For the October 16 issue of the Post Register, I wrote a profile on Tristan Cano, a lineman for the local Rigby High School. I’ll let the first section of the story (below) provide the key details:

Tristan Cano raced down the dirt path on his four-wheeler, seconds before his life would be forever altered.

On this clear June day in 2011, Cano and his friend Konor Anderson passed a water trough. A moment later, the 500-pound four-wheeler slammed into a deep rut.

Cano grabbed the four-wheeler’s front brakes. Anderson flew several yards down the path, and Cano thudded headfirst onto the dirt. The four-wheeler landed directly on top of him.

The last thing Cano remembered on that path in Freedom, Mont., was a hot pain emanating from his left ankle.

Cano’s ankle was broken so severely, doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to play sports again. But Cano wouldn’t give up his goal of playing football for Rigby High School. After three years of physical therapy, persistent ankle pain, family debates and self-doubt, the senior lineman is thriving for the Trojans.

‘I just told myself that I wasn’t not going to play football,’ Cano said.

I wrote a feature for today’s Post Register on Brandon Bair, a defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles. The story is about his journey from St. Anthony, Idaho (where he was a football star at South Fremont HS) to Eugene, Oregon (where he was a star for the Ducks) to Philadelphia (where he’s hoping to become a star for the Eagles). According to Bair and people close to him, he’s worked his butt off every step of the way.

Here is the story. The first section is below:

Brandon Bair’s football career started with a bet.

Right before Bair entered junior high, he told his stepfather, David Miller, that he wanted to ride bucking horses and bulls.

“I told him, ‘Son, your feet will be on the ground,’” Miller said. “‘You’re too big.’”

So, David bet his stepson $5 that he would play football and be successful at it.

When Bair reached the age of 12, he started playing grid kid football. His massive size and work ethic carried him to a standout career at South Fremont High School and then to national college power Oregon. Making it in the NFL was a struggle for the 6-foot-6, 290-pound Bair. His one-of-a-kind work ethic kept him afloat.

“Brandon got everything he deserved,” Miller said.

I have been writing for the Idaho Falls Post Register since August 8. Recently, I wrote a profile for the Post Register about Tyler Richins, a local high school football coach. He fought in Iraq from 2004-05 and has hardly told his family and friends anything about his difficult experiences at war.

Here is the story (Note: it’s behind a paywall), with the first section below:

Everything felt familiar to Tyler Richins as he watched the Shelley High School football team play Buhl one fall night in 2006.

The Friday night lights, the mouth-watering scent of barbecue, the fresh cut grass.

Richins felt at home.

Then Buhl scored its first touchdown. A celebratory cannon was fired. Richins instinctively fell to the grass.

“He hit the deck as if there was mortar fire going off,” says Travis Hobson, who stood next to Richins during the game.

Richins was on the sidelines, watching his father, Dwight, and his brother, Chase, try to lead Shelley to a road win. Richins’ mother, Allyson, was surprised when her son fell, but she knew he hated loud, unexpected noises. She knew Iraq was to blame.

She didn’t know much else about his United States Army tour. She still doesn’t.

In November of 2005, Richins, 31, departed Iraq and returned to eastern Idaho, where he grew up. He got married and had four children. He graduated from BYU-Idaho a year and a half ago. He’s in his first year as Sugar-Salem’s head varsity football coach. Most of his post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms from Iraq have dissipated.

Yet one thing remains the same: Richins’ family knows little about his war experiences.

“I don’t recall telling my family much about Iraq,” Richins says. “I don’t feel like they need to know.”