Fun, multisport athletes … and socks: Ingredients vary in resurgence of Post Falls football, resulting in first outright league title since 1995

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

With the quarterback, the offensive line coach and the rest of the family wearing those sentimental socks, how could the Post Falls Trojans lose?

Mike McKeown, offensive line coach on this year’s Post Falls football team, was the center on the 1995 Trojans squad which won the Inland Empire League title — back when all the teams in the league played at what is now the 4A level (Post Falls and three of the other teams have since moved up to 5A).

Jeff Hinz was an assistant coach at Post Falls when McKeown played for the Trojans. Hinz later became head coach at Post Falls for 11 seasons, and McKeown coached with Hinz until Hinz he came down with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and died in July 2016 at age 45.

So Post Falls’ 49-13 win at Lake City on Oct. 21, which wrapped up the outright league title for the Trojans, had even a little more meaning.

When Hinz was going through his battle with cancer, a Post Falls group called Football for Moms bought socks for the entire team — white socks which included Post Falls’ colors of orange and black — that read “Tackle Cancer” and “Team Hinz.”

Those socks came out of the drawer the other night.

“That means a lot to me and my family, because we were close friends with him,” McKeown said. “When we won on Friday night, I had my Jeff Hinz cancer socks on; my kid was wearing them, my wife was wearing them, my whole family was wearing them,” McKeown said. “It meant something for us as far as winning it again for him.”

Mike Blowers, who coaches linebackers at Post Falls, was also on the Trojans’ coaching staff in 1995. Back then, he was offensive line coach and defensive coordinator.

“Back then, it (Post Falls winning a league title) was some pretty heady stuff; when I started coaching here, we weren’t even playing Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston,” Blowers said. “We went down to Lewiston and beat Lewiston, we beat Coeur d’Alene … I remember Sherie Patano, our athletic director, she was crying on the sideline, she comes up to me and gives me a big hug — that was the first time that Post Falls had ever beaten Coeur d’Alene, and it was a huge thing.

“It (the league title) was a big thing for me, but it was huge for the community, and the school, because we were the little guys, and had not even played those guys. When I first got here (in 1989) we were playing Wallace and Kellogg and St. Maries and those guys … it was a big jump.”

ONE DAY last week, with no game on Friday — but an important quarterfinal game coming up this week, as Rocky Mountain (9-1) plays at Post Falls (7-2) on Friday at 7 p.m. — the Trojans prepared for their postseason opener by … dividing the team into groups of seven or so, and having relay races.

The final relay race involved players carrying a teammate on their back for part of the width of the football field.

“We try to keep things fun,” said Blaine Bennett, in his seventh season as the Trojans’ head coach. “We really promote multisport athletes, so we don’t demand a lot of time from them in the summer, so they can wrestle, and they can play basketball, and they can play baseball, and that doesn’t impact their opportunity to compete for a starting spot, or be on the team in the fall.

“Post Falls High School is one of those schools that needs multisport athletes, so all the coaches on the staff encourage that, and we certainly encourage that in our football program.”

On senior night, Post Falls honored a whopping 33 players. All told, there are some 170 kids in the program — some 50 each on the freshman and JV teams, and another 70 on the varsity.

“And we separate the three teams in August, and those kids stay on those three teams,” Bennett said. “And we’ve got an amazing coaching staff to facilitate those three teams, including myself, we have a strong group of 17 coaches, a couple are volunteers.”

Bennett, former head coach at Central Washington University, came to Post Falls in 2015 as an assistant, coaching wide receivers. Assistant Sean Dorris was named interim coach during the 2015 season, as Hinz missed time due to his illness. Dorris left after the season to pursue a career in administration.

Bennett was named interim head coach in 2016, and has been the head man ever since.

“Jeff Hinz really did an amazing job; that’s why the scoreboard up here is in memory of coach Hinz,” Bennett said. “He built the program and had an excellent program; I just happened to come in at the right time, and convinced all the coaches to stay, and we’ve added a few new faces, but not many.

“We wanted it to be fun, and we wanted to be inclusive, we wanted to include everybody that wanted to play football,” Bennett said of his plan as head coach. “And you didn’t have to be a college recruitable athlete … we had a lot of guys that maybe hadn’t played football for 2-3 years, and decided ‘Hey, I want to come out and play this year,’ and they were able to join our team. We have some coaches on our staff that are baseball coaches and wrestling coaches … and that always encourages kids that are multisport athletes to get involved in football.”

POST FALLS’ team captains this year are defensive end Trevor Miller, linebacker Cole Cripps and right guard Miles Kison, all seniors.

Miller’s older brother, Ethan, played football his senior year, and also was a standout wrestler, graduating in 2021.

