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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Football season kicks off

Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Sandpoint hoping for successful year

Coeur d’Alene’s quarterback J.J. Turbin breaks free of Post Falls’ defenders in the first quarter of a game last fall at Coeur d’Alene High.  (File / The Spokesman-Review)

The Coeur d’Alene High football team will be out to prove that last year was a hiccup.

Lake City, the Inland Empire League’s dominant team this decade, will be seeking to qualify for the state playoffs for a 12th consecutive year.

Sandpoint saw its string of 4A playoff appearances snapped at six last fall.

Here’s a look at those teams as the season kicks off.

Coeur d’Alene

The Vikings (3-6 overall, 1-2 IEL) suffered last year what many junior-laden teams fight through – growing pains.

“We’d gotten used to winning seven games or so a year,” CdA coach Shawn Amos said. “Last year woke us up. We’re excited to show we’re a good football program.”

The Viks are picked to win the league title.

CdA returns 35 lettermen and 14 starters. The question is whether it’s 14 starters off a team that played well below potential or 14 starters off a poor team.

Six starters return on offense. They are senior quarterback J.J. Turbin (6 foot, 170 pounds), who has given an oral commitment to play baseball at NCAA Division I power Oregon State, senior running back Justin Goodwin (5-10, 185), senior wide receiver Jackson Seaman (6-0, 165) and senior linemen Brad Boyer (6-1½ 217), Brian Duffy (6-1½ 208) and Nick Snider (5-10, 202).

Eight starters return on defense. They are Duffy, an end, senior end Travis Ewert (6-2, 191), junior tackle Tyler Smotherman (6-0, 208), senior linebackers Matt Chadwick (6-0, 198), Kyle Womeldorff (5-10, 175) and Eddie Hancock (5-8½ 188) and senior cornerbacks Justin Knight (5-10, 161) and Tommy Breazeal (5-9, 161). Chadwick was a first-team all-league pick last year.

“With this group, the thing we like the most is football is real important to them,” Amos said. “They’re very focused on what they need to do to have success. They’ve been looking forward to this year.”

Top to bottom, Amos said his program is the best it has ever been. The juniors backing up a deep senior class were part of a 9-0 season as sophomores.

“Freshmen through seniors, this is the most talent we’ve ever had,” Amos said. “For years we’ve had one class out of the four that wasn’t very good. This year we’re solid throughout.”

Turbin should be a double threat this year as a thrower and runner.

“We’re going to spread it out more and J.J. will be our other runner,” Amos said.

Goodwin will account for the bulk of the yards on the ground, though.

“We don’t see any real areas of weakness,” Amos said. “We have good high school football players in every area.”

CdA will be tested early. The Viks open Friday at home against Southridge of Kennewick, and then travel the following week to Moses Lake. The fourth week they play host to Centennial, one of the traditional powers from the Boise area.

Southridge and Moses Lake are picked to finish near the top of the Columbia Basin League.

“We’ll have to learn how to battle,” Amos said. “Hopefully the tough schedule will fortify us.”

Lake City

This is supposed to be the year that the Timberwolves fall off the map. After all, LC (8-3, 2-1) isn’t supposed to resemble anything close to the 12-0 state title team of two years ago or the team that advanced to the semifinals last year.

Nope, LC should be an average team this year. After all, the T-Wolves return just three starters, the fewest since, well, they started their streak of playoff appearances in the mid 1990s.

All of which causes coach Van Troxel to smile.

“We still have only one goal here,” Troxel said. “We want to win a state championship and that goal hasn’t and won’t change.”

Now Troxel isn’t predicting a state title. He’s just making a point that even if his team isn’t predicted to be as good as two years ago, he isn’t lowering the bar of expectations.

Troxel welcomes his largest senior class (37). While he doesn’t have many returning starters, he has plenty of players who logged playing time last year.

LC’s returning starters are seniors Jared Heston (lb/rb, 6-1, 225), Gabe Brunner (safety, 6-1, 180) and Bryan Vickhammer (de/lb, 5-10, 192). Heston was a first-team all-league selection last year. He made an oral commitment last week to attend the University of Idaho.

