Bishop Kelly football eyes rare three-peat

Bishop Kelly High football is one of the most successful programs in Idaho history with six state championships.

Now the Knights are on the precipice of a feat no 5A or 4A program has accomplished in Idaho High School Activities Association history — a three-peat.

Bishop Kelly (9-2) can enter a category of its own when it takes on Sandpoint (8-3) for the 4A title at 2 p.m. MT Saturday at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

“It would be amazing to be the first 4A team to say we’ve won three titles in a row,” senior linebacker Jon Baumgardner said. “It draws people in. We definitely want people to be a part of this amazing tradition and culture here.”

Seven other programs have repeated as state champions at the 4A level; three at the 5A level. But all 10 stumbled when they went for their third title. And only three — Coeur d’Alene (5A) in 2012, Bishop Kelly (4A) in 2006 and Highland (5A) in 1999 — even reached a third straight championship game.

Bishop Kelly coach Tim Brennan said he only addressed a three-peat with his team once, in a team meeting at the beginning of the season. Since then, he hasn’t heard it come up within the team, although he admits his players know what’s at stake.

“We haven’t talked about it in that sense,” senior running back Ivan Torrez said. “We just know what we have to do to win this game. It’s the biggest game of the season so far.’’

After a slow start to the season that included consecutive losses to Timberline and Borah — the Knights’ first back-to-back losses since 2011 — a three-peat was far from anyone’s mind. But Brennan said Bishop Kelly restructured its practices to focus on shorter, more intense periods, and it has won seven straight since by an average of 28.4 points per game.

“The kids refocused,” Brennan said. “They knew this isn’t what Bishop Kelly football is about. They knew they still had the opportunity to reach the goals they set at the beginning of the year, because those were two nonconference games.

“I think they just refocused themselves and got back to the work, got back to basics.”

Sandpoint enters with a seven-game winning streak of its own. But after navigating their way back to the championship, the Knights have their eyes trained on a championship and nothing else, regardless of where that championship places them in Idaho history.

“It’s an attitude we need to have,” Baumgardner said. “It’s an expectation to be in the playoffs. And it’s an expectation to be in the state championship.

“Anything short of winning a state championship is a disappointment to us. So we’re going to keep on going until we get there.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Bishop Kelly football eyes rare three-peat."