Prep profile: He helps put teeth in offense

What does somebody who spends Friday nights smashing opponents in the mouth want to be when he grows up?

If it’s Timberlake senior offensive lineman Dan Bashoor, well, he wants to be a dentist, of course.

Before all the impacted molars and bent bicuspids, however, Bashoor wants what every other young man who straps on the pads wants: a football season worth remembering.

At 4-1 and coming off impressive Intermountain League wins over Kellogg and Priest River, it would seem all is well in Tiger Town.

But after listening to Bashoor, Timberlake’s only returning starter on the O-line, a spot he has held since his sophomore year, there is plenty of work to be done in Spirit Lake.

Not all of it is physical.

“We’re doing OK, but we really need to work on our enthusiasm,” said Bashoor, echoing the words of head football coach Roy Albertson after a win over Kellogg, in which Timberlake finished strongly after a lackluster first half. “It seems like nobody wants to get fired up.

“I don’t know,” he added. “You try, but I can’t say that I was fired up, because when everybody else is down, you kind of go down, too.”

Bashoor said he and a few teammates, including senior tailback Nick Puckett, have tried – with mixed results – to use their words to light a fire in the bellies of their Tigers teammates.

“It’s kind of weird, because some people listen and other people are like, ‘I’m good at sports, so I don’t need to listen,’ ” Bashoor said. “You try to get people to listen, and when they don’t, you feel like you’re not doing enough yourself.”

So it’s come down to leading by example, and Bashoor has set some personal goals to that end.

“It would be nice to make the all-league team, maybe even all-state,” Bashoor said. “We’d probably have to win state if that’s going to happen, though.

“It doesn’t seem like the North gets any respect from the voters unless you win it all.”

As for the whole dentistry thing – there have never been any dentists in the Bashoor clan – he said he’s just always had a thing for teeth.

“It probably started when I got braces, I think,” said Bashoor, who will probably attend North Idaho College for a couple of years before heading to a university. “I guess it just seems like it would be a fun job to do.”