The high school football season in Idaho begins on Aug. 23. So to get you ready, we’re counting down with at least one local team preview every day until kickoff.
Up next: The Madison Bobcats 2023 IN REVIEW: COACH'S RESUME: RETURNING STARTERS: This is the one. This is the season Madison has been waiting for. At least, that's the scuttlebutt in and around the practice facility in Rexburg.
Between offense and defense, Madison has more than a dozen players who have been starting since they were sophomores. That is a crazy number of third-year starters, especially for a team playing in the state's largest classification — where teams have the luxury of playing athletes on just one side of the ball. This is Idaho's 6A big boy division, where even one sophomore starter is as common as a powder blue, polka-dot cowboy hat.
"We've been pretty young our first few years, and this year that group of sophomores from '22 are seniors, fourth-year coach Chandler Rhoads said. "We're excited to see what they can do." Madison finished 4-5 in 2023, posting a losing record for the first time since 2020.
That is saying something, considering the newly named Southeastern Idaho Conference − formally the High Country Conference − has produced five of the past seven state champions, including three straight. However, Madison has missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, the first time that has happened since 2010. "Our league is tough.
Really tough," Rhoads said. "Rigby has had some.