Conger, Vikings push on

Coeur d’Alene High’s Matt Conger makes no claim of being a motivational speaker.

On the contrary, he said he’d much rather let his actions on the field do the talking.

To that end, Conger, a two-way starter, is the Vikings’ second-leading rusher and second-leading tackler.

But times are tough in the Coeur d’Alene camp, where, during a tough schedule, a misstep here and miscue there have left the Vikings with a 2-4 record and more than just a little bit of self-doubt.

“Mainly, I think about just trying to keep our morale up,” Conger said of his role in helping turn things around. “Because when you have, especially, the tough losses we have, it’s really easy to get down on yourself or start feeling sorry for yourself.”

Conger admits that it hasn’t always been easy to convince himself.

“This year has been really frustrating, because we have a good team,” Conger said. “I really think that every game we lost we could have won, and if you look back at all four games we lost, there are four stupid mistakes that made the difference.

“It’s always a different guy, and it’s always a different mistake.”

That makes it even harder to figure out what needs fixing.

“We work hard in practice every week, and we put our time in watching film – we’ve even started making every play in practice worth something – if you screw up, you do 20 push-ups or something like that,” Conger said. “We still have a chance at a winning record, and I think we have a good shot at winning our next three games against Lewiston, Post Falls and Southridge.”

But those games come one at a time, and none is more significant than the battle with the Bengals.

“This is a big one coming up Friday against Lewiston,” Conger said. “We have to win this one and we have to beat Post Falls in order to see Lake City, or whoever it is (in the playoffs).

“And we should have some good luck coming our way – I certainly hope so.”

Conger said he plans on going to college next fall, but will more than likely eschew the rigors of athletics to focus on studies in business management.

“If things go the way I hope, I’d like to eventually manage a ski resort or something to do with skiing – I love skiing,” he said.