Prep football preview: Skyline redemption tour underway
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth story in a series featuring key storylines for the upcoming high school football season.
IDAHO FALLS — Redemption can be a great motivator.
It’s not a word taken lightly around the Skyline football program, which has been a 4A powerhouse with five state titles in the past eight seasons.
But having its three-year title run snapped last year by conference foe Hillcrest in the state semifinals does add a lingering sense of desire entering the new season.
“Last year, we couldn’t finish it off,” Skyline quarterback CarMyne Garcia said. “This year, we definitely want to make it all the way to prove we can do it and we want to prove it to everyone else.”
Last year’s team was relatively young, so coach Scott Berger said that extra year of experience should benefit the 2024 squad.
The Grizzlies have already suffered a couple of setbacks as leading rusher Amani Morel transferred to Rigby and All-State lineman Atticus Fuhriman is out with a knee injury. Even so, Skyline returns some key pieces in defensive lineman Kaeson Smith and linebackers Bennett Southwick and Corbin Lancaster. Offensively, wide receiver Zyan Crockett is back after an all-conference season.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I was thinking about me right now,” Southwick said of entering his senior season.
Garcia’s development as a senior quarterback will be a storyline to watch.
“This year, I think the game slowed down a lot,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot more technical stuff with my throwing motion and worry less about that in the game and now worry about reads and coverages and pre-snap reads.”
Skyline finished 8-4 last season and was one Hail Mary play away from winning conference as Hillcrest scored a touchdown on the game’s final play of the regular-season matchup. The Grizzlies met Hillcrest again in the state semifinals with the Knights again prevailing 35-31.
“It’s a new year but that was crushing,” Berger said of last year’s semifinal loss. “After our quarterfinal game at Twin Falls and the way we were playing, I thought that if we could beat Hillcrest, we were going to be state champs again. I felt really good about our team at the time going into that semifinal.”
Offensive lineman Dylan Meek said that loss does add fuel for the new season, but the focus is on 2024.
“The past is the past,” he said. “You can’t change it, you just have to do better.”
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