colinturner95

On one hand I'm glad that there's the potential that Boise State doesn't have to play them any more. On the other, I feel like BSU should be going with them but I understand that hoping and wishing don't mean much.

1. Caldwell Cougars - Est. 1901 - Caldwell, ID - Classification: 4A Something I forgot to mention in the intro post, in stark contrast to a lot of the schools in the SIC East, the schools in the West have little to no hockey history of their own. Instead, most players who lived in Canyon County (where most of these schools are located) formed a large combined team called Canyon County, which for a time was one of the best teams in the state, winning a state championship in 2010 or 2011. Hard times fell on them after that, going seasons between wins. As for Caldwell HS, the first team up here. They never really threatened BK at the athletic level, certainly not in football. I'm not sure that in the last 10-15 they've beaten BK, but I could be wrong. Caldwell's soccer team has seen a resurgence in recent years, after not having won the state title since 1985, have won it 3 of the last 5 seasons. Caldwell has graduated a few famous alumni, probably most notably Joe Albertson, founder of Albertson's grocery stores, Randy Trautman, BSU I-AA National Champion and short lived CFL player and journeyman QB Cody Pickett. Caldwell Cougars - Identity: Colors - Blue and gold have been Caldwell's colors for as long as I can remember and it works so no reason to change. Primary Logo - For a short time, they actually used the old Prince George Cougars' logo, recolored to fit their needs. They've since transitioned to using this line work logo, which works much, much better. Secondary Logo - I got vintage sort of vibes from the primary logo which led to a slab serif C logo as the secondary. Wordmarks - Same font as the secondary logo, spelling out the school and nickname. Jersey Fonts - Vintage block font, with a drop shadow (a lost art in athletic aesthetics today) Caldwell Cougars - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - Owning to the vintage feelings I got from the primary logo, that played a large influence on the jerseys, which are basically the Flyers' uniforms, just in blue and gold. Only difference there besides colors, is the double stripe on the socks and hem. I did something against the norm with the numbers and left it yellow on the white jersey, sort of like the Wild's first Reverse Retro. Equipment - Blue helmets, blue gloves and pants. Nothing crazy here. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - Kept the Flyers influence present but shifted more to the 90's Lindros uniforms style. I guess these would be most similar to the black uniforms of that era. Outside of the change in shoulder decoration, and to the hem, the Cougar logo goes away in favor of the C secondary logo. Equipment - no changes to speak of Let me know what you guys think!

since we're on the topic of names, I hope they don't rebrand a lot, or honestly, any of the teams when they settle them in cities. The original 6 teams have been growing a fan base for 4 years now. Side note, some one pointed out that Cade Van Raaphorst had been released by the Atlas and it got me thinking that if a top level defender is getting cut, is it time for the league to consider adding more teams to spread the talent wealth out?

The other half of the Southern Idaho schools, this time we're looking at the 8 teams west of Ada County, in the aptly named Southern Idaho Conference - West. Crafty, I know. This is also the only conference with just 8 teams. There were a handful of 3A level schools that could have made the jump, but I decided against it. Unlike the SIC-E that was mostly 5A with a 4A member, this is the inverse with 7 of 8 schools being at the 4A level, with Skyview (bottom row, 3rd team) being the lone 5A member. Not a lot of geographic oddities. A couple of clusters in Nampa with 3 schools, and Caldwell, with 2. Emmett does sit further out that most of the schools, being a 45 minute drive from Columbia. That highway you see next to Emmett doesn't currently connect to the interstate, but that problem is actively being fixed so that goes away. Middleton is also a little away from everyone, but is a 15 minute drive from Caldwell. So not that bad in all honesty. First team up soon!

11. St. Louis Blues These were so close to cracking the top ten. Taking a prototype jersey that never saw the ice and breathing new life into it. Crafty as hell. I really don't have anything against these, other than I felt there were ten better Reverse Retros in front of it in my opinion. I didn't think I had a better option for the prototype jersey in terms of colors so I shifted to the first NHL franchise in St. Louis, the Eagles. While it might be better suited for an outdoor game, I took the Eagles' one jersey and flipped it blue and gold, using the Blues' original logo and the St. Louis arch from the prototype jersey logo. Simple but elegant still.

