knights bring back three linemen and a pair of linebackers. Finding secondary people is the main concern.

Eagles must build from adversity

Nobody said this year was going to be easy for WV’s football team after graduating virtually its entire lineup.

But in defeat, said Trout, 19 young players went to war in a new and most difficult league against larger Idaho schools.

“One thing we’ll take into next year is we all went to battle together,” said Trout. “We all tried to play 48 minutes the best we could and sacrifice for teammates.”

Players like backs Matt Risley and Jordan Allen, a horde of linemen, including Travis Collins and Adam Aldendorf, receivers Craig Intyre, Anthony Hernandez and Rob Canfield must rally the troops and put this year’s 0-9 season behind.

Junior high grid correction

Mountain View Middle School’s lightweight football team was omitted as part of a tie for the Valley Junior High championship.

The score of the Mountain View-Evergreen lightweight football game had been reported incorrectly and they were listed tied for third place with Evergreen in the final standings.

Instead, the Lancers join Bowdish and East Valley with 5-1 records in league. Evergreen finished at 3-3.

Valley Junior High Activities

FOOTBALL

League Overall

W L T W L T

Lightweight

Bowdish 5 1 0 5 1 0

East Valley 5 1 0 5 1 0

Mountain View 5 1 0 5 1 0

Evergreen 3 3 0 3 3 0

Greenacres 3 3 0 3 3 0

North Pines 2 4 0 2 4 0

Horizon 1 5 0 1 5 0

Centennial 0 6 0 0 6 0