Fall Sports Preview: Clark Fork, Sandpoint fall sports season in full swing

Clark Fork Volleyball

Clark Fork volleyball has made a name for itself in the state of Idaho, with the Wampus Cats having won the 1A North Star conference for the last six seasons.

The team has dominated 2A and 3A teams such as Bonners Ferry, Priest River, and Timberlake in recent history, which is all the more impressive. This year, it’s expected that the Wampus Cats will have another very successful season.

The team will split head coaching duties between two program veterans, Michelle Valliere and CFHS alumni Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey. Another great addition to the Wampus Cats coaching roster is Tracy Andersen-Olson, who will be the head coach of the JV team this season. Andersen-Olson is a Sandpoint High School alumni and played Division II volleyball at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn., where she was a collegiate All-American and was a part of a team that won a national championship. She was inducted into the Concordia St. Paul Hall of Fame in 2006 for both basketball and volleyball. Anderson-Olson also coached for the Northern Lights Volleyball Club, one of the top volleyball clubs in the nation located in Burnsville, Minn.

Returning to the team are seniors Lilly Rueter and Eloise Shelton, who have dedicated a lot of their lives to volleyball; the two have been playing for about 10 years now.

“We have a young team this year, but a lot of us have been playing club volleyball together for years,” Shelton said. “This year everyone’s been positive, cheering each other on – I think we have really grown with each other and built each other up this offseason.”

It’s no secret that the Wampus Cats have good team chemistry. Over the last two years, the squad has posted a 23-9 record, with a majority of their losses coming in the 1A state playoffs. This year, Kiebert-Carey and Valliere are looking to change that narrative and bring a state title home to Clark Fork.

“This is one of the most vocal teams I have ever coached,” Kiebert-Carey said. “Sometimes in volleyball you have to teach communication, trust, and vulnerability, but most of these girls already embrace these characteristics of the game.”

Aurora Lane and Rueter will be the go-to setters this year due to the Wampus Cats losing star Paige Valliere, who graduated in June. The team will be looking to run a new offensive scheme this year, which Kiebert-Carey said she is really excited about.

“We scrimmaged at practice recently and these girls were really owning it,” Kiebert-Carey said. “I wasn’t having to tell anyone to try something different, it was very much just – play, have fun.”

Kiebert-Carey said the team has had so much success due to its willingness to put in the time in the off-season. Clark Fork’s spring volleyball program has really helped players excel.

Some players who have looked really strong this off-season are Amari Printz-Hay, who was described by Kiebert-Carey as a selfless teammate who has grown on and off the court, and Piper Scarlett a scrappy outside hitter, who is just a sophomore. Aime Matteson, Hannah Thomspon, Nora-Jean Hoy and plenty of others have also worked hard this off-season, according to Kiebert-Carey.

“We’re excited for game time,” Kiebert-Carey said. “It’s different when you’re able to see all the moving parts come together.”

Clark Fork Football

The Wampus Cats have been hard at work this off season, under first-year head coach Patrick Young, a 2009 CFHS graduate. Young is looking to lead this 8-man football team past the first round in the 1A state championship bracket.

Clark Fork is coming off a 5-4 season last year, a year where they narrowly lost twice to their arch-rivals, Mullan. With a veteran roster of eight seniors and a strong core of newcomers and returners, the Wampus Cats are looking to change that narrative.

“Nobody is going to work harder than us,” Young said. “It doesn’t guarantee winning, but we are going to be prepared. I’m not going to discount any team in this conference, there is lots of up-and-coming talent.”

Ethan Howard will start at quarterback for the fourth straight year. Howard said he is ready to command the field, and says a difference-maker this year will be younger players stepping up in key roles, specifically players who have not had a chance to prove themselves yet.

Dylan Ryan-Downing is also a key player to watch out for this season. Ryan-Downing, one of the team's leading linebackers, has been playing varsity football since his freshman year and is ready for action to get underway.

“We have a bunch of seniors who are ready to go far and make it to the state championship this year,” Ryan-Downing said. “Personally, I’m psyched for this season.”

Senior Chase Sanroman, and junior Everett Montgomery also expressed their excitement for this season. The two agreed that the team had great potential, good chemistry, and all team members got along really well. Young also agreed.

“I feel most at home when I’m out here on this field,” Young said. “When I get to be out here with these athletes, nothing else matters except for what we are going to accomplish as a team. When we’re out here, all of our goals align, and our main goal is being on the same page, at the same time, getting the job done.”

The Wampus Cats will face Lakeside, Mullan, Wallace, and Kootenai a couple of times each. The only difference this year is that the Wampus Cats will not face any non-conference teams this season. One thing that did remain largely the same however, is the Wampus Cats' hopes of finally taking down their arch-rival, Mullan.

