Dynasties by Alison Smith

TIMES-NEWS

THE BIG STORY

SUNDAY, JULY 2, 2017 |

magicvalley.com

| SECTION E

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS

Dietrich head coach Acey Shaw calls the girls basketball team to attention for a quick chat during practice May 30 at Dietrich High School. The Blue Devils will look to preserve their girls basketball dynasty next winter.

THE

JENGA GAME

Five pillars of Idaho’s high school sports dynasties ALEX VALENTINE AND VICTOR FLORES

Avalentine@magicvalley.com Vflores@magicvalley.com

IETRICH — Fifteen girls basketball players gather in the Dietrich High School gymnasium in late May, a week after the end of Dietrich’s school year. It’s time to get to work. Some players wear light blue practice jerseys adorned with the school name, but the dress code is lax. One player wears a Dietrich volleyball shirt. Another, a breast cancer awareness shirt. It’s not a real high school practice, exactly. It’s a summer practice to help players hone their skills and learn new ones during the offseason. Longtime assistant coach John Howard offers positive reinforcement when Alexi Hagen fails to use proper form on a left-handed layup. “First practice of the spring. That’s great! We’re working out the kinks. It’s been a while.” Head coach Acey Shaw sits at midcourt in

a motorized wheelchair, a result of the virus he contracted in 2011. Moving and speaking are difficult, but when Shaw stops a fullcourt drill to provide instruction, the gym falls silent in milliseconds — no small feat for a group of high schoolers. All eyes in the gymnasium are fixed on Shaw as he explains why the drill is not moving along the way he would like. “Get wider,” he says, pointing to the sideline. It may be just the first practice of summer, and the 2018 1A Division II state tournament may be eight months away, but this group has a standard to uphold. Over the past 20 years, girls basketball coaches, players and the community of Dietrich have built and maintained a delicate structure that can only be described as a high school sports dynasty. Dietrich won four straight state championships from 2011 to 2014 and reached the state tournament in 18 of the past 22 seasons. How does a high school with an enrollment of 58, in a town of about 330 people, come to

dominate its small-school competition for more than two decades? Building a dynasty in college athletics is fairly simple: A coach must recruit elite athletes, then get them to buy into a team-first philosophy. In professional sports, money and success in the amateur draft sit at the root of every dynasty. In high school sports, however, building a dynasty is much more complicated. It’s multifaceted and multilayered and requires contributions from people both inside and outside the program. Five essential elements typically comprise a high school sports dynasty: culture, continuity, resources, feeder programs and a heavy dose of competition. Developing all five nearly ensures a program can compete at the state level. If one of the Jenga pieces falters, however, the dynasty can topple, often more quickly than it was built. Please see DYNASTIES, Page E3

High school sports dynasties During more than 60 years of south-central Idaho high school sports, these programs have stood out with a stretch of dominance over statewide competition. 8: 1996-present: Dietrich girls basketball (5 state championships) 9: 1997-2007: Raft River track and field (12 state championships*) 10: 2001-present: Community School tennis (8 state championships**) 11: 2009-2013: Gooding boys soccer (3 state championships) 12: 2010-present: Twin Falls baseball (3 state championships) 13: 2012-present: Lighthouse Christian volleyball (4 state championships)

1: 1956-present: Twin Falls golf (32 state championships*) 2: 1969-1990: Jerome cross country (23 state championships*) 3: 1970-1987: Twin Falls track and field (15 state championships*) 4: 1973-2002: Jerome track and field (28 state championships*) 5: 1979-1992: Gooding volleyball (5 state championships) 6: 1982-1988: Wood River boys tennis (3 state championships) 7: 1994-2010: Carey football (5 state championships)

5 6

7 8

1990 2000 1956 1970 1980 1960 * Track and field, golf and cross country totals are for boys' and girls' championships combined. ** Five of Community School's championships were awarded to boys and girls combined, then three to just boys.