We've reached the end of another conference, and that means it's time for another conference tournament! Play-In Round: 2 really exciting games off the jump. #9 Meridian led 2-0 all game, Eagle clawed back to tie the game in the late 3rd period, only for Meridian to win the game less than a minute into OT. And Timberline upset their former partner in crime in another OT finish, capping off a hat trick effort to advance to the quarterfinals. Owyhee showed their youth against the establishment, posing no threat to Borah. The postseason edition of the Battle of the Mountains sees Mountain View end Rocky's season early with a resounding offensive output. Quarterfinals: For the first time in these sims, the top seeds get some luck to go their way and seeds 1,2 & 3 had no issues, outscoring their opponents 17-2 en route to the semifinals. Centennial and Borah turned in the closest game of the round, needing less than 30 seconds of OT for Centennial to advance. Semifinals: Top seeded BK wins one of the best games (that never happened) in IDHSAA history, winning 1-0 in an evenly matched game that was carried by BK's stifling defense. Here's the story about semifinal two: Kuna takes the lead late in the 3rd period, Capital responds to tie the game, Kuna then takes penalty and 14 seconds later, Capital scores the game winning goal in the dying seconds of the 3rd. Conference Championship: For as good as the semis were, the Championship paled in comparison. Bk rode their stifling defense to a conference championship, only allowing 12 total shots on goal and their offense tuned up Capital to the sound of four goals to earn the auto bid to the State Championship weekend! Designer's Notes: All in all, I felt it was a much more balanced conference aesthetically. Only color that was really missing was orange. Green makes a welcome reappearance, with 3 teams using it in some fashion. Gold also plays a large part, with 3 really distinct shades. Southern Idaho West coming up soon!

12. Timberline Wolves - Est. 1998 (originally Les Bois Junior High, 1994) - Boise, ID - Classification: 5A The final high school in the SIC East, and the most recent school to open in the Boise School District. This school serves the growing southeast area of Boise, which is quickly expanding into the Foothills of Boise, despite the concerns of building houses on the terrain. This is another area of the Treasure Valley that I'm surprised hasn't seen consideration for another high school. And maybe they are and I am not privy to the conversation. The Wolves don't usually threaten athletically. My junior and senior year we did a "home and home", since we're in different classifications, and we clobbered them in our junior year meeting and blew it my senior year on a pick six and doomed 2 pt conversion attempt in overtime. Hockey-wise however, they were one of the dominant teams in the state. My travel head coach was the head coach there and most of my boys played for Timberline, and their combined team the T-Braves. They won the state high school championship in 2014 at my teams' expense. Was the cherry on-top to a pretty rough six month stretch. Timberline Wolves - Identity: Colors - Blue and black are the primary colors. Silver is used as a trim color and a color primarily on the alternate jersey. Primary Logo - They've used this wolf logo as long as I can remember and I'm sticking with it. Secondary Logo - Another logo they've used in conjunction with the wolf head, and I just updated the T to match the font. Wordmarks - No nonsense block font. Jersey Fonts - Same as the wordmark, no nonsense. Remember when Easton made hockey gear? for a time, they also made sublimated hockey jerseys and I guess the pro shop at the time got a discount on uniforms, because half the teams had horrible jerseys from them. Once they combined with Boise, if you remember from above, they went to the Rangers' template. They've since changed since then to a decent-ish look, despite the gradient jersey that I still contend is illegal. Timberline Wolves - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - So I mentioned the Rangers' look the combined team wore, and if Boise went back to their Devils' inspired look, the Wolves can take on the rangers look. Red is out, black is in. Wolf logo on the chest. Equipment - Blue helmets, three color gloves. I went back and forth on the pants option, seeing as I thought black and blue both were suitable options. Blue pants became the main option with the option for a black shell. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - This is based on the current uniforms as the Rangers are out the window and more of a modern design comes in. Silver now has a more prominent place on the uniform, becoming the main stripe and taking on a dazzle like appearance, akin to VGK's gold jersey. T Wolf logo now on the chest. Equipment - no changes to the gloves and helmet. I showed it with the blue pants set, but I'd think the black shells would more likely be worn more often with it. Conference Wrap up coming tomorrow!