Sandpoint Volleyball

Sandpoint volleyball closed out the 2022 season with four straight 3-0 wins over Timberlake, Bonners Ferry, and Kellogg; it was a huge confidence boost for a team that struggled early last year. This year, under new head coach Piper Wahlin, and with seven seniors looking to lead the charge, the Bulldogs are looking to propel themselves to a winning record.

Seniors Haley Swaim and Olivia Owens both said they are excited and ready for the season to begin. They added the team has a type of chemistry that differs from past teams.

“We have been working a lot on the mental side of volleyball, and I think that’s just as important as the physical side,” Swaim said. “We have had the talent for years, but it’s the mental part of the game that has been a struggle for us. We’re getting there, and this year is going to be different – it’s going to be big. I’m excited.”

Owens agreed, and said that the team had some really good serve receivers, passers, and a huge front row with great blockers.

Wahlin, who has been helping to coach the program for the last five years, steps into the head coaching position with the same confidence. Wahlin is a SHS alumni who is dedicated to the game. She formerly played Division I volleyball at Weber State University; she also coaches for the North Idaho Volleyball Club and helps to organize Sandpoint’s summer volleyball program.

“I think we have a really hard-working group of girls who are ready to do something different,” Wahlin said. “Pre-season has been great. Most of these girls have been in this gym all summer long.”

Wahlin said one of the team's biggest strengths this year is their leadership — something she attributes to having seven seniors on the squad. She also said the team has a solid group of juniors who are fired up and ready to be on the court.

“We just have a lot of attacking power, which hasn’t been the case for the last couple of seasons,” Wahlin said. “We have plenty of options to score and that is very exciting.”

Earlier this season the team headed down to Eastern Washington University in Cheney for a volleyball camp where they scrimmaged Lewiston and won. That is a feat the team hasn’t been able to accomplish in recent years.

This year’s seniors are Swaim, Owens, Bella Moore, Aubree Lane, Kenzie Eden, Vivian Platte, and Taylor Payne. They will look to lead the team to their first district championship in quite some time.

Sandpoint Boys and Girls Golf

Despite the boys and girls teams’ youthfulness, head coach Mike Duprez has the utmost confidence in his golf teams this year. Deprez said the boys team will be looking to qualify for the state championship, while the girls will look to claim the 4A state championship after falling to Bishop Kelly and Twin Falls last season.

“For the girls last year, which was a team of mostly sophomores, the lightbulb kind of went on after finishing third at the state championship,” Deprez said. “It’s very clear what this team can do. No matter what happens this year at state, we’ll come away with a really clear idea of what we need to continue to do or improve upon, but ultimately the goal is to win state.”

The girls will be led by juniors Taylor Mire, Demi Driggs, and Alexa Tuinstra. Last year at the state tournament Mire finished seventh, Tuinstra finished 11th, and Driggs finished in 24th.

“I think we have all improved a lot as individuals and as a team since last year,” Mire said. “As for myself, my driving and irons have been pretty consistent. I know we are all excited for this season.”

Tuinstra started playing golf just four years ago and has already become one of the best players in the state of Idaho. She was introduced to the sport by Driggs after returning home from an overseas trip. The two are both looking to score 85 or lower this year and decrease their overall numbers.

“I think junior year is where you really start to turn things around, come into your body, and just get into a groove,” Tuinstra said.

Deprez said the girl's swings have evolved and are mature and that it is mostly about making “small tweaks” to their game now. He mentioned one of the team’s larger focuses at the moment was working on their mental resilience.

“We’re going to miss shots, it’s part of the game,” Deprez said. “You’re going to get bad breaks, you’re going to get good breaks. At the end of the day it’s how you respond to that shot.”

As for the boys, this year the team is primarily sophomores. Deprez said he has been working with and building this pod of sophomores since they were young.

“Besides Micah Young, I recruited the majority of these players at a middle school golf program and said to them and their parents – here is what I want to do…,” Deprez said.

Young, a sophomore who has been playing golf for about seven years now, will look to lead the team this year. He said he has been out practicing everyday and hopes to break the 75-stroke barrier this year.

With lots of young talent like Young on the roster, Deprez’s efforts seem to be history in the making.

“The thing about this team, and the girls team, is that even though they miss the ball off the tee on occasion, they miss it in the ‘right’ spot,” Deprez said. “It’s the reason we shoot low scores. Having the ball in an area where they can still shoot par on, despite having missed it off the tee, is important.”

Deprez said the boys will compete in a lot of tournament play this year to help mature their game. The ultimate goal, to win a district trophy and qualify for the 4A state championship. The boys will look to improve upon their sixth place finish in the state tournament last year.

Sandpoint Boys and Girls Cross Country

From the Oregon coast to Maine, that’s how far new Sandpoint High School cross-country coach Mike Ehredt once ran in just 86 days time. He also ran from the Canadian border to Galveston, Texas, as well.