Other players to watch are seniors Adam Fenenbock (qb, 5-9, 145), Tanner Schalk (rb, 5-11, 166), Anthony Mason (wr, 5-10, 175), Matt Olson (s, 6-1, 165), Tanner Sanders (wr, 5-9, 145), Oliver Hurrell (ob, 5-10, 166), Cody Mazzola (guard, 6-3, 256), Nate Hayden (tackle, 6-2, 209) and juniors Justin Bryant (rb, 5-8, 162), Anthony Durant (de/te, 6-1, 180) and Dominic Vitagliano (g, 6-1, 264).

The biggest newcomer is a transfer, senior Billy Sanders (de/te, 6-3, 230). He played on a state championship team in Phoenix last year.

Sanders gave an oral commitment last year to the University of Miami, but he decomitted last spring after visiting other schools. Miami continues to recruit him along with Notre Dame and most of the Pac-10 schools.

Troxel puts him in the class of Byron Hout, who is a true freshman this fall at Boise State University.

“He’s a player,” Troxel said. “Byron and Billy have different personalities, but they have a lot in common.”

Having Sanders on one end of the line, opposite Vickhammer, and with Heston staged nearby at linebacker should give LC a formidable defense.

As the season progresses, both Sanders and Heston will see plenty of duty on offense.

LC figures to be chasing preseason favorite Coeur d’Alene. The T-Wolves, Post Falls and Lewiston will battle for one of the two playoff berths.

LC has a lot of depth at most positions, especially with so many seniors.

“We have a chance to get better because every day it’s competitive in practice,” Troxel said.

The one position LC can’t afford a key injury, though, is quarterback. Fenenbock was the third-string QB last year.

“Fundamentally he was as good, but the two guys ahead of him we’re seniors,” Troxel said.

LC, which seems to toughen its schedule every year, will feature the most difficult schedule in school history. The T-Wolves play host to defending Washington 4A champ Lewis and Clark, will meet Del Oro, a top-division power from Sacramento, Calif., in a game in Pocatello, face Gonzaga Prep to go with non-league games against Boise-area teams Vallivue and Meridian.

Troxel likes the mental makeup of this team.

“The chemistry with this group, especially at camp, is as good as we’ve ever had,” Troxel said. “They’re very unselfish. I hope they’re not too unselfish or too nice.”

Sandpoint

The Bulldogs (5-4, 1-1) were hit hard by graduation. They return 19 lettermen but just three starters.

The returning starters are seniors Jake Semones (qb/cb, 5-11, 165), Mike Allard (ot, 6-3, 215) and Spencer McCartney (ot, 6-2, 220).

Making matters worse for the Bulldogs is they have a small senior class (16). Many of the starting spots will be manned by a talented junior class.

Other players to watch are seniors Ricky Lang (rb/fs/s, 5-6, 175), Sean Visintin (wr, 5-10, 178), Austin Posey (c, 5-9, 187), A.J. Cook (g, 6-1, 185) and Aaron Lockwood (g, 6-2, 185) and juniors Cody Hecker (rb/cb, 5-10, 195), Ben Fisher (rb/fs, 5-10, 160), Mike Hubbard (wr, 6-2, 180), Ben Lawrence (wr/fs, 6-2, 175) and Jacob Palaniuk (ot, 6-3, 187).

The Bulldogs, who traditionally feature a lot of size up front, will look relatively leaner in the trenches.

“It’s genetics,” Sandpoint coach Mike Mitchell said. “The kids we have are strong kids. We just don’t have as many big kids right now.”

Mitchell sees his team being much better come October.

“We’re really young; we’re starting from scratch,” Mitchell said. “Overall we’re not very big but we have good speed.”

Sandpoint should battle Lakeland for the lone 4A state berth.

“We have good kids,” Mitchell said. “Inexperience is our biggest concern right now. We’re going to be OK once we get going.”