THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Coeur d’Alene vs. Highland: Much respect, and much competition

The two football teams with the most state championships in the state’s largest classification will collide on Saturday at Holt Arena in Pocatello in the the state 5A title game.

Coeur d’Alene vs. Highland.

Highland, in its 21st state title game since 1984, with 11 state titles, the last one in 2017.

Coeur d’Alene, in its 11th state title game since 1982, with five state championships, the most recent in 2013.

“We obviously have a long tradition of respectful competition with Highland,” said Shawn Amos, in his 27th season as Coeur d’Alene coach. “When we first started a long time ago, Highland was the program we were trying to emulate. We wanted to be a consistent presence in the state, so that was our goal, and Highland was the program that has done that.”

“To me, it’s the showdown of two of the best teams in the history of Idaho football,” said Nick Sorrell, in his second year as Highland’s head coach, but in his 19th season coaching in the Rams’ football program. “You look at the dynasty he (Amos) created there, last year was kind of a fluke (missing the playoffs) … they were always there, in the running for a state title. With us, it’s the same thing. Everybody focuses on the Boise valley, but you got some pretty good powerhouses outside of there.”

COEUR d’ALENE AND Highland met three times in the playoffs in the early 1980s, with the Vikings winning all three.

In 1987, when Larry Schwenke was coach at Coeur d’Alene, Highland beat the Vikings 27-24 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. 

The teams didn’t meet again until 2012.

In the last 12 seasons, the Rams and Vikings met 10 times — including four times in the playoffs — with each team winning five times.

Even when there was a good chance the teams might see each other in the playoffs, Amos and longtime Highland coach Gino Mariani scheduled regular season games six times — the competition that good, the respect each had for the other program that big.

Coeur d’Alene beat Highland in the 2013 state title game at the Kibbie Dome, and Highland returned the favor in the 2017 championship at Holt Arena.

AS FOR memories of past Coeur d’Alene-Highland games, Sorrell looks back to the most recent title-game meeting.

“That 2017 title game (Highland, 14-8) was a pretty special one for me, for us,” said Sorrell, who had been Highland’s defensive coordinator since 2014, then became head coach when Mariani stepped down after the 2021 season. “That was my second championship game I was a part of as a true varsity coordinator. That was a battle, Coeur d’Alene was loaded with Division I talent, with (quarterback Colson) Yankoff and (tight end Chase Blakley).They came in averaging like 45 points a game, and we held them to eight (led by future NFL lineman Tommy Togiah), and I think it’s going to be just like what (Saturday) is going to be like.”

Amos recalled the 2013 game, where Coeur d’Alene rallied to win 31-28. Amos’ son, Gunnar, missed the game after suffering an ankle injury earlier in the playoffs. Plus, Shawn Amos was going through chemotherapy treatments that season. 

“It was quite a year,” he recalled. 

“(Gunnar) lived with Gino when he first transferred down there (to Idaho State, from Idaho). We have a lot of respect for their program; to have a chance to play them again is pretty special. That’s the thing you respect about Highland, they’ve been going since the 60s. Most programs have some dips in their performance, and Highland’s a well-established program down there.”

UNTIL IT almost got wiped away by a fire in April that destroyed part of Highland High School.

“I got a phone call at 4:30 in the morning saying ‘Hey, your school’s on fire,’” Sorrell recalled.

“It’s been trying, to tell you the truth. We didn’t have our football pads until a week before two-a-days started in August. We didn’t have a practice field to practice on. We’ve had to bounce around from place to place. Our football field, our home field, wasn’t ready, so we had to go play (our home opener) at the field of our crosstown rival.”

The fire destroyed the school gymnasium, the cafeteria, the choir/band room, the locker rooms …

Student have to go to various spots in Pocatello to take classes — church buildings, vacant buildings, wherever.

Highland’s weight room was destroyed.

“With our practice fields, the irrigation system was tied into the building that burned, so we didn’t have electricity, so our field kinda got burned up. So we had to go somewhere else,” Sorrell said. “Our game field (Iron Horse Stadium) was getting turf put on it, and they ran into snags with that … it was one thing after another.”

HIGHLAND IS waiting for the insurance claim to run its course. The school district held a bond election, but voters rejected it.

“So we’re sitting with our hands tied … it’s an uneasy time,” Sorrell said. “It’s going to take 3-4 years to build back, so it’s going to be like this for a while.”

Highland played its “home” football opener at Pocatello High — in part due to the fire at Highland, but also because the Rams were switching to artificial turf on its home field, and the turf wasn’t installed yet.

Not until the next scheduled Rams home game.

“The first home game was against Century, and the turf company finished the field at 4 p.m., and we played that night at 7,” Sorrell said.

An office which sat above the football field was an office building for administrators in the district. So the district moved them out, and Highland moved its weight equipment into that room.

“Our weight room is our locker room at this point,” Sorrell said.

Highland’s football equipment was in the basement of the gym when it burned. Some of it was deemed to be destroyed, and had to be replaced.

“The helmets and shoulder pads, luckily enough, most of them made it through,” Sorrell said. “We had to send them back to the manufacturer, Riddell, for them to go through their safety procedures, and make sure they were viable helmets, because of course, plastic and heat really don’t mix together very well.”

It took a while for Riddell to deem the equipment safe to use.

“I handed out gear the week before we started two-a-days,” Sorrell said.

Had most of Highland’s football equipment been determined to be unsafe for use …

“I don’t think we would have been able to play, to tell you the truth,” Sorrell said. “Talking to Riddell, and other places, they didn’t have enough inventory.”

THIS PAST summer, the Idaho state class AA American Legion baseball tournament was in Coeur d’Alene, at Thorco Field.

A banquet was held at the tournament for the eight participating teams — including the Pocatello Runnin’ Rebels, coached by Sorrell.

The guest speaker at the banquet? None other than Shawn Amos.

Amos joked he was asked to speak at the banquet because they couldn’t find anyone else.

But Sorrell knew better. 

“You can tell by the program he runs … he does things the right way,” Sorrell said of Amos.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.