Idaho High School Hockey - The Conclusion

[colinturner95]

Getting down near the end here, with just 4 teams left. 

 

9. Rigby Trojans - Est. 1912 - Rigby, ID - Classification: 5A

 

Rigby is one of the last cities/towns in Idaho as you head northeast towards Montana and Yellowstone. And for a town & county seat of all of about 5,000 people, Rigby HS has one of the largest 5A enrollments outside of the Treasure Valley and the couple schools up north.  Also a fun fact about Rigby, Philo T Farnsworth, inventor of early technology that would lead to the modern television moved to Rigby when he was about 12 years old, and he excelled as a student in sciences at Rigby HS. 

 

Athletically, Rigby has modest history when it comes to championships. The basketball team had a dominant stretch during the late 70s, and the 1980s , winning 7 championships in 12 seasons. They then added 3 more in 4 seasons, coincidentally during my high school years. Their football team, before making the jump to 5A, had one notable matchup with BK, one that had Rigby fans all sorts of angry.  So the whole week in November that year was cold and there was off and on snow, but Wednesday night and all Thursday, nothing but snow. From what I remember, Rigby officials were told the game would be postponed or moved, BK officials communicated to the state that they'd have the field cleared off for a Saturday game. Idk where the disconnect was but Rigby was incensed about the situation. In the end, on a cold, ridiculously bright Saturday afternoon, BK eked out a 23-14 ground and pound win, setting up the defensive battle against Blackfoot. Since then BK won one more chip, lost a few more and Rigby got their first one in 2019 at the 5A level and followed it up with back to back championships in 21 and 22. 

 

 

Rigby Trojans - Identity: 

• Colors -  Garnet and Gold. They've alternated between an athletic gold and old gold, but I felt the old gold was the better look.   
• Primary Logo - Trojan helmet.  
• Secondary Logo -  RT lock up logo. They use this logo in real life, but the plume is different from the primary logo so that changes to match. 
• Wordmarks -  A new creation, since the team doesn't have a traditional wordmark, using Friz Quadrata to match the lock up logo. 
• Jersey Fonts - For a long time, and I think to this day, the football team has used Michigan State's font, which was not a tradition I was going to uphold. The Florida Panthers double blue alternate jersey font, I felt was a good substitute and had a similar feel. 

 

Rigby Trojans - Uniforms:

•  Home - Away:    
  • Jerseys /Socks - The inspiration for the double stripe came from something you could consider a stretch. The football team used to wear Miami's old Nike football pants, and I distilled that down into a more contemporary double stripe. Trojan helmet on the front, RT logo on the shoulders. 
  • Equipment - All garnet based, pants have the double stripe down the side, gloves are three colored.  
• Alternate:
  • Jersey/Socks - the old gold didn't lend itself well to being a jersey color, and so I did something I didn't really want to, but they've had precedent of doing anthracite for anthracite's sake on other sports, so I went with it. The double stripe changes to a full triple stripe and the logos swap places. 
  • Equipment - No changes. 

C&C welcome! 

[colinturner95]

10. Shelley Russets - Est. 1909(?) - Shelley, ID - Classification: 4A

 

The smallest of the current 4A schools, based on the 2022-2024 enrollment projections, but what Shelley HS lacks in students, she makes up for in being unique. Shelley is known nationally for their nickname, the Russets, very much named after the potato variety. Adding to how cool that is, owning to the shape of the high school building, it received the nickname, "The Spud Cellar", and in the last little bit of potato related facts about Idaho's potato high school, the academic calendar has a 2 week break built into late September, early October because the majority of the enrollment helps with the potato harvest. Just Idaho Things. 

 

Because Shelley moved up so recently to 4A, BK has little to no modern history of competing with Shelley. Doesn't mean the Russets have no success or competitive drive, their football team dominating the 3A ranks in the early 2000s and 2010s, in addition to a very successful debate team and dance teams. 

 

 

Shelley Russets - Identity: 

• Colors -  The only high school to get a palette change. Shelley's current colors are red and black. Not very unique when it comes to teams around the state and in this conference. For more of a farm, country feel, I changed the team's colors to a dark brown, orange and vintage white. 
• Primary Logo - Shelley's mascot is called King Russet and in another first, Shelley is the only school to have a hockey-specific logo, based on the Famous Idaho Potato, only this time he's a lot less happy and is ready to play, set in a roundel.    
• Secondary Logo -  Nothing crazy, just a block S. 
• Wordmarks -  Keeping things pretty classic, a drop shadowed Russets script. 
• Jersey Fonts - Despite not having a super classic look, I used the Canadiens WC font, minus the faux stitching. 