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11 12

13 2010

2017

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E2 | Sunday, July 2, 2017

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Jerome High running dynasty

TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

In May 2002, Jerome’s Melissa McLimore wins the girls’ 200-meter dash at the 4A District 4-5-6 finals at Jerome. She won four gold medals at the two-day meet and helped lead Jerome girls track and field to its second straight 4A state championship one week later.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

In October 2012, Gooding’s Federico Mendez scores a goal against Weiser in the first round of the 3A soccer state tournament at Sunway Soccer Complex in Twin Falls. The Senators won the 2012 state championship, then repeated as champions the following year.

Gooding High boys soccer dynasty ‌Genesis: As Roger Johnson puts it, when he took over the Gooding High School boys soccer program in the mid-1990s, “we lost all of the time.” The program was initially part of a co-op with Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind, before he spun off Gooding into its own team. Still, wins did not come easily. “Other teams brought every player they had when they came to Gooding. Everyone would get a chance to play against us,” Johnson said. The program’s collective skill level reached a point where it could compete with top 3A programs statewide in 2007. By the time Johnson retired in 2015, he had built a powerhouse that won three state championships in a span of five years. Johnson receives plenty of credit in the community, but he says he couldn’t have done it without the support of parents in Gooding’s feeder programs, particularly the support of Latino parents. According to the American Community Survey five-year estimates for 2011-16, 32.6 percent of Gooding’s 3,495 residents are Latino. The only rival in the Senators’ conference with a comparable population and a higher percentage is Wendell, with 36.3 percent of its 2,734 residents. In short, Gooding has a Latino community dedicated to soccer.

“My first year, we had 26 kids on our boys team. We get a lot of great athletes that come out for soccer,” said Trudy Weaver, who was athletic director at Gooding High for three years until June 2017. “We have a strong turnout in our Hispanic population. Culturally, it’s as popular to them as football is in the U.S. The fans travel well, and we have great community support. Other athletic directors comment on how great the gate is when Gooding comes to play.” Credentials: Gooding made five straight 3A state tournament appearances from 2009 to 2013 and won state championships in 2009, 2012 and 2013. Current standing: The Senators haven’t qualified for the state tournament since 2013 and struggled to a 2-10-2 record last fall. They were outscored 33-2 in seven games against Community School, Wendell and Bliss, the top three teams in the conference last year. Despite the recent slip, Johnson said he’s confident in current head coach Jake Sporin and the talent coming through the Gooding system. “There are a lot of talented players coming up,” Johnson said. “It takes some time for new coaches to adapt and players to adapt to the coach, but there is plenty of talent coming up.” —Alex Valentine

‌Genesis: To find the driving force behind Jerome High School’s running dynasties, look no further than the school’s track. A few years ago, Jerome named its track after Tim Dunne. The retired Dunne, 70, now lives north of Boise in Cambridge, but his name reverberates across Jerome for a simple reason: He built a running empire. Dunne coached all 13 of Jerome’s boys cross country state championship teams, as well as 14 of its 17 all-time boys track state champions. “He was probably the finest high school track coach I’ve ever seen,” said Elmer Musgrave, who coached girls track at Jerome from 1989 to 2011. Musgrave and other Jerome coaches said Dunne’s ability to motivate and put his athletes in the best position to score, among many other factors, drove boys and girls to join the Jerome running teams. “Success breeds success,” Dunne said. Jerome was a large 3A school for most of its state title-winning runs, which gave it a larger pool of athletes to draw from than most of its competition. That pool produced some all-time great ath-

letes, including Dunne’s son Timothy, who qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. Credentials: Jerome boys track and field has won 17 state titles; girls track has won 11; boys cross country has won 13, all from 1969 to 1986; and girls cross country has won 12. Current standing: The girls track team is the only Jerome running program that has won a state title this century, and its last gold medal was earned in 2011. Some of Jerome’s running decline can be attributed to the ebbs and flows of high school athletics, but Jerome girls track coach Cory Musgrave has seen a drop in track participation at Jerome this decade, and cross country has experienced the same issues. The Tigers’ jump to 4A in the early 2000s pitted them against much tougher competition. Club sports, spring baseball and other commitments have also eliminated potential running stars. “There are some good kids that are out and running, there just aren’t enough of them,” Cory Musgrave said. “Capture them early. That’s what we’re trying to figure out how to do.” —Victor Flores