Cripps’ brother, Kaden, played football and baseball, graduating in 2021. Oldest brother Chase played baseball, graduating in 2018.

For most of the recent past, Coeur d’Alene has dominated the 5A Inland Empire League. Before that, it was Lake City.

“We look at that and say, things can change,” Kison said. “If it bleeds, we can kill it. We have the mentality that we are better and we can be better, as long as we keep pushing forward and working hard.”

Last year, Post Falls tied with Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston for the league title. But the Trojans finished third in a Kansas tiebreaker, and missed the playoffs.

“The loss we had last year (in the Kansas tiebreaker), we knew we were going to put the work in in the offseason,” Miller said. “And I think we knew we were going to be league champions; we were coming after it every day in practice, and working hard.”

“After last year, it was pretty upsetting, lost the tiebreaker, heads down,” said Cripps, a two-year starter at middle linebacker. “This year, we’ve had a lot of great leaders on the team.”

The 31-28 loss at Lakeland in their fifth game of the season — a game Post Falls trailed 31-14 at one point — was a turning point.

“We’ve got to be better; we’ve got to put more work in at practice, give a better effort,” Cripps said of the mindset after that game.

“Then we came back and beat undefeated Mt. Spokane (in overtime), so that definitely got us going,” said Miller, who started at outside linebacker as a sophomore, before moving to defensive end last year. “Probably the most important one was Lewiston (a 42-35 win at home) … we showed the type of football team we are, definitely contenders in the playoffs this year.”

Early last week, Miller verbally committed to play football at the University of Idaho, joining an increasing number of local high school standouts who have committed to the Vandals this year.

“They’re very interested in me, and I like what (first-year coach Jason) Eck’s doing down there … it’s definitely a program I could fit well in and see myself competing,” Miller said. “It's cool that they’re trying to stay local, and build it from the ground up. They’re definitely changing that program around.”

Kison and Cripps have both been offered by Whitworth.

When Post Falls beat Coeur d’Alene 21-6 on Oct. 14, the Trojans clinched the top seed to the state playoffs, a first-round bye, and a home game in the quarterfinals.

It was the second straight year Post Falls had beaten Coeur d’Alene; the Trojans won on the Vikings’ field in 2021.

“It’s a tough league,” Bennett said. “Obviously I take my hat off to Coeur d’Alene; they’ve had quite a run in the playoffs, and we want to be that team down the road … obviously that’s our goal.”

THE GAME against Lake City was about 1995.

Austin Lee, who went on to play at Stanford, was a sophomore tight end on that Post Falls team. Ian Waltz, who went on to compete in the discus in the Olympics, was on that team, as was a feisty cornerback named Mike McLean.

Jerry Lee, father of Austin, was the coach.

Blowers was McKeown’s position coach.

“He started out as an undersized kid, but he was always dirty, and he was a hard worker,” Blowers recalled of McKeown. “But he was like that because he was an undersized guy. He was the smallest guy on our front, because we had some pretty good-sized dudes.”

McKeown’s son, Isaac, is the starting quarterback on this year’s team as a sophomore. Two older sons also played at Post Falls — Cameron was a cornerback, Michael (“Junior,” as dad calls him) was a receiver. Both went on to play at Whitworth. Michael was a grad assistant at Whitworth, and is now offensive coordinator at Freeman.

Mike McKeown is in his 16th season as an assistant at Post Falls. He was an offensive coach for a few years, then defensive line coach for a few years. This is his third season as O-line coach.

He didn’t want to coach the side of the football his sons were on, if it could be avoided.

“This one just didn’t quite work out like that,” McKeown said.

“I don’t like it; we’ve had some pretty heated sideline arguments between me and him; but it’s OK,” Mike McKeown said. “He (Isaac) wants more protection, obviously. He thinks sometimes I should be coaching differently, and I think sometimes he should be throwing somewhere different.

“Blaine has to reel me in sometimes, says ‘Let me coach my guys and you coach your guys.’ Over the years, I’ve learned, when we go home, we leave football at the football field.”

THERE’S A certain “grit” and “nastiness” with this year’s Post Falls team that makes it stands out, McKeown said.

Blowers has coached football every year since 1980. He did his student teaching and coached at Central Valley, then coached at West Valley for six years, and then came to Post Falls in 1989. He opted not to coach during the first COVID-19 season (2020).

He’s in his second year of retirement as a teacher.

Both Post Falls assistants credit Bennett for the Trojans’ current success

“The way his offense works … the kids see it, it’s fun,” Blowers said.

“Blaine’s done a great job here; can’t say enough about him; he’s really done some great things for Post Falls football from Junior Tackle up … he kinda stepped in where Jeff left off,” McKeown said. “And also the culture. Blaine’s put together a good culture that started way back when, but we lost sight of that a little bit. We definitely got it back.”