Prep profile: Lewis, Wildcats on a roll

Kellogg junior tailback Cole Lewis never dreamed there was a 1,000-yard rusher inside of him.

On the eve of the 6-1 Wildcats’ first trip to State 3A playoffs since 2001, Lewis not only wants to eclipse that milestone, he wants some hardware to go with it.

“I think, and I think all of the other players agree, that if we play hard, smash-mouth football, that we can probably take state this year – if we play hard,” said Lewis, who is just a few yards from hitting quadruple digits. “But we’re going to have to play harder than we’ve played in any of our games so far.”

Lewis admits these lofty goals are a far cry from what he and his teammates envisioned prior to the season.

“We started out kind of slow against Libby, but I think after we played Potlatch and St. Maries, and we beat them so bad, we were like, ‘Hey, yeah, we can do this now,’ ” Lewis said. “Then we went and beat Priest River, and then Bonners, and we were like, ‘Oh, yeah, guys, we’re going to state, and it’s going to be awesome.

“After the last two years, I was kind of discouraged, because we got beat up pretty bad, but it’s a really good feeling to come back and beat most of the teams that beat us last year.”

The buzz in the Silver Valley is by no means limited to Wildcats players.

“At my work, there’s a bunch of people who come up and say, ‘You’re that running back from Kellogg. We think it’s great that you guys are doing so well,’ ” said Lewis, who describes punching through the line and breaking into the open field as the best feeling one can imagine. “And the papers have our names in there a lot, too.

“We’re pretty excited about it.”

As for Saturday’s state opener at 7-1 Weiser, the 3A state runner-up to Shelley a year ago, Lewis said he expects most of the action to be in the trenches.

“I’ve heard Weiser is a pretty good-sized team and coach says they’re just like us – they like to ram the ball down your throat,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a show. It’s going to be a very close game, a lot of hitting, and probably not a very high score, because we’re both such physical teams.

“It’s going to be a hard, physical game, but I think we’ll come out on top.”