Community School tennis dynasty ‌Genesis: Matt Scribner, a local tennis professional, coached the varsity team at Community School until 2005 and helped build a culture in which multi-sport athletes pick up a tennis racket at a young age. When current head coach Phil Huss took over in 2005, he built on that dynastic foundation. In addition to a school culture that lends itself to tennis players, Wood River Valley also has a luxury that few other areas in Idaho have: a surplus of tennis resources. Within 30 minutes’ drive of Community School are five indoor courts in Hailey and two more at Zenergy Health Club in Ketchum. Within walking distance of the Cutthroats’ campus is a collection of 17 outdoor tennis courts. In the summer, Huss said, tennis clinics are “coming out of the ears” of the valley. “If you are interested and have the financial means, it’s a sport that you can play year-round here. A lot of kids start playing when they’re younger and can play as often as they would like,” Huss said. “We have a pretty good tennis court per capita.” Credentials: Community School tennis players were 3A state champions in 200102 and 2004-06 and — and after Idaho started handing out separate boys’ and girls’ team titles — were boys state champions in 2009, 2010 and 2012. The school competes in 3A, the smallest tennis classification, despite having an enrollment of about 150, making it a 1A DII school in most sports. Current standing: Community School has not won a team tennis state championship since 2012, primarily as a result of other dominant programs like Parma and Fruitland popping up around the state, but the Cutthroats did finish third at this year’s 3A state tournament. They still produce a healthy dose of individual state champions too: Both 3A singles champions from this year — senior Erin Smith in girls and

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

Lighthouse Christian’s Sabrina DeJong sets the ball during the 2015 season. The Lions finished as 1A DII state runner-up in 2015, the only season since 2012 that they haven’t won the state championship.

Lighthouse Christian volleyball dynasty

TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

In April 2006, Community School’s Travis Stone attempts a forehand smash in a match against Josiah Higley of Jerome. Stone and the Cutthroats won their third straight 3A state championship that spring, and their fifth in six years. sophomore Peter Morawitz in boys — were from Community, and the 2016 girls singles champion was also a Cutthroat. Statewide competition may be stiffening, but Community School still boasts superior facilities and a culture in which kids grow up wanting to play tennis for the school. This spring, between junior varsity and varsity, Huss had 37 players on the roster, meaning that about 25 percent of the school’s enrollment played tennis. —Alex Valentine

‌Genesis: The Lighthouse Christian School volleyball team won exactly one match in 2004 and threw a pizza party after the victory. The idea seems crazy now, but it made perfect sense at the time. Tobie Helman became the Lions’ head coach in 2004. In one of her first meetings with the team, she asked basic questions, such as what rotations they ran and what positions they played. They looked at her blankly. Helman’s players knew the bare minimum about volleyball. One pizza party and four state titles later, Lighthouse Christian has a volleyball dynasty. “It is light-years apart,” Helman said. When she took over, Helman immediately installed rotations and plays. She also focused on the middle school program so players would be prepared to contribute to the high school teams as soon as they became freshmen. By the time Lighthouse volleyball became sanctioned by the Idaho High School Activities Association, success was not a pipe dream. Wins begot excitement, which led to a stable of talented players such as Brooklyn Vander Stelt (who played volleyball at Arizona Christian University) and Jackie Van Vliet

(currently playing at College of Idaho). In her 13 years as head coach, Helman has developed a sterling reputation, as well. Lighthouse volleyball is long past throwing pizza parties for random regular-season wins. But the philosophy of 2004 applies today. “The reason we win is that we don’t focus on winning,” Helman said. “Our goal is not to win championships; our goal is to raise up girls who believe in themselves, who put their team before themselves.” Credentials: Lighthouse Christian volleyball made six straight 1A Division II state tournament appearances and captured six straight 1A DII state tournament trophies, including state titles in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Current standing: Helman knows that sustained success in high school sports, especially at the 1A DII level, depends on the athletes who come through the program. But she’s optimistic that Lighthouse volleyball will continue to contend for state titles, because of the things that made it successful in the first place. The culture of hard work, knowledge and love of the game will be hard to undo. —Victor Flores

