By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

One player was singled out in practice for watching more film than his position coach.

Another played most of last season with a broken left wrist AND a broken right hand — and said he's "grateful" to be able to enjoy his final season of high school sports.

One player turned some heads when he wore his dad's old game jersey to practice on Thursday — a fun day for the Vikings.

Another player's father's Mexican restaurant is a hit when its turn rolls around to host the weekly lineman feed.

One player is the Swiss Army knife of this year's team.

Another player chose not to play football as a sophomore — something he later termed a "bad decision" — and is glad he's back on the gridiron.

The names change somewhat each year, but the love of the game — and the brotherhood of playing together — remains on the offensive and defensive lines at Coeur d'Alene High.

"I think the motivation is winning, that’s a huge motivator," said senior left guard and nose guard Riley Cremer. "And also playing as a team, and coming together … for me, I don’t plan to go anywhere after this, so it’s just the brotherhood, and having fun, and playing football."

Coeur d'Alene (6-2), coming off a bye last week as a reward for winning a three-team Kansas tiebreaker for the top seed from the North, begins its playoff push Friday, when the Vikings play host to Eagle (8-2) in a state 5A quarterfinal at 7 p.m. at Viking Stadium.

FOUR SENIORS start on the offensive line for Coeur d'Alene. Right guard Jaxson Washington (6-foot-1, 255 pounds) and right tackle Wyatt Sandford (6-4, 265) are returning starters, and center Kaden Franks (6-1, 240) and Cremer (6-2, 250), the left guard, are first-year starters.

Junior Angelo Miller (5-10, 210) starts at left tackle.

Washington, Sandford and Cremer also rotate in at nose tackle on defense.

Senior Cade Prado can play anywhere on the offensive and defensive line, and senior Andrew Stockham rotates in at left tackle and defensive end.

Dustin Shafer, Coeur d'Alene's offensive line coach since 2008, and Brian Holgate, the Vikings' defensive line coach since 2014, discuss the rotation plans for the O-linemen and D-linemen before the first game every season.

"And it amazes me that it works out every year," Holgate said. "Between the offensive line and defensive line, we rotate 10-12 players each year. It says a lot about a program that we are able to develop that many quality lineman. It also says a lot about our players and their commitment to the program. Linemen are the most unselfish players in football; they only care about winning. They all want to play every snap, but realize it is in their best interest to be fresh in the fourth quarter."

Washington has scholarship offers from Whitworth, College of Idaho and Idaho State, and is talking to a couple other schools. Some schools are interested in him as an offensive lineman, but most are looking at him on the D-line.

"I love both, but if someone was holding a gun to my head I suppose I would pick defense," said Washington, whose dad, Greg, was a walk-on defensive lineman at Montana.

Why defense?

"I like getting tackles and sacks … there’s more glory in it than O-line," Jasxon said. "O-line’s fun too because you get to hit people, and it’s fun to score touchdowns."

Sandford has offers from Montana-Western, Carroll, Montana State-Northern and Whitworth, who are interested in him on the offensive line.

One day during practice, Shafer came up to Sandford.

"You’ve watched more film than I have so far, but I’ll beat you by tomorrow," Shafer told him.

Players and coaches watch game film via Hudl, and it turns out the service can track how long a person watches film.

"I hate to admit this, but he has beat me the last few weeks — and I watch a lot of film," Shafer said. "He enjoys watching game tape and notices things that most high school kids do not recognize."

Not that Sandford was trying to out-film-watch his coach.

"I like to know who I’m blocking, what their moves are going to be, before the game starts," Sandford said. "It’s helped me a lot, because you already know what you’re going to have to do to combat what they’re going to do."

Without giving away the opponent, Sandford said that through film prep, "I just knew what the D-end was going to do to try to get past me, so I knew what I had to do to then combat it, which would then keep (quarterback) Brayden (Bengtson) clean so he had more time to throw the ball."

Cremer played left guard on the junior varsity team last year, after choosing not to play as a sophomore.

He's glad he chose to return last year.

"Football is definitely a structure," Cremer said. "You have a set schedule, where you’re going, what you’re doing, that helps a lot, and the coaches … they’re like our dads, honestly."

