For the Oct. 23, 2014 issue of the Post Register, I wrote this profile on Idaho Falls High School soccer player Johnny Castaneda. Castaneda moved from Mexico to Idaho Falls last year, right before the 2013 soccer season.

Here is the first section of my story:

The Idaho Falls High School boys soccer team trailed Madison 5-4 in penalty kicks with Castaneda up next. With a win, the Tigers would advance to the 2013 5A District 5-6 title game and clinch a trip to state.

Castaneda’s second-half goal ultimately forced extra time. But he doesn’t reflect on that goal. He reflects on his penalty kick.

Castaneda had the accuracy; he had the velocity. But Madison’s goal keeper blocked it.

‘I felt like I wanted to die,’ Castaneda said through his translator, teammate JP Alonso.

Castaneda moved from Jalisco, Mexico, to Idaho Falls in August of 2013. By district playoffs in October, the only comforting presences in his life were his brother, his sister and soccer. After the missed penalty kick, only two of those remained.

In the year since, Castaneda, 18, has made several friends, his English has improved and he’s a big reason why Idaho Falls reclaimed this year’s district championship. Throughout his time in Idaho, the senior forward never forgets who made all of this possible: his parents.

‘It’s really hard without my parents here,’ he said. ‘That’s who I work hard for.’

Sometimes when I’m covering a game, the plays, the quotes afterwards and the deadline pressure can make a game story as good as many features I’ve written. I felt that way about my “Civil War” gamer, and I feel that way about my gamer from the 5A District 5-6 boys soccer championship game between Idaho Falls and Madison High School.

Here is the link to my game story from the championship game. Here is the first section of it:

McKay Zabriskie stood in the goal box, bruised and battered, with a chance to win the 5A District 5-6 championship for the Idaho Falls High School boys soccer team.

The sun peaked through the checker-pattern clouds as Zabriskie fired a shot to the right side of the net. Madison keeper Andrew Nelson dove the other way. Game over.

‘I can’t stop smiling,’ Zabriskie said. ‘It just feels great.’

Zabriskie gave Idaho Falls a 4-2 penalty kick win and its ninth district championship in school history (first since 2012). It capped a scoreless 100 minutes of regulation and overtime soccer Thursday at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex. The Tigers will get a week off before facing Timberline in the 5A state tournament. Previous district champs Madison will need to beat Skyline on Saturday in order to return to state.

‘It sucks we had to win it the way we did,’ Tigers coach Cory Steele said, ‘but I thought it was well-deserved.’

Here are the final three paragraphs, which circle back to the lead:

Zabriskie was nursing a painful shin bruise when he stepped up to his kick. Plus, he faced a moment that would feel suffocating to many.

‘I felt a little bit of pressure,’ Zabriskie said. ‘But I couldn’t stop thinking about my brothers on the team. I wanted to put it away and be able to run back to them, screaming and happy.’

That’s exactly what he did.

Before the “Civil War” game — a rivalry game between Hillcrest and Bonneville High School in Idaho Falls — I read this excellent profile on Bob Ryan, the famous Boston Globe columnist. The story focused on Ryan’s incredible game writing ability, which, as you can imagine, inspired the sports writer who was preparing to write a game story, or gamer, on an Idaho Falls high school football game.

So, I have to thank Ryan and Bryan Curtis (the author of the Ryan profile) for making my gamer a little bit better than it would have been had I not read that story. Don’t get me wrong, mine is miles away from a Ryan gamer, but I’d say it’s one of the better ones I’ve written in my two-plus months at the Post Register.

Here’s the link to my gamer. The first section is here (Note: The Civil War tradition is for the winning team to paint the field goal posts in its team color — as is hopefully evident below, Hillcrest is red and Bonneville is green):

Two red clouds hovered over each end zone. The smell of spray paint wafted through the crisp night air. Several Hillcrest High School football players sat on the field goal posts, spray cans in hand, as they led their classmates in a modified version of the “I believe that we will win” chant.

“I believe that we just won!” they cheered repeatedly.

The Knights battled Bonneville in the 23rd annual Civil War game at Thunder Stadium on Friday night. For three quarters, the game was up for grabs. But Hillcrest seized control thanks to two fourth-quarter touchdowns from running back Morgan Pyper. After a year of seeing green goal posts, Hillcrest covered them in a fresh coat of red paint following its 29-13 win.

‘It’s such a great feeling knowing we did what we had to do to get the goal posts back to red,’ Pyper said.

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.”