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Sunday, July 2, 2017 | E3

Twin Falls High golf dynasty ‌Genesis: A confluence of culture, coaching and conditions shaped a decades-long era of dominance for the Twin Falls High School boys and girls golf programs, and it’s still ongoing. Local golf fixtures such as Bruins coach Steve Meyerhoeffer credit the late Clyde Thomsen with instilling an avid golf culture in Twin Falls. Thomsen was the head professional at Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course — now Twin Falls Golf Club — during the 1960s and ‘70s, and he taught several players who went on to become state champions for the Bruins. But Meyerhoeffer and others, like Blue Lakes Country Club pro Mike Hamblin, credit the Municipal course for the high school’s golfing prowess more than any single pro who worked there. “Long before I was ever there, or my dad, or Clyde Thomsen, you went to Muni,” said Hamblin, who was the PGA pro at Muni for three decades. “That’s where all the kids grew up playing. It’s a great course to learn how to play golf.” The Muni course, built in 1931, rewards short game and other nuances of the game that separate good golfers from the pack, according to Hamblin.

The course stimulated a community of golfers, who led to an abundance of good coaches and junior golf programs. Those factors formed generations of championship-caliber golfers at Twin Falls High. Magic Valley’s temperate climate — compared with northern and mountainous regions of the state — and the high school’s longtime monopoly of teenage golfers in Twin Falls also contributed to the Bruins’ dominance. Credentials: Boys have won 20 state titles in program history; girls have won 12. Boys won six straight 4A state titles from 2011 to 2016. Girls won eight state titles from 2000 to 2009. The boys have won at least two state titles in every decade since the 1950s. Current standing: The Bruins didn’t win a team or individual gold medal on the boys or girls side at May’s state tournament, but there’s no reason to believe the dynasties will end anytime soon. Of Twin Falls’ 10 total golfers at state this year, only senior Zach Malina will not return next season, and the Bruins’ pipeline of talented young golfers is far from dry. —Victor Flores

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Dietrich’s Cassie Berthelson drives on Caylee Dilworth during a summer basketball practice at Dietrich High School on May 30. The Blue Devils will look to preserve their high school girls basketball sports dynasty next winter.

Dietrich High girls basketball dynasty Genesis: The Dietrich High School girls basketball program features many of the same aspects found in successful small programs across the state, including solid feeder programs and multi-generational families of gifted athletes. The thing that sets the Blue Devils apart, however, is continuity. Head coach Acey Shaw took over the position in 2005 and was assistant coach under his uncle, Gene Shaw, for five years, in two separate stints, before that. The continuity at Dietrich extends beyond the girls basketball program. Athletic director Traci Perron took over as head volleyball coach in 2005 and still holds the position today. Boys basketball coach Wayne Dill took over his program in 2001. Both of those sports have achieved success, including back-to-back state championship appearances for Dill the past two years and a state runner-up trophy for Perron in 2014. “When you have that continuity, kids know what to expect,” Perron said. “You see that at a lot of other schools, where every few years, a new coach comes in and

has to put in a new system. For us, older siblings tell younger siblings what to expect, and players know what it’s like to play for the program.” Credentials: Dietrich girls basketball made nine consecutive state tournament appearances from 2008 to 2016, and 18 in 21 seasons from 1996 to 2016. The program won four straight 1A DII state championships from 2011 to 2014, and was runner-up in 2015 and 2016 to champion Richfield. Current standing: It’s unlikely that the Dietrich girls basketball dynasty is over. The Blue Devils missed the state tournament for the first time since 2007 last winter, but their roster featured just two seniors, and their leading scorer, Matigan Bingham, was a sophomore. Bingham was also injured for much of the conference tournament. Shaw says his players attended the state tournament as fans last winter. “The players will be as good as how hard they work,” Shaw said. “I think going to that state tournament will remind them how hard it is to get there.” —Alex Valentine

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Twin Falls High School’s Daniel Gaspar chips his ball June 6 at Twin Falls Golf Club. This spring, the Bruins finished third at the 4A golf state tournament after winning the past six years.

have current ones giving children something to aspire to. “Every group of kids need heroes to look up to,” Van Orden said. “We just need a couple tremendous runners to step up and be those heroes.”

