THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: The love for football still burns for former Viking Noll

What originally started as a way to make friends has turned into a passion that still burns for Coeur d’Alene High product Max Noll.

Now 27, Noll is waiting for what’s next on the gridiron as the coronavirus pandemic still holds the sporting world at a standstill across the nation.

NOLL WAS set to begin his second year with the Idaho Horsemen, an Indoor Football League team based out of Nampa’s Ford Idaho Center, earlier this month. Due to the pandemic, that date has been pushed back to at least May 2 according to the team’s website.

“Things are changing every day,” Noll said. “There’s a lot of factors that are going into when we can get started again. We’ve got to make sure we’ll be able to continue either with or without the public once we get the go-ahead.”

American West Football Conference play is scheduled to begin on May 2 at the Idaho Center against Wenatchee Valley. League operations were suspended on March 12.

“We’d practiced for a month before we got shut down,” Noll said. “We were two weeks from our first league game when this all went down.”

Noll didn’t start playing football until the second grade.

“It’s always been a passion for me,” said Noll, a 6-foot-2, 325-pound offensive guard. “When I was in second grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and didn’t have a lot of friends. It was the first time I actually had fun with my peers. The game has just always been a love for me.”

Noll was also born with dysarthria, a speech impediment that weakens speech muscles and is caused by damage to the nerves and/or brain.

Still, that hasn’t stopped him from playing football.

“I’m the happiest when I’m in my shoulder pads and facemask,” Noll said. “That’s the best time for me. Working, blocking and doing all the fun stuff that football is about.”

NOLL WON a state 5A title as a senior at Coeur d’Alene in 2010. His younger brother, Brittan, was a member of the team in 2011 and 2013.

“Coeur d’Alene had a Noll on the team every year they won a championship, Max joked. “It was four years, three rings, two brothers and one legacy.”

Max and Brittan played on the Spokane Wolfpack for two years before Max moved on to the Horsemen. Brittan works at Parker Toyota in Coeur d’Alene.

“He’s got a wife and two kids,” Max said. “So he’s put down the shoulder pads.”

Max has since returned home due to the pandemic.

“The football thing was my day job before we got shut down,” Noll said. “When that happened, I came back up and started working at North 40 in the yard, and spend the day loading fencing. I’ll head back to Boise when we get the go-ahead from the coach.”

Before the pandemic shut down operations in the Indoor Football League, Noll had a workout with the Spokane Shock of the IFL, but was not offered a contract.

“I’ve been to a lot of games and it’s always been a goal of mine to play for the Shock someday,” Noll said. “It would be a dream come true and pretty cool to get called out for them. It’s something to put my mind to, and try to accomplish it.”

The Horsemen, last year in the inaugural season of the American West Football Conference, went 13-0, winning the league title with a 40-20 win over Reno at the Idaho Center in July of 2019.

Noll added that the building blocks were in place long before the team took the field for the first time.

“We had a workout during the summer in 2018,” Noll said. “We were doing two-a-days, and also had to deal with all the smoke from the wildfires and heat. And it was one of the most brutal workouts that I’d been through. But that core of guys that were on the team last year really bonded together and went out with something to prove. Going through that together, it made us all confident in each other. By the time we got to the games, the games were a walk in the park. By the fourth quarter of games, we were just better conditioned and in better shape.”

Max added he’ll keep playing as long as can.

“It’s my passion,” Max said. “I’m going to go until I can’t do it anymore.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.