Franks saw quite a bit of playing time at center last year behind all-league starter Logan Cessna, but was motivated to earn a starting job of his own this year.

His dad, Dan, a 1991 Coeur d'Alene High grad, played right guard for the Vikings. His older brother, Dylan, who is now one of the defensive line coaches, also played right guard for CHS.

"He is doing a great job for us and playing center for coach (Corey) Brown and myself is not an easy job," Shafer said. "We put a lot of responsibility on Kaden and I could not be more proud of how he has handled his responsibilities this year."

On Thursdays at practice, players wear anything from pajama bottoms to ripped-up jerseys — anything to keep the mood light the day before the game, after the game plan and much of the prep work has been done.

"One time I wore my dad’s game jersey and the coaches were like, 'Whoa,'" Kaden said.

The Mexican Food Factory, the restaurant on Fourth Street in Coeur d'Alene run by his father, is a popular stop with the players for their weekly lineman feed.

"Grandpa started it in 1981, and dad picked it up," Kaden said.

"And I don’t think I’ll keep it going," he said with a laugh.

Prado has been a jack-of-all-trades since his freshman year.

"It doesn’t matter; they can put me in anywhere," Prado said.

Asked his position preference ...

"I've got to say D-end," he said. "I’m more of a defensive player; I like hitting people, not having to block ‘em. I’m going to take on the double team and hold my gap."

It's linemen doing their job like that which frees up edge rushers like senior Cameren Cope, often seen chasing down quarterbacks.

"Our noses usually take up two blockers every play," Holgate said. "It allows Cameren to do what he does best and that is attack the ball. Cameren knows the nose tackles will make him right. Our three defensive lineman trust each other. Our success is based on each player doing their job, being gap sound."

Prado took particular pride in holding Lewiston's 1,000-yard rusher to 5 yards in a game two weeks ago.

"We get after it on the D-line," he said.

"We have the same game plan every week — "stop the run,'" Holgate said. "I am sure the players get tired of hearing it week after week, but it is the main job. They all want to sack the QB, but can't do that unless you stop the run. We take great pride in stopping the run. We realize the success of our defensive game plan each week is dependent on the defensive line stopping the run and it all starts with our nose tackles clogging their gap and taking on two blockers every play."

Prado hoped to see some action on the varsity last season, but the coaches had him play on the JV teams, but gave him reps in practice against the varsity starters.

What did that teach him?

"That I had to put on some weight," he said. "I went from 180 pounds to 218 (at the start of the season)."

He's around 210 pounds these days. Though he got bigger, he said he got faster.

"It definitely made me better," Prado said. "If I didn’t have those reps, it would have been a lot tougher to start this year."

Stockham grew up in Buhl playing baseball — he was a third baseman.

He eventually gravitated toward football and wrestling because he preferred playing contact sports.

Last football season, he broke his left wrist vs. Lakeland in the second game of the season, then broke his right hand a few weeks later vs. Lewiston.

But he didn't have surgery on his wrist until June.

"I thought it was a high sprain for a while, so I ended up wrestling on it," Stockham said. "I wrestled, snowboarded, and went in (to see the doctors in late March) when I was lifting in the offseason and it was bothering me. I found out it was broke in three places."

Doctors put his wrist in a cast for six weeks, hoping his wrist would improve. But it got worse.

"I went in for surgery because the bone was almost completely dead," he said.

He returned to football this fall, but the screws in his wrist got moved around.

"Now it’s broken again," he said of his wrist. "It’s held together with screws so it doesn’t hurt. But I do have limited mobility."

One of the bones he broke controls the main blood flow to the hand.

"I’m 100 percent grateful," Stockham said of being able to play football. "I’m enjoying my last season, because I won’t be able to wrestle this year, because of lack of mobility in my wrist."

He wrestled at 182 pounds last year, but came up short of qualifying for state. As a sophomore, he finished eighth at state, also at 182.

Sophomore Jon Ellison (6-2, 240) rotates in at both guard spots. Sophomore Taven Gardner (6-0, 190) has played some guard, and junior Cameron Davey is the backup center.

The Viking linemen say the recognition they get from their teammates and coaches is noticed — and appreciated.

"This group is a great group of young men to coach," Shafer said. "They make coming to practice fun every day."