Ehredt, a longtime marathon coach and seasoned running veteran, is looking to continue the Bulldogs’ winning ways. It will be hard to match what coaching legends Matt and Angie Brass have done during their 17 years as the SHS cross-country coaches, but if anyone could keep with the tradition of success, it’s Ehredt.

“This program is a well-oiled machine,” Ehredt said. “Matt and Angie Brass have done so much organizing for this team… I didn’t want to make many changes because, philosophically speaking, if it’s not broken, why fix it?”

Ehredt said he felt the need to apply for the coaching position because he didn’t want to see such a well-established program be handed over to someone who didn’t really care about the sport of cross-country. Ehredt has essentially dedicated his entire life to running, and for the last 15 years he has helped coach over 100 runners, with the main focus of getting them to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Instead of marathon qualifiers, Ehredt’s main goal is now going to be to produce state qualifiers and to one day potentially bring home another state championship to Sandpoint. In the teams’ recent 5K time trial, SHS runners showed they are prepared for the upcoming season.

Nathan Roche, who will lead the boys team this year, said he is excited to run on some fast courses. Roche split a 16:23 in the 5K time trial, and considering it’s only August, that proves big things are on the horizon for the SHS senior. Roche said the team’s other seniors, Kasten Grimm, Daniel Ricks, Michael Hall, and Jimmy Cornelius are a close bunch and their team chemistry is unmatched.

Excluding Roche in the number one spot, the team’s second through seventh runners, which include all of the seniors plus Paul Kent and Keane Haesle had just a 30-second spread at the 5K time trial (17:14 to 17:44), which shows that they will be a force to be reckoned with this season. The boys were recently ranked seventh in the state in a 4A pre-season poll by Running Idaho; they finished tenth last year.

As for the girls, senior Lily Davidson led the way with a time of 20:08 at the 5K time trial, just 30 seconds away from her personal best. Davidson has been a stellar all-around athlete at Sandpoint. In track and field she competed in events ranging from the 300-meter hurdles to the 3200-meter run.

There are just three senior girls on this year’s roster. Grace Rookey, who finished second at the time trial; and Terra Bode, who finished fourth. In third, was freshman Elizabeth Storms, who Ehredt said is going to make a big impact this year. Also making an impact will be sophomores Izzy Davidson and Hazel Keating, who finished neck-and-neck in the fifth and sixth spots.

Last year, the girls team finished sixth at the 4A state championship. The team lost some key seniors in Maren Davidson, Ara Clark and Payton Betz. The team will need some of their young talent to step up in order to make their way back to the 4A state championship meet this year.

Sandpoint Football

Is this year the year the Bulldogs win their first 4A state championship since 1997? It very well could be. Under sixth-year head coach Ryan Knowles, a number of veteran assistants, and a solid core of 22 seniors, the possibilities seem endless.

“These players have worked extremely hard; our off-season is exactly what I wanted it to be,” Knowles said. “They’ve lifted hard, they’ve worked hard at camp… we did all the things I’d hope a program would do.”

Knowles said there is a seasoned group of players on this roster who have taken various leadership positions. Surely, these players will lead the charge in the Bulldogs’ first game against Post Falls, a team Sandpoint has historically lost to, but defeated by four touchdowns just two years ago.

Last year, Sandpoint finished with a 6-4 record, which is a bit misleading considering their strength of schedule. The Bulldogs lost by just two points in overtime to Lewiston, by 12 points to Coeur d’Alene, and by one point to Alta, located in Sandy, Utah, with a student population of 2,300, about three times the enrollment of Sandpoint. Beyond those regular-season losses, the Bulldogs steamrolled all of their competition before falling in the state semifinals to the eventual state champions, Skyline.

Sandpoint’s strength of schedule remains among the top this year, but there have been some significant changes. The Bulldogs have two Canadian teams back on the schedule this year. Sandpoint will face Raymond High School and the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, both located in Alberta. These games will be played at the University of Montana’s Washington-Grizzly stadium, an experience the team is really looking forward to. Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, and Homedale remain on the schedule this year as well, all schools Sandpoint has defeated or lost to by just one score in recent years.

This year’s starting quarterback is senior Hunter Garcia, who has played various positions for Sandpoint over the last few years. Last season at wide receiver, he compiled 16 receptions for 385 yards and three touchdowns; he also had 12 carries for 98 yards. When asked about how excited he was for the season, Garcia said it felt like he was living out his childhood dream.

“I have been playing football with most of these guys since fifth grade,” Garcia said. “It’s going to be exciting to see what we can do.”

Garcia also mentioned that although every game is important, he is most looking forward to playing Coeur d’Alene under the lights at home this year. After talking to a handful of seniors, the consensus seemed to be that Post Falls, Lakeland, Lake City, and Coeur d’Alene were hot topics.

