{"id":9711,"date":"2018-11-30T18:35:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=9711"},"modified":"2018-11-30T18:35:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:35:38","slug":"carey-football-coach-reflects-on-winning-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/30\/carey-football-coach-reflects-on-winning-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Carey Football Coach Reflects On Winning season"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aimee Durand<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Coach Kirkland\u2019s greatest reward is assistant coaches. Pictured here sharing the win after the last game, left to right:\u00a0Lane Durtschi, Lane Kirkland, John Saili and Jake Nilsen. Photo courtesy of Lane Kirkland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ask Coach Lane Kirkland to what he credits Carey High School\u2019s winning football streak and he will say a combination of great kids and assistant coaches, lots of hard work, fun, and dreaming big.<\/p>\n

Kirkland has a long history in the small town of Carey, including graduating from this high school, teaching both social studies and P.E., and taking over as coach 18 years ago\u2014a position his father previously held for 19 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a privilege to fill his spot,\u201d the younger Kirkland said referring to his father.<\/p>\n

Kirkland has watched his students and athletes grow from classroom to field. This personal growth allows them to fill vacancies from the previous football squads.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe greatest highlight a coach can experience is watching kids grow,\u201d Kirkland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe graduated eight great seniors last year that left big roles to fill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Still, \u201cwe went 12 and 0 this season and 12 and 0 the last season, so we are effectively 24 and 0,\u201d Kirkland said.<\/p>\n

He heralded the current squad\u2019s ability to pick up and continue to excel and play at a high level.<\/p>\n

The last game, on Nov. 15, against Christian Lighthouse, was a big moment and Kirkland knew it was going to be a battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fourth and 11 with one minute and 15 seconds remaining when we decided to pass for a first down and seal the deal with two kneel-downs and the game would be over instead of punting,\u201d Kirkland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn big games, if you\u2019re not aggressive, there are not many opportunities to win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt was a big moment for all of us. It was probably the biggest call of my career. These kids did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Carey Panthers varsity football team was competing in the Idaho High School Activities Association (IHSAA) 1A Division II (schools with 0-99 total students) bracket.<\/p>\n

Kirkland is proud of all his players, past and present. When he is out and about and runs into any of his state championship guys, Kirkland always has the same greeting. \u201cI call out, \u2018Hey, state champ!\u2019\u201d Kirkland said. \u201cIt is a great memory that no one can take away.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past 18 seasons, Kirkland\u2019s win-loss record as head coach is 157-35. He considers working with assistant coaches one of the greatest rewards a head coach can have.<\/p>\n

Coach Lane Durtschi is the defensive coordinator and has been with Kirkland since 2006. They share five state championships together. Coach John Saili is the assistant offense coordinator and has been with Kirkland for three years, and coach Jake Nilsen is the assistant defensive coordinator and has been with Kirkland for five seasons.<\/p>\n

With this season\u2019s winning streak wrapped up and more history to make, Kirkland offers advice to his team and to all youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cDream big and don\u2019t let anybody stop you,\u201d he said. \u201cTo use a quote by Muhammad Ali, \u2018If your dreams don\u2019t scare you, then they are not big enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aimee Durand Ask Coach Lane Kirkland to what he credits Carey High School\u2019s winning football streak and he will say a combination of great kids and assistant coaches, lots of hard work, fun, and dreaming big. Kirkland has a long history in the small town of Carey, including graduating from this high school, teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,32,36,37,39,49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-schools","9":"category-slider","10":"category-special-feature","11":"category-sport","12":"category-top-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}