Someday, Timberlake High senior Mason Cramer wants to become a marine biologist.

This weekend, Cramer and his teammates will focus their attention on hunting Grizzlies.

"I like hunting and fishing," Cramer said. "I used to ride dirt bikes, but don't anymore. I like to snowboard. My dad and I hunt mainly, but since we were always out on the lake, we fished quite often."

Cramer's lifelong dream has been to attend the University of Montana, playing football for the Football Championship Subdivision school.

"If I go to Montana, they don't really offer that (marine biology)," Cramer said. "So maybe I'll study something similar to that. In elementary school, we had a guy come and talk to us about marine biology, and I thought that was pretty cool and I wanted to do that. Growing up around the woods and lake, I just like all that stuff."

Should it not work out at Montana, Cramer also is entertaining the idea of not playing football to study on the coast.

Timberlake advanced to the state 3A football playoffs for the 10th straight season and on Saturday will host the Fruitland Grizzlies, who beat the Tigers in the semifinals last year. It was the Tigers' first trip to the semifinals since 2007.

Timberlake beat Parma 21-0 in a play-in game, then beat Weiser 15-13 in the quarterfinals before losing to Fruitland 33-0 in the semifinals.

"It was a big deal for us," Cramer said of beating Weiser. "That group hadn't been able to get that far and be that successful. We were pretty nervous coming into the game, but we shut them out and said, all right, we can do this. (Against Weiser), we were struggling as an offense, then Preston (Rhodes) runs an (85-yard kickoff return) touchdown back and I get that (85-yard fumble recovery) fumble and run it back. Just everything started clicking at the right time."

From that moment, it really clicked as an athletic program, as the football, boys basketball and baseball team - all sports that Cramer played - qualified for state.

It was a huge moment for all of us," Cramer said. "As a freshman, that was the year we didn't have that great of a team. Everyone on that team knew what it was like because we all struggled through that and then we finally made it."

Last year was Timberlake's first appearance at the state boys basketball tournament since the school opened in 1998. Cramer, who is 6-foot-3 and weighed 185 pounds as a sophomore, often times got thrown around in the post, but basketball was his favorite sport.

"He's been a three-year starter for us," Timberlake football coach Roy Albertson said. "When he was a freshman, I told him he had the ability to start on varsity if he could clean 225 pounds in the weight room as a sophomore. He did that, and with that kind of strength and explosion, he was able to have a good year for us."

A little bit of time in the weight room, as well as a growth spurt, and he's doing the pushing, both on and off the field.

"He's a quiet, humble, hard working kid," Timberlake athletic director Tim Cronnelly said.

Albertson added that Cramer, now 205 pounds and playing tight end and defensive end, and is also the team's punter, had a personal trainer to get him prepared for the football season.

"He works extremely hard," Albertson said. "He got the trainer so he wouldn't have any injury problems. Last year, he had a couple of minor injuries and he continues to work hard."

Snow is expected to be in the forecast for Saturday's game.

"I think it will be an advantage for us," Cramer said. "(Quarterback) Bryce (Johnson) and I were talking about the weather and he was looking up the weather in Fruitland this week. He said it was going to be 55 degrees all week, and the high here was supposed to be 37. It will definitely help us because we've got to practice in this all week, while they won't have to deal with it until Saturday."

Last year, Cramer was injured on the second series of the game against Fruitland, throwing the Tigers' gameplan for a loop.

"We rely so much on him on offense, defense, and he's our punter," Albertson said. "Having him out of the game really hurt us."

"We all need to come out fired up because Fruitland always does," Cramer said. "We'll need to work hard. I think our linemen will need to be ready because they come out hard and we haven't seen that a lot. We saw it earlier in the season during nonleague games, but not as much in league because there wasn't as much competition. I think if we can stop them on defense, we can push the ball on them and score."

In an effort to step up the level of competition this year, Timberlake scheduled a tough nonleague schedule, including facing all three 4A Inland Empire League teams - Moscow, Lakeland and Sandpoint.

"We played a lot of 4A teams, which really helped us," Cramer said. "As a team, we're a lot closer than we were when I was a sophomore. With that team, there was a lot of different groups within the team that all hung out. Right now, everyone is a big group."

When things have gone right for Timberlake this year, such as the team's 88-33 win against Priest River on Oct. 25, the Tigers can be tough to stop.

"Everyone was making their blocks and we were able to execute the plays," Cramer said. "We've been working a little bit on our passing, because you never know. Primarily, we're a running team, but it would be nice to be able to throw the ball a little bit as well."

On Monday mornings, the team gathers at a diner just down the street from Timberlake High and eats pancakes for breakfast.

"Stuff like that, and a lot of us have the same classes together, we're more united as a team than in previous years," Cramer said.