“Our number one goal is to win our first game against Post Falls, and number two is to take care of our non-conference schedule,” Knowles said. “We have seven non-conference games this season and winning those will be very important for our seeding in the playoffs.”

Knowles said that the third goal is to win their conference against Moscow and Lakeland, something he expects to be able to accomplish. And the final goal? Winning a 4A state championship.

In order to accomplish these feats, seniors such as Max Branch, Blayne Kanning, Shane Sherrill, and many others will be heavily involved in the offensive and defensive schemes. Branch, Sandpoint’s number one wideout, said the team is close and has been working on their chemistry a lot this off-season. Kanning, one of the team’s top defensive lineman, and Sherrill, one of the leading edge rushers, expressed much of the same.

The Bulldogs will look to start things off right against Post Falls on Friday, Aug. 25 at War Memorial Field, 7 p.m. sharp.

Sandpoint Boys Soccer

Sandpoint boys soccer is going into the 2023 season after a phenomenal campaign last year where they went 13-1-3, scored 46 goals and only gave up three, and finished fourth at the 4A state championship. Two of their ties were against Coeur d’Alene and one against Lake City; their only loss coming in the playoffs against Bishop Kelly.

The boys will once again be headed by former Oregon State and Concordia University (Portland) soccer player and Sandpoint alumni, Tanner French. It will be French's fifth season as the Bulldogs head coach. It should be remembered that he was also named Inland Empire League’s Coach of the Year in 2022.

“Our attack is going to be pretty strong this year,” French said. “We have quite a few returners at midfield, most of whom aren’t seniors, but they certainly are not inexperienced.”

French said it’s going to be hard to match last year’s roster, which had a handful of strong defenders who graduated. He said will be relying on some of his seniors, who have three years of state championship tournament experience, to fill in the gaps this year.

“I’m pleasantly surprised with what I have seen; all of these kids have been out here working hard,” French said. “Our front four is going to be solid, it’s going to be fun to watch. This year is going to have some exciting soccer.”

Sophomore Kai Longanecker, who started half of the games for Sandpoint last year as a freshman, will be the starting goalie this year. French said he is one of the most skilled keepers he has seen in his 10 years of coaching.

Also returning is sophomore Logan McGrann who was named IEL Newcomer of the Year last season. In addition, junior Henry Barnes and senior Eoin Eddy who also made the All-IEL team last year will be returning. French also mentioned the play of Nathan Matt, Luke Leavitt, and Jett Longanecker will be key to their success.

“I think we restamped our name in the conference last year after a bit of a lull,” French said. “I think of the conference as all of the 4A/5A teams in our region. Hopefully, a lot of question marks will get answered this year.”

The Bulldogs will host eight home games this year, two of which will be against Lake City. Sandpoint boys soccer has their eyes on a state championship, but will first have to get through some of the best teams in North Idaho first.

Sandpoint Girls Soccer

Going into his 12th year as head coach, Conor Baranski is looking to lead Sandpoint girls soccer to the team’s third consecutive winning season, and to the sixth winning season in the last seven years. Recently, the team competed in the annual jamboree in Coeur d’Alene where they faced Lake City and Coeur d’Alene for one half each.

“The girls exceeded my expectations; they played well,” Baranski said regarding the jamboree.

The team returned its entire backline this year, two midfielders, and last year’s goalkeeper, Lilliana Brinkmeier. Baranski said this year’s team is a nice mix of veterans and newcomers and he hopes this combination of players will take them far into the 4A state championship. Last year, the girls fell short to Pocatello in the bronze medal match.

The team will face Lake City three times again this year, one of the top programs in the Northwest. Near the end of the regular season last year, the Bulldogs held their own only suffering a 2-1 defeat against the Timberwolves; they will look for revenge this season. The Bulldogs will also play Stillwater Christian (Kalispell, Mont.) and Ridgeline (Liberty Lake, Wash.) for the second year in a row. This year, the team added Mead, Wash., to their non-conference schedule, a team they have not faced since 2019.

In regards to winning the district championship this year, Baranski is confident in his team’s ability to do so, but noted that Moscow has been a tough out this year and said the team isn’t underestimating them. The team defeated Moscow last year twice, 2-1 and 1-0.

“The whole vibe from the program has been really positive, really supportive this year.,” Baranski said. “That’s not always the case, but this group is excellent and that just makes things so much easier.”

Senior captain Aliya Strock agreed with the sentiment that the team was a positive bunch and said that this year’s five seniors are really close. Strock has been playing with some of the same girls since kindergarten and says their team chemistry has really improved over the years. Strock is one of Sandpoint’s most versatile players, having played almost every position in the past. This year, she will be playing primarily midfield and will be a key to the program's overall success.

The girls will play in eight home games this season, which gives the community plenty of time to come out and support the team.