 

Shelley Trojans - Uniforms: Made the first and only real mistake with my teams, I had Shelley as team #11 because I'm an idiot that can't alphabetize properly. 

•  Home - Away:    
  • Jerseys /Socks - With the vintage feel of all the other elements, vintage themed uniforms felt like a good way to go. These jerseys bear a certain amount of resemblance to the Rangers' Winter Classic jerseys from 2012, though the stripes are an adapted version of the football team's pant stripe. Roundel takes point on the chest, S on the shoulders. 
  • Equipment - All brown, though for a split second the pants had a matching stripe like the jerseys, but I thought it was too much with the stripes on the shoulders too. 
• Alternate:
  • Jersey/Socks - this jersey was inspired by my Portland NHL expansion team from my Nike series, which in turn were inspired by the Portland Rosebuds of the PCHA. Orange becomes the main color here, with the vintage white taking on the role of secondary here. Northwestern stripes on the sleeves and socks. Modified version of the stripe on the hem. Sublimated barberpole stripes on the sleeves, up to the shoulders. Russets script on the chest, number under that, with an added drop shadow. The contrasting nameplate was an accident, like it normally is with me, from changing colors of objects and bam, accidents create good things. 
  • Equipment - No changes. 

Just two teams left! 

[colinturner95]

11. Skyline Grizzlies - Est. 1968 - Idaho Falls, ID - Classification: 4A

 

The second half of the schools with an (technical) Idaho Falls address. Skyline was opened in 1968 to help alleviate Idaho Falls HS enrollment numbers but wouldn't actually see a student attend the physical building until 1970, due to delays in construction. So to help graduate students, a modified schedule was worked out where Idaho Falls students went to school in the morning and Skyline students went to school in the afternoon. Skyline forms the second half of the Emotion Bowl rivalry with Idaho Falls, which I touched on in Idaho Falls' post. 

 

For sports outside of hockey (mostly just football), BK and Skyline have gone in a similar trajectory, though Skyline has seen more success as of late, beating BK for the state championship in football 2016 and 2022. Skyline has won 3 straight titles starting in 2020, the first 4A team to do that since BK did it from 2013-2015. 

 

Skyline Hockey history/Personal story below: 

Spoiler

Now for hockey, Skyline was fortunate to have had their own team for a while, now having folded into a combined team with other schools in the area, but they did have a decently competitive team. In 2013, arguably their best team in my time, we played them twice in the state tournament that year (not like Minnesota where it's win, advance on the right, lose go to the left). In Idaho's hockey tournaments, its a round robin, followed by top teams advance out of that. Anyways, game 1 vs Skyline, no problem, 8-3 victory.

 

Come championship Sunday, we're facing them again. Game started out like the first one did, early 3-0 lead, looked like things weren't going to be a problem, until we get hit with a 2 & 10 penalty for a clean hit (video evidence after the fact confirmed it, and the ref was from Idaho Falls [don't get me started]). Well, they get back into the game, we give up a game tying goal late in regulation, its 4-4 in a 5 minute overtime and its back and forth breakaways, I swear to god, at least every player had a 1 on 0 at one point. Goes to a shootout, and we were the better shootout team, scoring on all four attempts (and I got the winner) en route to the state title game. 

 

After that, neither team really reached those heights again. We made it back to the championship game the next year and lost. Skyline hasn't been back since, per my limited knowledge and limited internet information. Though I would end up playing them 3 times in the next two seasons, winning all 3, making Skyline the only school I ever played that I'm undefeated against. 

 

 

Skyline Grizzlies - Identity: 

• Colors -  Light blue, but not powder and navy. 
• Primary Logo - So they took Montana's logo, added a Z to Griz and recolored it. And I kept it. 
• Secondary Logo -  S logo from their football helmets. 
• Wordmarks -  Split Grizz from the paw and added a new Skyline mark.  
• Jersey Fonts - I liked LSU's skinny block and I can't remember the exact reason why. 