Hats don't fall under the creative stuff I work on at Fanatics, but with as far out as we try and get league stuff done, this probably was being worked on before they switched uniforms designs. Still not sure who missed that though. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Yoof. Overall, very underwhelming and bad. The teams with new fonts feel goofy, mostly the Archers and Chrome. The Whipsnakes went from top of the league to below last. I'm disappointed that Chaos' jerseys got a lot less chaotic.

That's a new one.

11. Rocky Mountain Grizzlies - Est. 2008 - Meridian, ID - Classification: 5A Rocky Mountain opened in 2008 to help with the growth of North Meridian and help take some of the enrollment off of Meridian High which in turn helped to alleviate Mountain View all the way on the south side of Interstate 84. The result has been Rocky Mountain becoming the largest high school in the state of Idaho, taking the crown away from their Mountain mate. In addition to being the biggest, they're also one of the most competitive schools in the state, usually appearing in the state semifinals or state finals, and either winning it or losing to one of the schools from the East side of state, whom we'll meet at as the last conference in the AA level. As a hockey team, they combined with Eagle to be able to field a team and as a result were a very good team. Just not good enough to win a championship in my time. Or in my brother's for that matter. Rocky Mountain Grizzlies - Identity: Colors - Purple and black stick as the main colors. Primary Logo - In the beginning, Rocky lifted the Memphis team of the same name's logo and in recent years have been using Central Arkansas' logo in place and I stuck with that. Secondary Logo - Full version of the primary. Wordmarks - RM interlock and a Grizzlies wordmark. Jersey Fonts - Modern font, less pointy than the wordmarks. Rocky Mountain Grizzlies - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - As good as a combined look can get I guess, Eagle and Rocky called their hockey team the "Eagle-Rocky Horse Bears", which is a pretty good amalgam of the two identities. Rocky's identity gets the colored jersey look and Eagle fills in the white jersey look. That however is not needed here. Rocky's football team wore Baylor recolors for the longest time with the paw on the sleeve caps. I took the paw off the caps and put it on the ends of the jersey sleeves with a stripe above them. Similarly weighted stripe on the hem. Grizzly logo on the chest. Equipment - Black pants with the paw on the side, black gloves and purple helmets. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - This was the original idea for the home and away but was relegated in favor of the paw design. The sleeve decoration basically flips to the upper part of the sleeve and the full bear logo is now on the chest. Equipment - no changes to the equipment. C&C appreciated!

I'm glad there wasn't a lot of wholesale change this season. I do like the mohawk stripe for the archers but the A on the side is weak, I agree. The 'Dogs script on the side of helmet is nice. Now I hope they don't ruin the Chaos' uniforms.

12. Pittsburgh Penguins Robo Pen rockets this up the lists for me (and I personally think its the better logo, but that's is neither here nor there). What does this jersey in for me against the remaining 11 teams, is that it feels unnecessarily busy and that mostly comes from the pants I think, since the team opted for the same home and away pants instead of the blank pants worn with the original uniforms. Besides that, I just don't think it's better than the jerseys I have in front of it. Rather than solve the easy problem and just go with blank pants, I shifted to the more unique uniform from the same era, going for the asymmetric, gradient jersey in some new colors: Option A sees the base go gold, which shifts the yellow and black around. Option B goes white, coming along with a darker gradient to offset for the lighter base. Option C was a late edition, going back to the day one colors, even giving Robo Pen a color swap. C&C welcome!

