THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Before they were pros, they played against North Idaho prep teams

Sometimes when you walk the sidelines at a high school football game, you are treated to a performance by a visiting player that will someday end up in the NFL.

Brett Rypien was the latest to do that, making his pro debut last Sunday with the Denver Broncos, and his first NFL start on Thursday.

But before that, he starred at Shadle Park High in Spokane, where one of his games at Lake City was as a senior in 2014.

More on that game later.

Watching Rypien play the other night got me to thinking about some other high school players from visiting teams that we got to see in recent years who eventually made it in the NFL.

Here's a few that came to mind ...

CODY PICKETT and the Caldwell Cougars came up to Lake City to face the Timberwolves in November 1998 in a state A-1 Division II football quarterfinal.

Lake City won 36-6, its first playoff win in school history.

Pickett, a quarterback who later played at Washington and with the San Francisco 49ers, completed 18 of 35 passes for 168 yards and one touchdown with one interception against Lake City. He also had a 60-yard completion off his back foot negated by penalty.

“We just tried to keep the pressure on him, to see if we could get him flustered,” Lake City linebacker Keith Vedder said. “(Justin) Nipp did a great job getting in and putting pressure on him. And you’ve got to hand it to the secondary; they stepped up.”

“They’re a good team, but they’re not that much better than us,” said Pickett, who started two games for the 49ers in 2005.

LEX HILLIARD of Flathead High of Kalispell went on to play at Montana, and then played four seasons in the NFL.

In August 2002, he rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries in a 44-21 victory at Lake City. The Timberwolves would go on to win the state title.

Hilliard went on to play at Montana and with three NFL teams — Miami, New England and the New York Jets — finishing with two rushing touchdowns and two receiving TDs.

BROCK OSWEILER never faced a team around here in football when he played at Flathead High in Kalispell.

But the one-time verbal commit to Gonzaga's basketball team did play three basketball games against Coeur d'Alene schools.

In December 2005 Osweiler, as a 6-8 freshman, scored 14 points to lead Flathead to a 57-46 win over visiting Lake City.

In December 2006, he scored 12 points in an 82-65 loss at Coeur d'Alene.

"It was a big challenge, but we pressured their guards and their size never really became an issue," Vikings assistant coach Mike McLean said after the game. "Our press just wore them down."

In December 2007, Osweiler totaled 25 points and 13 rebounds in 51-46 win at Lake City.

Osweiler played seven seasons in the NFL for three teams (Denver, Houston and Miami), started 30 games and passed for 7,418 yards, 37 touchdowns and 31 interceptions.

BISHOP SANKEY, a running back, played at Gonzaga Prep, then the University of Washington, then two seasons with the Tennessee Titans in the NFL.

In September 2008, as a sophomore at Prep, he scored on a 68-yard TD run and finished with 97 yards as the Bullpups beat visiting Lake City 21-13.

The following year, Prep won 42-12 at Lake City. Sankey ran for 240 yards and three TDs before being ejected early in the third quarter following an altercation with a Lake City player.

Sankey finished with three rushing TDs and a receiving score with the Titans.

TAYSOM HILL, now a Swiss Army knife of sorts for the New Orleans Saints, was a sophomore at Highland High in Pocatello when the Rams were beaten 35-6 by Lake City in the 2006 state 5A title game at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. The T-Wolves went undefeated that season.

Hill, the Rams' punter, had modest stats that night — 40 yards on two carries, 20 yards on two receptions, and 1 of 2 passing for 7 yards.

Two years later, in a state 5A quarterfinal game at Holt Arena in Pocatello, Hill tallied five rushing touchdowns, three in the final 12 minutes, as Highland won 42-28 over Lake City.

Hill was committed to Stanford at that time. He eventually wound up at BYU.

"He's a horse," Lake City coach Van Troxel said after the 2008 game. "You're not a Division I scholarship athlete if you can't make decisions. You've got to be big, you've got to be fast and you've got to be strong. Taysom fits all those molds. That's what top-notch quarterbacks do. He made us miss."

LEIGHTON VANDER ESCH went on to star at Boise State and is now a linebacker with the Dallas Cowboys.

In November 2013, he led Salmon River of Riggins to a 56-6 victory over Kootenai in a 1A Division II quarterfinal game in Harrison Flats.

Colleague Jason Elliott witnessed that one, which saw Vander Esch, a quarterback and safety, complete 14 of 21 passes for 282 yards, rush for 102 yards on 13 carries, and account for six touchdowns overall.

And that wasn't even for a full game. This one was called with 4:58 left in the third quarter due to the 45-point mercy rule.

"It's tough," Kootenai coach Doug Napierala told Elliott after the game. "We knew coming into the game that they had the athletes and we had to focus on shutting (Vander Esch) down and playing good in pass coverage. And he just beat us. He's a hell of an athlete and he beat us. He had help, but if you take him out of the equation, it could have been a different story.”

"At this level of 8-man football, especially the smallest level, to have a player of his caliber, it's just priceless," Salmon River coach Charlie Shepherd said. "When he can stand back and throw a 25-yard touchdown strike on the dime to the sidelines, it's tough to stop."

BACK TO Rypien.

In September 2014, Rypien was a highly touted senior, facing a Lake City team that would make it as far as the state semifinals.

On this night, Lake City won 55-34.

Rypien completed 26 of 53 passes for 487 yards and four touchdowns. But he also threw three interceptions, one returned 42 yards for a touchdown by Walker Jones.

Lake City running back Connor Newby ran for 287 yards and two TD, caught one touchdown pass, and had one of the picks.

The teams combined for 1,248 yards, 626 by Shadle. Lake City racked up 416 of its 622 total yards on the ground.

"Coming into the game, everybody was talking about Brett Rypien and Shadle Park and putting up all of these numbers," Newby said. "But we just came out and proved ourselves.”

"A guy like that (Rypien), you can never give him the same thing; he’s too good," Troxel said. "He’ll pick you apart if you give him the same thing over and over and over again.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.