ROCKY MOUNTAIN RUMBLE

by CHRISTIAN WEANER

Losing is never fun—especially to open the season—but according to Head Coach Ryan Knowles, the Sandpoint Bulldogs trip to Rexburg to compete in the 2022 Rocky Mountain Rumble was a positive experience overall.

As Sandpoint moves into its slate of games against in-state competition, putting the 16-15 defeat against Utah’s Class 5A Alta High School behind them, Coach Knowles and the team are ready to make the necessary adjustments and push forward this season.

“There is a ton of positive from this trip,” Knowles said. “I thought we traveled really well, and I thought our players were very in-tune to how to travel and how to prepare for the game. It just came down to some execution that we need to clean up, and that’s why we are going to practice all week.”

Coach Knowles was excited for his team to have the opportunity to play in this year’s Rocky Mountain Rumble—an annual showcase of some of the best high school football teams in Idaho and Utah. This season, eight games were played August 26 and 27 at Madison High School in Rexburg, Idaho, and every team competing was a 2021 state qualifier in their respective state and classification.

Being located in the panhandle of North Idaho, scheduling is not easy for Knowles and the Bulldogs program, which is why their season-opening game against a quality opponent was so important to the team.

In 2020, the Idaho High School Athletics Association (IHSAA) opted to base 4A playoff seeding on MaxPreps computer rankings. Therefore, playing schools with high MaxPreps rankings is essential for teams like Sandpoint, who hope to avoid away games in the early rounds of the state tournament.

“(Playing Alta) will absolutely help (our MaxPreps ranking),” Knowles noted. “Their national ranking and their state ranking and what they do after this all year will help us too with that. It’s nice to be playing quality opponents like Alta.” One thing Coach Knowles noted about the Bulldogs matchup that fans might not have realized is that Alta High School is more than double the size of Sandpoint.

According to U.S. News, Alta has an enrollment of 2,210, while Sandpoint has 923 students.

“It was a good battle,” Coach Knowles said. “I think highly of Alta, and they think highly of us and how competitive the game was. I don’t think they knew much about us. It was good to see an opponent like that.”

Despite the loss, Coach Knowles said he was happy with 85 percent of his team’s performance but admitted that the other 15 percent is what cost them the game.

The Bulldogs met several of their team goals for the game, including running the ball for more than 170 yards, not turning the ball over on offense and creating at least three plays of 25 yards or more. However, penalties, poor special teams and several key missed opportunities slowed down the Bulldogs’ attack, resulting in the one-point defeat.

“I think [the game] game down to details,” Coach Knowles said. “Playing a team that is in their third game of the season—who has eight quarters under their belt—[Alta] had polished some things that we had not really yet, and it was absolutely the difference in a one-point game.”

In the end, Knowles is thankful that Sandpoint had the opportunity to play a team from Utah for the first time in school history, and he believes the trip down to Eastern Idaho gave his team a successful blueprint for future road games this season.

“As far as the Rocky Mountain Rumble goes, it is a tremendous event put on by the committee down there, and I hope that we can do it again in the future,” Coach Knowles said.