10. Owyhee Storm - Est. 2021 - Meridian, ID - Classification: 5A The baby amongst high schools in the Treasure Valley as well as Idaho at large. With Meridian's population continuing to surge, particularly on the north side of our main freeway, plans went in pre-pandemic for a 5th Meridian high school in the West Ada School District. Delayed by just a year, Owyhee (oh-why-hee) opened in fall 2021 with an enrollment of 1800 students. The school's athletics nickname garnered some local attention. Originally the plan was to be the Thunder, and logos were completed and ready to go for opening. Until Eagle High School raised oppositions due to their stadium being named Thunder Stadium. This lead to the team becoming called the Storm and logos were reworked, and not necessarily for the better. Logo snafu aside, the Storm have made themselves known in the state, winning the state basketball championship in their first year and just completed a back to back in state baseball. Owyhee Storm - Identity: Colors - Red is their primary. They've already floated between using grey or black as a secondary. I led with black as the secondary but greys show up in logos and uniforms as well. Primary Logo -Having changed from the Thunder to the Storm, new logos were needed and the one they went with... well, sucks. It's a weird combination of abstract hurricane marks and the Oregon O. Instead of that, a wordmark logo with a hurricane logo (I'm pretty sure its the Cincinnati Cyclones logo. One of their club teams was using it in a capacity). Secondary Logo - Pulled the hurricane logo out from the wordmark. Wordmarks - OHS with a gradient to the left of the letters. Jersey Fonts - Call it a modern font that fits the "stormy" vibe. Owyhee Storm - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - With no hockey history to build off of, or any history for that matter, I went from scratch on these. I thought that with a wordmark-built logo, a chest stripe was a good way to accent that, and so a Florida Panthers looking jersey is born. Socks have the same stripes. Equipment - Navy pants and helmets, both with the OHS logo on them. Red gloves felt better than back did. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - A completely different spin. I took the gradient from the alternate logo and blew it up to fit on the sleeves and on the side panels, because everyone loves side panels on hockey jerseys! OHS takes center stage on these jerseys. Equipment - no changes to the equipment. C&C appreciated!

So they abandoned navy?

13. Detroit Red Wings My homerism is about to shine bright like a diamond. I wasn't sold on these at first but after seeing them in action, I think their better than people gave them credit for. If they didn't use black and just went with a straight color swap, easily top-5 or best in show. But since the black is there, more middle of the pack. Even I couldn't justify putting them above most of the Pacific Division uniforms. Option #A is the logical choice, just eliminating black and going for a color swap. Option #B is the unhinged option, going for an all-black look with red stripes and white numbers The new option, which isn't that new since it came from my Nike NHL series goes back to the 1928-1929 Cougars uniforms, this time going red with a retro Red Wings logo and the fonts and script from the 2014 Winter Classic uniforms. C&C appreciated!