Dynasties From E1

The culture‌‌

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In the Wood River Valley, you play tennis in the spring. That is doubly true if you are a student of Community School. The Cutthroats play soccer in the fall, then compete in the snow during long Idaho winters. Come spring, it’s time to grab the tennis rackets. “Our kids come from tennis families,” said Community School head tennis coach Phil Huss. “It’s an athletic valley in the Wood River Valley. Most of the parents played tennis at some point. They know the history. They see the banners in the gym, and they know we’re always in the hunt.” Huss credits longtime boys soccer head coach Richard Whitelaw with building the school’s first dynasty. But with the creation of a 3A tennis classification in 2001 about 15 years after nearby Wood River High School’s mid1980s dominance in Class B, the Cutthroats had another sport for which they were known around the state. They still had other spring sports — golf and track and field — pulling some strong athletes away from the tennis courts, but the majority of Community School athletes grow up with a tennis racket in hand. By the time Huss took over the school’s tennis program in 2006, it had won four of the first five 3A state championships under former head coach Mark Scribner. This spring, Huss had 37 tennis players on his roster, an impressive feat for a school of about 150 students. “Mark Scribner really built the identity of a Community School tennis player. I inherit a lot of good athletes, so I try to maximize that. We work a lot on game plans and

The continuity‌‌

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Dietrich head coach Acey Shaw talks with Lily Hoskisson during girls basketball practice May 30 at Dietrich High School. maximizing what they can do,” Huss said. That type of culture is invaluable to building and maintaining a high school sports dynasty. At Community School, we play tennis. That same kind of identity flourishes in Dietrich. “At Dietrich, we play basketball,” Traci Perron, the Blue Devils’ athletic director, said in May. For Dietrich students, fall, spring and summer feature a mix of athletics and helping out on family farms. But in winter, with little farm work to do, it’s basketball or bust. Local kids grow up attending Dietrich High basketball games and aspiring to play under the big lights. On game nights, basketball is the talk of the town. The next morning, community members

gather at Eagle’s Nest Cafe and Dietrich Mercantile to dissect the game. “Everyone here understands basketball,” Perron said. “They know what they’re talking about, and they love it.” Jerome High School built an avid running culture from the 1970s to the 1990s, a period in which the cross country and track programs combined to win 50 state titles. Since the turn of the century, that culture has run dry. The girls track team is the only Jerome running program to win a state title, and its most recent championship was in 2011. No single factor can explain the drop-off, and those who bridged the gap between both eras struggle to explain it. The solution, however, is clear.

“We have to create a culture that kids will buy into,” said Mark Van Orden, Jerome’s current cross country and boys track coach. The golden days of Jerome running were headlined by legendary coaches such as Tim Dunne and John Andrew, and they included star athletes such as Dunne’s son, Timothy, who ran track at the University of Missouri and qualified for the 2004 Olympic Trials. Those big names attracted younger athletes to the program. Some of Jerome’s issues were unavoidable. Not every generation produces historic athletes, nor is every coach willing or able to stay around for decades. Besides, a dynasty can form without legends, and it can last after they’re gone. Building a culture isn’t easy. Van Orden knows this much: To attract future stars, it helps to

Though Buhl stole his attention for 16 years, Twin Falls golf is in Steve Meyerhoeffer’s blood. Meyerhoeffer moved back to Twin Falls, where he’d been a high school golf star, after graduating from Boise State University in 1986. He became an assistant golf professional at Canyon Springs Golf Course in 1987 and transitioned to Buhl’s Clear Lakes Country Club in 1996. In 2011, Meyerhoeffer was ready for a change. His son, Kade, was beginning his freshman year at Twin Falls, and he wanted to be more than a role player in Kade’s golf career. Meyerhoeffer became the head pro at Twin Falls Golf Club, and he was named the head boys golf coach at Twin Falls High School a year later. “I had seen it, I had lived it, and I wanted to be a part of it,” Meyerhoeffer said. Meyerhoeffer had seen and lived years of dominance. He played for a Twin Falls team that won a state title in 1981, and he wanted to recapture that glory. Did he ever. The Bruin boys won six straight 4A state titles from 2011 to 2016. Kade played a major role during that run, as did his brother Preston and cousin Drew. That type of family through line is common in high school sports, especially with decades-long Please see DYNASTIES, Page E4

More online: In a new

Magicvalley.com gallery today, see more action shots from six of south-central Idaho’s high school sports dynasties.