 

Skyline Grizzlies - Uniforms: 

•  Home - Away:    
  • Jerseys /Socks - The Skyline I played against wore Maple Leafs blanks, which was a good look IMO, but they wore the blue socks with both uniforms, which dragged the look down a little for me. The home whites are more navy dominant, owning to the navy yoke. double stripe, doubled again on the sleeves and hem. Primary logo on the chest. Away blues lose the shoulder yoke. 
  • Equipment - All navy, gloves with a lt blue cuff and pants have the same stripes. 
• Alternate:
  • Jersey/Socks - Not too dissimilar from the home and away jerseys. Biggest change outside of base color, is the stripe changes to a full triple stripe, adds a stripe to the shoulder area and the logo changes to the secondary S. 
  • Equipment - No changes. 

One team left and we can wrap this one up and put a bow on top!

[colinturner95]

12. Thunder Ridge Titans - Est. 2018 - Idaho Falls, ID - Classification: 5A

 

The last team up in the series, also one of the youngest, if not the youngest in the series. Thunder Ridge opened in 2018 as the 5th school in the Idaho Falls area, and thus far, the only one to not have a hockey team with their own name attached to it. They've also not managed a state championship in that time as well. But they're only 5 years old, gotta give them a shot. They do play on a stacked side of the state however, so the odds are against them there. 

 

 

 

Thunder Ridge Titans - Identity: 

• Colors -  Similar to Skyline, but a more muted blue and navy blue, with silver accents. 
• Primary Logo - When Thunder Ridge opened, they unveiled a nice Zeus mark that was meant to serve as the primary logo, but with no access to a vector version of the logo or a clean enough image to trace for use here, I had to settle for the TR monogram that came with Zeus.  
• Secondary Logo -  Fear not, but I did keep Zeus's lightning bolt, now with a double circle outline. 
• Wordmarks -  Titans wordmark in the same font and style as the TR lockup. 
• Jersey Fonts - The Lightning's old font worked well for a number style. 

 

Thunder Ridge Titans - Uniforms: 

•  Home - Away:    
  • Jerseys /Socks - Thunder Ridge's football team debuted wearing UCLA style uniforms, in their own colors, and I liked the triple stripe. So that became the main feature. The home and away uniforms are very classic in style, with smaller stripes around the ends of the sleeves. TR front and center. 
  • Equipment - Pants have a stripe running vertically and around the bottoms of the legs. Helmet is navy, gloves are light blue. 
• Alternate:
  • Jersey/Socks - Rather than a simple recolor of the home and aways, I opted for something much different and more off the wall. Borrowing the design from my Thunder redesign in the NBA series, a much less classic style uniform with a silver lightning bolt, followed by a line gradient of the lighter blue. 
  • Equipment - No changes. 

That's all for the teams! Now to the last state tournament: 

 

 

The High Country Conference seemed pretty well balanced before the first round pucks dropped: 

 

First Round:

• Madison rides a strong 2nd period, doubling up Hillcrest and adding 2 more in the 3rd to move on to the quarterfinals. 
• A much closer game than fictional talking heads in the state would have guessed, but Century sneaks past Blackfoot in a tight game. 
• Rigby takes down Thunder Ridge after a 4 goal 3rd period turns a 3-2 game into a 7-2 game. 
• The lone upset in the first set of games, Highland falls to Bonneville after a natural hat trick in the 2nd blows the game wide open. 

Quarterfinals: 

• Shelley entered the game as the top team in the conference, but undisciplined play in the 2nd period helps Madison continue their run with a 3-1 win. 
• A crosstown rivalry is always heightened when there's playoff implications, and in this Pocatello showdown, it's the Thunder outlasting Century after a late 3rd period flurry of goals. 
• Idaho Falls and Rigby meet for a well matched game, but Idaho Falls' early goals were too much for Rigby to overcome. 
• Skyline gets a real test and almost went home early, after trailing for most of the game to Bonneville, but 2 goals back to back in the 3rd was enough to get Skyline through. 

Semifinals:

• Madison's run doesn't end in champagne (or sparkling juice for the high school kids), as Pocatello puts up 3 early and never looks back. 
• While the Emotion Bowl ends with one student section painting the goal posts, hockey doesn't get that luxury but if they did, it would be Idaho Falls painting the posts orange, with a 4-2 win to face Pocatello in the championship.

Championship:

• It was an evenly matched game, very defensive with neither team being able to muster more than 20 shots apiece. In this story, it's Idaho Falls earning their trip to Boise, with the game-winning goal coming half way through the first overtime period. 

