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 really good teams, and over the course of time, Highland has been the standard. A team from our conference is either the state champ or playing for a state championship every year.
" Madison gave reigning state champion Highland a fight in conference play last season, losing 38-28 in Pocatello. That is the kind of result that shows the Bobcats can play with the best, Rhoads said. And considering the stable of starters returning, he likes his team's position entering the home opener against Bonneville on Aug.
23. "This group has been through the ups and downs, and the pain and triumphs," Rhoads said. "They understand our culture and our program, you don't have to explain every little thing.
" When it comes to "little" things, coach Rhoads is certainly not talking about his horses on the line. Four of his returning starters are offensive linemen, and each of those four was named to the all-league team. Those trenchmen in question are Carter Apelu, Jacob Lee, Rex Salas, and Tanner Johnson.
Also earning all-conference honors were tailback Barkley Beck, linebackers Cache Summers and Bryce Dredge, defensive linemen Cary Fa and Porter Cottle, kicker Braysen Stoddard, quarterback Hazen Torgerson and receivers Lucas Fransen and Brock Hammond. "We will lean on Bryce and Porter to anchor the defense," Rhoads said. "That group is both athletic and strong, playing with a lot of speed.
" Rhoads notes the offense expects to get a lot of mileage out of Hammond, who anchors a dynamic group of playmakers with quality hands, speed and elusiveness. More than anything, however, Rhoads knows his boys in red will benefit from the one thing that supersedes hands, speed, elusiveness and size. Experience.
"That gives us comfort as a coaching staff," he said. "The biggest advantage we have is how they understand how things work and they will take accountability and ownership, holding themselves and each other to account.".