BIG STORY

E4 | Sunday, July 2, 2017

Dynasties From E3

dynasties. Whether it’s a family legacy or a long-tenured coaching staff, continuity is almost a prerequisite for prolonged athletic success. The dynasty landscape across Idaho is populated by legendary coaches. The Dietrich girls basketball team, for example, has been coached by a Shaw for the past 26 years. Before Acey, who led Dietrich to four straight 1A Division II state titles earlier this decade, the Blue Devils were led by his uncle, Gene, who coached them to their first state title in 1999. Acey was an assistant under Gene for five years. At Gooding, Roger Johnson was the head boys soccer coach for about 20 years. Huss has led the Community School tennis team for 13 years. Lighthouse Christian volleyball coach Tobie Helman has been at the helm for the same amount of time, taking over about three years after the program began. Perhaps no local programs owed more to a coach or coaching staff than Jerome track and cross country. From the 1970s to 1990s, the Tigers were the best of 3A running, and their four programs went through very few head coaching changes. The girls cross country program has won 12 state titles, and two head coaches — Leon Kyle and John “Skip” Andrew — were responsible for five each. Andrew also coached Jerome to its first six of 11 girls state track titles. The Jerome girls programs look like revolving doors compared with their male counterparts. Karl Kleinkopf led the Tigers to their first three boys track state titles; Tim Dunne coached them to their next 14. In boys cross country, Dunne was the head coach for all 11 state titles. “I was one to stay in one place,” Dunne said. “I was an outdoorsman, I liked fishing and hunting, so the Magic Valley worked well that way.” He wasn’t the only one to stay in Jerome during the Tigers’ three-decade reign of running dominance. “I tried to keep my assistants around. The same coach for throwers, the same coach for field events, high jump, triple jump, those sort of things,” Dunne said. “The kids and the coaches knew what we wanted to accomplish.” The nature of continuity has a chicken-and-egg conundrum, at least when it comes to coaches like Dunne. Coaches who worked with Dunne and athletes who played for him raved about his technical coaching skills, his ability to motivate and his focus on having fun. Some of those traits were forged over time, but many — if not all — were innate. A coach like Dunne doesn’t accumulate longevity if he’s disliked or unwilling to stay around for years. Does a program need a steady regime to build a dynasty, or does an excellent coach need to show up in order for a dynasty to hatch? Time might not create a good coach, but it can certainly improve him or her. At the very least, it can bolster the coach’s reputation, increasing the odds that great athletes will join the team. “We had a school where track was valuable,” said Elmer Musgrave, who coached girls track at Jerome from 1989 to 2011 and won three state titles. “Track was a big deal.” Dunne inherited a boys track program that already had won three state championships. Helman built her program more or less from scratch, but the same aura grew around her over time. Thirteen years after she inherited a program that hardly knew the basics of volleyball, Lighthouse Christian volleyball has four state titles, all since 2012. “She did a good job of working backwards. While she still was coaching us, she was focused on the girls in elementary school and junior high,” said Ambur Miller, who played volleyball at Lighthouse and graduated in 2007. “The young girls who want to play in elementary school get to play for coach Helman.” Every coach hopes to build that type of excitement, where young athletes dream of playing for the school. High school teams aren’t allowed to recruit, and most in Idaho don’t have open enrollment, so they work with the athletes they’re given. Luck will always play a role, but coaches can neutralize it by building a deep program and developing the athletes. The ways to achieve those goals are often pretty simple. “You get a bunch of good coaches that stay for a long time,” Musgrave said. “That’s how dynasties become.”

