A ‘fresh start’ for everyone. An inside look at how Owyhee football preps for its debut.
Sherm Blaser has plenty of ways to sell his new high school football program.
He leans heavily on Owyhee High’s new factor, from shiny new classrooms to slick new artificial turf field to a sparkling new stadium. But the Storm’s head coach also has a simple way to sum up what’s available to players at Idaho’s newest high school.
“They all get a fresh start and an opportunity to reprove themselves,” Blaser said.
Players can prove themselves to a new coaching staff. They can prove themselves to a new set of teammates. And, perhaps most importantly, they can prove to themselves what they are capable of.
That’s not an opportunity that comes around every day. And Blaser and the rest of the Storm are embracing it as their inaugural season looms.
OWYHEE’S FIRST-YEAR CHALLENGES
Owyhee, located near the dividing line between Ada and Canyon counties with a view of the Owyhee Mountains, opens this fall as the 12th member of the 5A Southern Idaho Conference. It will relieve overcrowding at Rocky Mountain and Eagle, with some Meridian students mixed in as well.
Blaser left Kuna, where he led the Kavemen to a perfect season and a 4A state title two years ago, to found the new program. The job came with a to-do list a mile long. Hiring a complete coaching staff, designing logos and jerseys, selecting a mountain of new equipment, founding a booster club and establishing relationships in the community remain just the tip of the iceberg.
Then the coronavirus pandemic added another set of hurdles.
The West Ada school year stretched into June to make up for days missed last August, giving Owyhee a later start to its summer program than many opponents.
The 130 helmets Blaser ordered in April arrived in May, but the wrong color. Replacements didn’t arrive until last week due to logistical backups, giving the Storm time for just one practice in helmets before heading to a fully padded team camp at Nampa High.
Owyhee’s practice jerseys also didn’t arrive in time for the team camp, so the team had to borrow some from Skyview before they arrived the next day.
And the school’s campus still remains under construction, forcing the team to host its summer practices at nearby Sawtooth Middle School and its workouts at Off The Field, a Meridian gym. Even the coaches can’t enter the building yet, sending staff meetings to restaurants, home garages and apartment clubhouses.
“We’ve been nomadic at times,” Blaser said. “But we’re getting it done.”
STARTING A NEW FOOTBALL PROGRAM
But for all the challenges Owyhee has faced so far, Blaser knows the toughest one lies in forming a team out of students who were strangers until this summer.
He figures the Storm will start the season with players from close to a dozen high schools. In addition to Rocky Mountain, Eagle and Meridian, the school’s boundaries are filling with families from around the Treasure Valley and outside the state as Meridian’s growth pushes west.
So Blaser has purposefully spent more time this summer on team bonding and establishing the program’s culture than on route running and blitz pickups.
“You want to have some pretty good social skills,” joked Owyhee senior wide receiver Porter Grow, who transferred from Meridian. “Everyone is nervous. None of us knew each other at first. Some people went to rival schools.
“It was a huge gamble. But right now, everyone is really, really, really good friends with one another.”
Owyhee brought 87 players to last week’s team camp at Nampa. But only five were seniors, as West Ada gave seniors the option to graduate at their previous high schools.
Senior safety Austin Belvoir said all his friends remain at Rocky Mountain. He admits it would have been easier to remain with the defending state champs. But he saw Owyhee as a chance to challenge himself.
“There’s always going to be risks in new things that you start,” Belvoir said. “But I feel like those risks turn into better outcomes. And those outcomes can make me grow as a person.”
NEW TEAM MEANS NEW OPPORTUNITIES
But for all the challenges, Owyhee provides a bounty of opportunities for everyone involved.
Blaser can build a program from the ground up and truly make it his own. And players overlooked at other schools can prove they belong on the field.
“They came in with a chip on their shoulder,” Grow said. “We definitely needed that spark, that fire.”
Last week’s team camp brought the first taste of outside competition. And the Storm followed that Friday and Saturday at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl 7-on-7 Tournament as it prepares for its season opener Aug. 27 at Centennial.
First-year programs typically struggle in the win-loss column. Seven schools have joined the 5A or 4A Southern Idaho Conference since 1995. Only one, Mountain View in 2003, managed to post a .500 record.
Blaser said he won’t lower the bar for Owyhee, even with only five seniors. He’s set a goal to make the playoffs. But he also wants the Storm to savor the moment.
“This is a unique situation, and they are part of history,” Blaser said. “I hope they understand that, and they are not just looking at, ‘It’s another Tuesday and I have to get up and go lift weights or go to work tonight.’
“Take a little time to enjoy the process of building a new school.”
Belvoir and Grow hope to buck the trend for first-year programs. But while others ran away from the challenges of a new program, both said they couldn’t wait to join.
Like Blaser, Grow had a simple explanation.
“Memories,” he said, “are worth more than a million dollars.”
CAPITAL WINS 7-ON-7 TOURNAMENT
Led by senior quarterback Max Clark, Capital topped Centennial 30-17 in the finals of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl 7-on-7 Tournament on Saturday at the Optimist Youth Sports Complex.
Capital went 7-0 at the tournament to win it for the third time in program history. It also won the tournament in 2016 and 2013. It later went 10-2 both seasons, setting up runs to the 5A state championship game and 5A state semifinals, respectively.
Mountain View finished first in the lineman challenge Saturday, and McCall-Donnelly edged Mountain View in the finals of the tug-of-war competition. The Vandals are the first 3A program to win an event at the Potato Bowl tournament since it began in 2010.
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 3:31 PM.
