First Annual All-County Teams

Volleyball Teams

The Idaho Enterprise is excited to announce our first installment of what we hope will be a yearly tradition of naming All-County first and second teams made up from our three local high schools.  We are going to start with the ladies from volleyball.  With this being a new feature it is likely as we move forward some of the criteria will change over the years.  Admittedly our volleyball knowledge is not as strong as some of the other sports that we will cover but we did get to watch each team several times this season.  With that being said our selections this year are based off of coaches nominations, reported stats, and our own visual perception of individual player performance.  Some coaches included comments as to why each player was nominated and we included that in our assessment.  We also looked at factors such as head to head performances as well as intangibles like energy, sportsmanship, and leadership.  When differences were razor thin as they were in some cases we resorted to grade level often giving the nod to senior players in their last year of participation.  We would like to note that every girl nominated was well deserving of the nomination but in the end we decided to cut the volleyball teams to six players each.  Some positions may have more than one player and some players may have been labeled with multiple positions.  We would like to congratulate all of the girls from Soda Springs, Grace, and North Gem on terrific seasons.  Each team has a lot of younger players that will be coming back so you will likely see some of these names again next season.  Without any further adieu here are your first and second all county teams for 2024 in no particular order.

First Team

Soleil Somsen (MH) Soda Springs Josie Newby (Libero) Grace

Mayli Whitworth (Setter) Soda Springs Paisley Barthlome (OH/S) Grace Tess Jorgensen (OH) Grace Emily Thornock (OH) Soda Springs

Second Team

Evie Olenslager (MH) Grace

Tara Vedder (Libero) Soda Springs

Kymberli Jensen (Setter) North Gem

Sage Daniels (OH) North Gem

Anna Davis (OH) Soda Springs

Mariah O’Brien (MH) North Gem

Football Teams

As mentioned in the volleyball section we are very excited to bring this tradition to Caribou County.  The Idaho Enterprise hopes that having these teams will give a little more excitement and recognition to our local high school athletes.  Unlike the volleyball teams we are slightly more well versed in the sport of football.  That being said we followed a lot of the same criteria that we did for the volleyball selections.  Players were nominated by their coaches along with available stats and comments stating why each player was nominated.  Like volleyball we were able to see many of the football games ourselves and did base some of our selections on what we viewed with our own eyes.  Again we did factor into our assessments some intangibles such as leadership, effort, and sportsmanship.  Unlike volleyball with our three local football teams we are dealing with a much wider spectrum of competition.  We had to take into account that Soda Springs plays eleven man football while Grace and North Gem play eight man.  We also had to take into consideration the strength of schedule.  For example the top three teams in 3A were all in Soda Spring’s conference.  Meanwhile Grace played the number one eight man team from three different states.  North Gem did not exactly have an easy schedule themselves playing four different 1A playoff qualifiers as well as 2A Grace.  In the end some very tough decisions were made.  Some positions had several deserving candidates such as quarterback, running back, linebacker and lineman.  While others did not have enough nominations to fill out a full second team.  Again when it came to splitting hairs we often had to defer to the senior player due to it being their last season.  The Soda Springs Cardinals are a young team on the rise that we suspect will see an increase in number of nominations over the next few years.  Meanwhile Grace and North Gem lose some terrific seniors but will return some strong junior players.  Congrats to all of the young men on a season well played and to those that have been selected for the all county teams for 2024.

First Team Offense

Rusty Hatch (QB) North Gem

Cole Garbett (RB) Soda Springs Trevor Mathews (RB) Grace Cooper Andersen (TE) Grace Derek Hill (WR) Grace Braden Kimball (WR) Grace Haydn Frandsen (C) North Gem Carson Welch (OL) Grace Carson Reeves (OL) Grace Shad Stoor (OL) Soda Springs

Second Team Offense

Gavin Draper (QB) Grace

Craig Yost (RB) North Gem

Zayden Garbett (RB) Soda Springs

(no nomination)(TE)

(no nomination)(WR)

(no nomination)(WR)

Landon Moss (C) Grace

Carson Cook (OL) Soda Springs

Hyrum Barnes (OL) North Gem

Ryver Hayden (OL) North Gem

First Team Defense

Carson Reeves (DT) Grace Carson Cook (DT) Soda Springs

Derek Hill (DE) Grace Rusty Hatch (DE) North Gem Cole Garbett (LB) Soda Springs Trevor Mathews (LB) Grace Ryder Bendtsen (LB) Soda Springs Braden Kimball (CB) Grace Trey Dunford (CB) Soda Springs Carter Kimball (SS) Grace Landon Moss (SS) Grace

Second Team Defense

Case Williams (DT) Grace

Shad Stoor (DT) Soda Springs

Kaylum Balczewski (DE) Grace

Zayden Garbett (DE) Soda Springs

Craig Yost (LB) North Gem

Chase Smith (LB) Grace

Parker Yost (LB) Grace

(no nomination) (CB)

(no nomination) (CB)

(no nomination) (SS)

(no nomination) (SS)

Special Teams

Hyrum Barnes (K) North Gem

Cole Garbett (P) Soda Springs

Lukky Welker (KR) North Gem