Times-News

The feeder programs‌‌

About 40 miles west of Boise, an unlikely dynasty sprouted from a small farming community that’s home to barely 2,000 people. The Parma Panthers have shared statewide tennis dominance with Community School since the creation of the 3A classification, winning 12 state championships between boys and girls. Parma, under the guidance of tennis coach and physical education teacher Alan Smyth, established a middle school tennis program in the early 1970s, a full 30 years before surrounding programs like Weiser and Fruitland developed middle school programs. In the meantime, the Panthers played bigger schools like Nampa and Meridian, and schools in Vale and Ontario, Ore. Tennis can start before middle school in Parma, too. Assistant varsity coach Larry Nielsen, who has been with the program for 15 years, coaches group sessions for elementary schoolers and says turnout has been steady for several years now. “It was a few people who worked really hard early on to get the program going,” Nielsen said. “Most 3A schools like us don’t really have JV programs, so we try to get as many kids varsity experience as we can. It’s also different in tennis, because you can get a kid who is ready for varsity as a freshman.” The seeds of a high school dynasty are planted long before players reach high school. In an athletic environment where sports are quickly becoming a year-round endeavor, every year that a child puts off playing competitively is another year of falling behind the pack. “You can’t take a kid picking up a racket for the first time in the ninth grade and turn him into a competitive state-level player,” Huss said. Teaching kids the fundamentals of a particular game is particularly important in specialized sports like tennis and basketball, where the required motor skills are especially complex. By the time that athlete hits the high school level, the cream has already risen to the top. In Gooding, young players can join recreation soccer leagues at 5 years old, or even younger if the parent is willing to lend a hand with coaching. Recreation director Smokey Legaretta moved Gooding’s rec soccer to the spring to avoid conflicts with football and volleyball, and he added an indoor soccer program in one of his first years as director. When he took over the position about six years ago, it changed from part-time to fulltime. “We’ll have 50 or 60 kids sign up for soccer, and all of the parents are willing to help and coach and drive their kids all over,” Legaretta said. “I can’t say enough about our parents. All of our coaches are volunteers, and I have parents who will coach a sport every season.”

The resources‌‌

The baseball programs at Minico and Bishop Kelly high schools share a few similarities. They both play in the 4A classification. They have reached the state tournament a handful of times this decade. Their mascots would likely provide an entertaining duel (Spartans versus Knights). Minico unveiled a new hitting facility June 5, and Bishop Kelly plans to break ground on its own hitting facility soon. Most similarities end there. Minico raised $95,000 for its facility, and head coach Jared Price was pleasantly surprised to see that much. The money Bishop Kelly raised for its facility? Somewhere between $250,000 and $275,000, according to Knights athletic director Tom Shanahan. Teams at Bishop Kelly, a private Catholic school in Boise, have won around 100 state titles in the school’s history. Money hasn’t been the only driver of Bishop Kelly’s success, and many other schools boast similar resumes without huge cash flows. But the Knights’ new hitting facility highlights a factor that helps build dynasties: Wins are often sparked by resources. Resources can be as material as money or as abstract as environment. In the case of golf, both are important, as Bishop Kelly can attest. The Knights have won 23 state golf titles for myriad reasons, but wealth and temperate weather — compared with the rest of the state, at least — are near the top of the list. Twin Falls High isn’t private, but similar factors have led to 32 state golf titles in program history. Twin Falls’ climate allows golfers to play most of the year. Jeff Thomsen, who played for Twin Falls in the 1960s, believes Magic Valley and Treasure Valley

