| 28 turned out for football There are 28 players turned out for football with enough players returning from last year’s state champions for another run to the playoffs. There are 7 seniors on the team led by returning state player of the year Cole Martin, quarterback Cole Schlader and state first team lineman Dean Johnson. Other seniors are Dalton Ross, John Gehring, Matt Coppernoll and Hunter Leal. Ross, Gehring and Coppernoll all got a lot of playing time on defense last year with Ross and Gehring looking at taking the starting wide receiver spots. There are 8 juniors led by Brody Hasselstrom and Tayden (T.J.) Hibbard who will get a lot of time at running back and will likely be starting linebackers on defense. Other juniors are Lane Schumacher, Wyatt Ross, Travis Alfrey, Chase Kaschmitter, Jesse Cronan and Wes Tucker-Hall. Sophomores are Shane Hanson, Quirt Goeckner, Brandon Kindrick, Keenan Shears and Ryan Wemhoff. Hanson did a lot of the kicking last year and will see a lot of time in the offensive line and on defense this year. Freshmen are Noah Behler, Trenton Lorentz, Ambrose Nuxoll, Raven Cronan, Carter Christopher, Ethan Thompson and Ben Elven. Head coach Ryan Hasselstrom and assistant Matt Elven return with Jarod Cash as a new assistant coach this year. Missing from the sidelines for the first time in 15 years is Teel Bruner, the “doctor of defense,” who decided it was time to step down. The varsity team will open their season this Friday, Sept. 4 with a non-league game at Kendrick at 7 p.m. The Pirates were to have opened this past Saturday against Oakley at Middleton as part of the 8-man Classic but that was called off due to putting 8 teams and their fans all in one place in one of the state’s hot-spot counties. Their first league game will be at C.V. on Friday, Sept. 11. Prairie picked up a non-league game at Timberline on Friday, Sept. 18 to replace the Oakley game on the schedule. A Prairie vs. Oakley game would have been a matchup of #1 vs. #2 in the preseason media poll. They may wind up playing anyway. As defending state champions, Prairie is the favorite to win the White Pine League again this year. Last year’s second place team, Potlatch, lost a lot of senior athletes. C.V. and Lapwai look like contenders. Genesee is a bit of a dark horse as they are now a coop with Colton, Washington. Troy and Kamiah could also be improved. The state tournament is different this year as there will be 12 teams in the tournament and it will be seeded this year using MaxPreps rankings instead of predetermined matchups. There was also some movement of schools this year in and out of 1A-D1. In our league Logos is now in our division but this year is playing JV football only. Up north Lakeside of Plummer moved up and will be vying with Wallace for the District 1 berth. Down south Valley got moved up to 2A but to make up for that, defending 1A-D2 champion Lighthouse Christian of Twin Falls got moved up to 1A-D1. The Lost Rivers co-op that Prairie played for the state title has been broken up with Butte County back on their own in 1A-D1. Another school of note that doesn’t play football is Ambrose, the defending 1A-D1 boys basketball champions got moved up to 2A this year.
Pirates go at each other during a blocking drill at Monday’s practice.
 Coach Ryan Hasselstrom looks on during a pass catching drill at Monday’s practice.
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