Coach Amos reigns over prognosticating all-stars

There’s still a game to be played — a pretty big one, we’ve heard — but the 2015-16 Coeur d’Alene Press All-Star Pigskin Prognosticators winners have already been determined.

That’s because the four players in contention for first, second and third place all picked Carolina to win the Super Bowl.

This has been a season-long battle between 12 good-hearted, thick-skinned, highly visible Kootenai County residents who have been playing for local charities. Every week since the NFL season began last September, these pigskin pickers have predicted who would win each game, and their selections have been published in The Press sports section every Thursday. Friendly abuse has faithfully followed.

Jon Ness, CEO of Kootenai Health, said the bantering has been persistent all season.

“Someone will walk up to me in the hallway and say, ‘Mr. Ness, you’re doing a good job but I can’t believe you picked the Seahawks to lose!’” he said.

His counterpart at Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls, Rick Rasmussen, hasn’t just been playing against the field; he’s specifically targeted Ness. Rasmussen, a math minor in college, has actually done calculations to figure out which teams he thought Ness would take so Rasmussen could determine if the opponents would be worthy risks.

“That’s what the whole thing’s been about for me,” Rasmussen said of the competition with Ness. “Every Thursday that’s the first thing I look at in the paper. I think it’s awesome.”

What’s really awesome is that Ness and Rasmussen have both ended up in the winners’ circle, and Coeur d’Alene High football coach Shawn Amos is the champion.

Amos leads the dueling CEOs by one game, so they won’t be able to overcome that margin having all picked Carolina to win. Amos is 170-96 for the season. His superior prognosticating wins four half-page ads in The Press for his designated charity, the Jeff Hinz Cancer Fund.

Ness and Rasmussen tie for second. They’ve both earned two half-page ads for their charities, Court Appointed Special Advocates and United Way of Kootenai County, respectively.

And Kelly Nosworthy of Nosworthy’s Hall of Fame restaurant and bar will finish third, one game behind Ness and Rasmussen. Nosworthy’s prognosticating prowess means a half-page ad in The Press for Matt’s Place Foundation.

For the rest of the pigskin pickers, there’s still some pride on the line as the season wraps up. Check out their picks on page B5 today.