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Twin Falls High School’s Drew Meyerhoeffer makes his putt June 6 at Twin Falls Golf Club. This spring, the Bruins finished third at the 4A golf state tournament after winning the past six years.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Championship trophies line Dietrich’s cabinets May 30. weather is a healthy mix of playable and tough. “If you need perfect weather to play golf, you’re not gonna play much golf,” he said. “You have to learn to play when the conditions are a little messy.” For a long time, Twin Falls benefited from another resource: exclusivity. Before 1995, when Lighthouse Christian was founded, Twin Falls was the only high school in the city that offered sanctioned sports. Lighthouse, a 1A Division II school, didn’t become accredited by the Idaho High School Activities Association until 2007. Before Canyon Ridge was founded in 2009, the Bruins were the only 5A school in Magic Valley. Since then, both schools have participated in 4A. Public schools across the state are denied certain students — and potentially great athletes — because of district boundaries. Boise’s West Ada School District, for example, has 12 high schools and alternative schools, and five compete in the 5A sports classification. For decades, Twin Falls was the only show in town. “It’s like coming to Twin to shop,” former Twin Falls athletic director Mike Federico said. “People look at it as the center of the valley.” Many of the resources that help form high school sports dynasties work in concert. Moderate weather allows golfers to play eight to nine months of the year, so people funnel money into courses and youth programs. Children grow up in a golf-friendly atmosphere and get hooked. After years of lessons and thousands of swings, they’re ready to play for their high school team. Twin Falls’ high school options are limited, so the city’s two largest schools are rich with golfers; Canyon Ridge won its first state golf title this spring. Basketball hotbeds can’t develop without ample courts on which to play. Elite runners emerge in bearable climates with dozens of paths or tracks. A hitting facility that costs a quarter of

a million dollars certainly won’t deter prospective athletes from considering baseball. Over time, resources pay dividends. “The success and the leadership draw people’s interest,” Shanahan said. “Our programs sell themselves.”

The competition‌‌

As iron sharpens iron, talent sharpens talent. The Red Sox needed the Yankees in order to be the Red Sox. The Celtics needed the Lakers. And Dietrich needs Carey — and Richfield, and Lighthouse Christian. The first four pillars of a sports dynasty are sometimes totally useless without a sufficient level of competition to challenge the dynasty. First, a budding dynasty needs to beat other good teams to affirm its place atop the domain. Then, an established dynasty needs challengers to avoid becoming complacent or suffering from collective atrophy in closegame situations. “Our big rival changes, depending on what schools have from year to year,” Perron said. “It was Richfield for a long time. Now Carey has had a good run, so it’s probably them. It depends who we have close games against.” For Community School tennis, the only other teams in its 3A conference, Gooding and Sugar-Salem, provide steady challenges, and the Cutthroats hope to revamp an old rivalry with Twin Falls soon. The same is true for Parma; a budding rivalry with nearby Fruitland, which won both the boys’ and girls’ team 3A tennis state championships this spring, raises the bar for the Panthers. “We see a lot of teams try to mimic what we’ve been doing for a long time,” Nielsen said. “It’s good. It makes us better.”

A delicate structure‌‌

As practice comes to a close at Dietrich, several players take turns shooting free throws with their backs to the basket after a water break. No player makes one,

but a few get close enough to draw roars from the rest of the team. Despite the laid-back atmosphere — varied outfits, inevitable rust and a trick shot display between drills — there is an underlying urgency to the practice. For the first time since 2008, Dietrich girls basketball missed the 1A state tournament last winter and finished with a losing record on the season at 11-13. “I think they sort of took it for granted last year. We had made it a bunch of years in a row, so I’m not sure they realized how hard they had to work to get there,” Acey Shaw said. “One thing I’ve learned is there’s no magic wand that I can wave. It’s about how hard they work.” As the fourth seed in the conference tournament, the Blue Devils sent top-seeded Castleford to the losers’ bracket but fell to Carey in the championship, then lost to Castleford in the second-place game. Instead of wallowing in the loss, most Dietrich players headed for Nampa to watch the tournament as spectators. That reminder of what it takes to reach the pinnacle of high school sports, Shaw hopes, will ignite his team this offseason. The pillars of Dietrich’s dynasty appear intact. The coach and assistants are still the same. The feeder program is still strong, and the town’s basketball culture is alive and well. Old-timers still gather at Eagles Nest and Dietrich Mercantile to chat about basketball. “The school binds the community here. It’s the center of the whole community,” Perron said. “If you have strong adults and members of the community, they do everything they can to make sure the athletic programs are successful.” Still, several small schools in the area appear ready to challenge the Blue Devils’ reign, including Carey and Lighthouse Christian. If one pillar falters, the delicate game of Jenga that represents a high school sports dynasty could crash down. And nobody in Dietrich wants another 11-13 season.

During his time playing and covering sports, Alex Valentine has always been intrigued by the process of building and maintaining high school sports dynasties. After finishing this story, he realized the process is even more complicated and delicate than he thought.

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