 

The final color breakdown:

• We're seeing red, as 5 teams have red in some capacity. 
• Shelley sees a two-fer: brown making its second appearance, and white being kicked to the curb. 
• A lot less blue than conferences past: just three schools using it in a capacity. 
• Purple and Green get some use. 

Well that's all for the teams/conferences. Just have the big dance and that's the wrap!

 

 

[colinturner95]

Last little bit of business for me to attend to, the whole reason these kids play: to win a championship. I originally wanted to go with a tournament just like Minnesota's, 8 teams down the middle, win and go to the right, lose and go to the left. But I ended up wanting to keep it a little similar to how Idaho's janky tournament is run now. 

 

8 teams still make it, but are split into two groups, play 3 games a piece, top two from each group play in the semifinals, 3rd in the group play the consolation game, 4th, well, better luck next year. 

 

 

Group A: 

• Group A was the less fun of the group, with BK clinching a spot in the semifinals with two early wins over Mountain Home and Moscow, but not home free, with a huge matchup with Idaho Falls still looming. 
• Idaho Falls, still lurking behind state #1 BK, also dispatching Mountain Home and Moscow, but in the crucial third game for IF and BK, it was a slugfest that BK managed the single goal and top seed in the semifinals. 
• Mountain Home was two goals away from stealing first place and a semifinals spot, but the puck bounced the wrong way twice, relegating Mountain Home to play for a consolation trophy
• Moscow, well, Moscow managed to get goals in all their games, but their opponents managed to score more in all their games too. Moscow gets sent home early to the Palouse. 

Group B:

• A much more exciting group play than Group A, with all teams each sharing a win and loss through their 2nd games. Burley, the 2nd seed in Group B to start, managed a semifinals spot with an early win over Pocatello, but dropped a shocker to Lewiston, but salvaged their weekend beating top seed in the group, Nampa to lock up a semis spot. 
• Pocatello loses to Burley in the first game, but bounces back with a huge win over Nampa and in a pivotal game at the end of Group play, knocks off Lewiston in OT to join Burley as team #2 in the semifinals. 
• Lewiston was a bounce the other way close to the semifinals, but Pocatello took that game from them. But Lewiston was able to upset Burley early but was set back in their first game by Nampa, which sends them to the consolation game against Mountain Home.
• Nampa, a favorite on paper, got a win in their first game but couldn't manage anything else after that. A close loss against Pocatello made things precarious and it was Burley that would put the nail in their coffin and send them home west on I84. 

 

Consolation Game:

• The Consolation Game turned out to be a good back and forth battle, with neither team taking a hold on the game and trading goals back and forth. In the end, Lewiston was able to get one more and took home the consolation trophy with a 5-4 victory. 

Semi Finals

• It's hard to call the top team in the regular season "cardiac kids", but the regular season doesn't matter when we get to the post season. Pocatello gives the wire to wire #1 team all they can handle, but BK is able to survive, needing a late regulation goal and the OT winner, less than 5 minutes into the extra frame.
• Idaho Falls and Burley squared off in a East-Central battle, but Burley was no match for IF. Down 3 early, they were able to make a decent comeback attempt, but an insurance marker early in the 3rd secured a group play rematch for Idaho Falls and BK.

 Third Place:

• Not the game they wanted to play in but a chance to finish the season off strong. Another eastern team for Burley to face and this one went about the same way as the first game. Pocatello jumped out to a 5-0 lead and appeared ready to coast, but Burley again made a run at a comeback but still fell way short, and Pocatello was able to take home 3rd. 

State Championship:

• The big game, ironically, between two teams that did have successful runs in high school hockey in Idaho. BK and Idaho Falls turned in one of the best games of the season. Both teams striking in the first period. A rather mundane 2nd period leads into an exciting 3rd period. Bk scores halfway through the period and seemed prepared to add one more on the powerplay, but in a turn of events that hits a little too close to home and my real life state championship game, a late regulation goal equalizes the game for Idaho Falls and sends it to overtime. The first half of overtime is back and forth, but Idaho Falls gets called for a penalty that would end the game 11 seconds later, on a tip drill goal that clinches the state tournament and championship for Bishop Kelly!

Well, that's all I got for this series. I know it wasn't the most exciting for everyone, but it was fun for me to see one of my passion projects come to life, and getting a chance to imagine a better hockey experience for high school kids in Idaho. Thanks for following along if you did or just taking a peek at this project and we'll see you on the next one!