9. Mountain View Mavericks - Est. 2003 - Meridian, ID - Classification: 5A Mountain View joined the Meridian School District (now the West Ada S.D.) around the turn of the century to help with the influx of people living in Meridian. They've quickly turned into one of the best athletic schools in the state, and they should, their enrollment is upwards of 3500 students annually. It's a surprise that there aren't plans for another high school in that area of Meridian. Athletically, the team competes with the best in the state and in the valley. MVHS was quick to establish a rivalry with Meridian and later on with Rocky Mountain, the latter of which I think is the more fun. Their football teams play annually in the Battle of the Mountains, which I think has been slowly filtering out to other sports as well. Hockeywise, Mountain View has been a combined team with Centennial for as long as I can remember. However this partnership is pretty one sided. Centennial, as I previously mentioned doesn't contribute a lot of players, or at least hasn't historically, so the team has been branded as Mountain View with no mention of Centennial in a lot of cases. The team also hasn't been historically competitive, outside of a decent regular season in my brother's sophomore season. Mountain View Mavericks - Identity: Colors - Navy has been a constant since day 1. The shade of green on the other hand, has floated between a nice kelly green or going as garish as Seahawks' Action Green. No need for a middle ground as kelly green is the right choice. Primary Logo - Since the beginning, MV has used the Texans logo with green swapping in for red. In recent years, they've more focused on using this MV horned lockup which I think is strong enough to be the primary. Secondary Logo - Certain teams have also taken to using a recolored Nebraska-Omaha logo which I'm kinda iffy on but it can serve as a secondary here. Wordmarks - Big and bold wordmark, nothing super crazy. Jersey Fonts - I went with the Jaguars old font with the angled serifs. Thought it fit with the new branding direction. Mountain View Mavericks - Uniforms: So I mentioned above that Mountain View hasn't really mentioned Centennial in recent years, but that wasn't always the case. The first picture is of the team up until 2014, when they wore LA Kings uniforms with their combined team nickname on the chest. On the right, the kid getting folded like a lawn chair by my best friend, is wearing uniforms that lasted a year because the kid who is getting folded's dad bought the uniforms from a company that decided to not exist past that year. It was also the first and only case I know of where the hockey leadership fired a coach in the immediate aftermath of a game. Probably had something to do with the same kid's dad trying to pick a fight with me in the handshake line. Anyways, now the team wears Vancouver Canucks jerseys which works for them. Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - Scrapping everything from above, I went with an offset stripe which the football team has used in the past, and I thought looked good here. White jersey has a navy yoke, the Maverick logo on the shoulders, interlocked MV on the chest. Socks match their jerseys. Equipment - Navy pants and gloves. Pants have a simple green stripe on the legs that end in a horn on the sides of the pants. Gloves have a white cuff and green fingers. I don't 100% percent remember my rationale for the white helmets, but I liked the way it looked and stuck with it. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - A completely different take from the home and away jerseys, based pretty much on the school's baseball uniforms. Gone is the offset stripe, replaced by a navy and white triple stripe. The logos go away for a script Mtn View. Socks match. Equipment - no changes to the equipment. C&C appreciated!

If the NHL is psychotic enough to put a Winter Classic in a warm climate venue, the Kings should wear these to the event.

8. Meridian Warriors - Est. 1904 - Meridian, ID - Classification: 5A There was once upon a time where Meridian High School dominated sports in, not just Idaho, but the northwest at large. My dad has told me stories about how his high school, the Richland Bombers of Richland, WA, would travel down to Boise and get their butts kicked by Meridian. And the same would be true in basketball and baseball. But then the Treasure Valley rapidly began to see a population surge, resulting in Mountain View HS and Rocky Mountain HS chipping away at their enrollment and the dominance began to falter. Meridian's hockey team kept the dominance going the longest, having enough players to field 2 varsity teams and 2 JV teams for a long while. They also captured 3 straight titles around the turn of the century, which to my knowledge is the last they've won. A few of my travel teammates played for Meridian and their coach was our travel coach, so they kept the winning ways going, just couldn't capture a state title. Meridian Warriors - Identity: Colors - Navy and gold. Very much feels like if Michigan was a high school. Primary Logo - They used a slightly recolored Chief Illiniwek logo for a long time and finally phased him out not too long ago, which is when I think the non-descript Warrior head came in. I've always thought it was a good logo, so I kept it around. Secondary Logo - More Michigan vibes. Meridian has used the M-banner logo for quite a long time, I just changed out MERIDIAN in the banner to WARRIORS. Wordmarks - No full wordmarks, just a Warriors script. Jersey Fonts - Pretty simple and standard block font. Meridian Warriors - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - For the longest time, I thought Meridian used repurposed Michigan uniforms, but as it turns out, these are not Michigan blanks. In the end, it doesn't even matter, because I wanted to bring these uniforms back pretty much as is, because I thought they were some of the best high school jerseys in Idaho. Biggest changes from real life is the stripes on the sleeves get bigger, and the Warriors logo is now on the chest. Equipment - Navy equipment all arounder. Pants have the same stripes as the jerseys. Gloves have a yellow thumb and cuffs. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - Navy takes over as the away jersey, so gold is relegated to the away, which is not a huge deal. Only real changes is the Warriors script replaces the Warrior head as the main logo on the chest. Equipment - no changes to the equipment. C&C appreciated!

14. Buffalo Sabres All I had to write on notes for these: "white Goathead looks great! blue helmet, white pants not so much." that sums it up pretty well I think. Something I also didn't consider at the time was the lack of silver on the uniform, which leads to yellow becoming a little more overwhelming than it should be. Hey remember me talking about yellow becoming overwhelming? Well it's another case of me finally giving the Sabres a true yellow alternate. Silver also returns to the uniforms just to add some more color to the uniform and to be a little bit more historically correct. I didn't actually put that together... so flip the colors around and that problem should disappear. I don't think "look good, feel good, play good" has been the Leafs issues.

Hockey has a pretty decent following in Utah, pretty much centered in the SLC metro area. The Grizzlies won two IHL championships and compete fairly well in the ECHL. They also have a handful of junior teams in the area. I don't think it's enough support and following to support an NHL franchise however. I don't know how suited Vivint Arena is for hockey either. I figured as such. Still, I don't get the same thrills watching them play Buffalo or Toronto or Ottawa opposed to Chicago, Colorado or Dallas even.

Arizona to Quebec. Quebec to the Atlantic. Detroit to the Central. Gonna happen? Probably not. But I can always dream right?

7. Kuna Kavemen - Est. 1924 - Kuna, ID - Classification: 5A Kuna is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing cities in Idaho. Seated 8 miles south of Meridian, off of SH69, Kuna has grown exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down, even garnering Costco's attention just 3 years after building the 3rd warehouse in the valley. The rapid growth of Kuna has led to Kuna High School getting moved up the classification ladder pretty quickly going from 3A in the mid 80's to 90's all the way up to 5A in 2015. BK and Kuna have had some pretty good battles over the course of the years, usually ending up going BK's way, though in 2019, Kuna finally broke through, beating BK for the 4A SIC District Title and taking the State Title over Blackfoot, whom we'll meet in the next and final AA conference. As for hockey, Kuna makes no real appearance in the state. I personally haven't known anyone or played with or against anyone from Kuna, and I'd imagine they'd play for one of the Meridian high schools. Though with their growth, I'd imagine that probably could change. Kuna Kavemen - Identity: Colors - Another black and gold team, this time the gold settles in the middle of BK's and Capital's. Primary Logo - The primary logo used to be a block K on top of two crossed Florida State spears. Digging a little deeper, this appears to be something of a football-specific logo, with the vast majority of the results giving the logo you see above, which is one of the best in the state IMO. However, it does seem that the logo is making a comeback, with their football coach having brough the spears back to the helmet. I however, felt the Kaveman to be the better option here. Secondary Logo - Baseball uses a more gothic K, and I wanted to bring that over as is, but instead went with something less than gothic but still capturing those vibes. Wordmarks - The K worked for the secondary logo but not the whole wordmark, so I went with a pointed serif font that I felt worked with the whole identity. Jersey Fonts - TT Octas works well as the number font, slotting in as a condensed version of the wordmark font. Kuna Kavemen - Uniforms: Home - Away: Jerseys /Socks - Kuna does a blackout better than a lot of schools who try, but gold sometimes becomes an afterthought. I wanted to give gold a shot to shine, no pun intended. The stripes are a modified version of their current football jersey's stripes, which morphed into something close to the Cleveland Browns stripes. Kaveman logo front and center. Socks match their jerseys. Equipment - Black pants, K Logo on the front leg. Gloves are all black with gold accents. Helmet has the Kaveman wordmark on the side. Alternate: Jersey/Socks - Gold gets its biggest chance to shine, taking over as the base color, and the stripes pare down to just a double black stripe, which also moves up to the chest. K logo is now the chest logo, with the Kaveman going up to the shoulders. Equipment - no changes to the equipment. C&C appreciated! I personally would have gone with "Stampede" or "Thunder". Their football field is called Thunder Stadium, and I feel like it would have been more unique and could still have used a horse logo or theme. I'm sure they wanted to avoid the bird theme as it probably would have been too low-hanging, if you catch the parlance. Glad you guys are enjoying the series! I was doing a lot of talking to myself there for a while

Love it! And the green can play up the City of Trees nickname Boise has too. Big thumbs up from the resident Idaho native!

Have we brought this up yet?