Capital (ID) football: Kellen Buhr feature

On Sunday, Feb. 26, I interviewed Capital (Idaho) lineman Kellen Buhr. This article will appear in the 2011 Capital football yearbook. Below is the article:

Kellen
Buhr:

O-line anchor led the team’s success
and was promptly rewarded for it


By Bruce Smith
Matchup

Even though the Capital Eagles didn’t win the 2011 Idaho high school football championship, Kellen Buhr felt it was part of a great dream.

Rallying with his teammates from a 0-2 start, a homecoming win, beating arch-rival Borah, making the playoffs, making the all-SIC and all-state teams, being given the “Eagle Pride” award at the team banquet …

It’s an impressive list of accomplishments. But perhaps the best part was it didn’t stop there.

After the season ended, Buhr welcomed a “preferred walk-on” status with the Boise State football team. With a little more effort, Buhr could be playing on one of the best college football teams in the nation.

“I’ve grown up a Boise State fan and it’s been my dream (to play there) for a long time,” he said. “They offered me a couple of weeks after the season ended. I knew I couldn’t turn it down.”

Buhr would like to take his Capital teammates with him, especially offensive line mates Hunter Nettles, Paden Munson, Steven Matlock, Brody Leatham and even tight end Paul Blakely. Together, that group made up the biggest – and perhaps most feared – high school offensive line in Idaho.

“It was a great season, but my best memories are bonding with all of my teammates,” Buhr said. “You know, getting to know people I didn’t know before the season started. The O-line had the strongest bond of any group on the field. We were all friends and had a blast at every practice.”

Besides having fun, they also knew when to get serious. After Capital lost to Eagle 42-39 on Sept. 9 at Bronco Stadium, every player had two days to realize it had started the season 0-2. The next Monday, there was a different feeling around the school.

“Everybody in that building is used to super-dominant football,” Buhr said. “We heard jokes and we heard that we weren’t as good as past years. We needed to live up to reputations of past years.

“We had seen Capital go undefeated and go to the semifinals the year before and I think we just kind of expected it to happen (again),” he added. “We didn’t know what it took to make that happen. We had to teach the younger guys that you just don’t show up to win games. You have to prepare every week.

Practice started at 3:15 p.m. and Buhr couldn’t wait. There was a new feeling and everyone got involved. Coach Todd Simis told the players that they needed to start over, but there was also a sense of urgency that lasted for the rest of the season.

“Coach Simis recognized the difference (in the team),” Buhr said. “We were more focused and more motivated. We can have the biggest and fastest guys and best players, but if you don’t have the will to win, you’re not going to get anywhere.”

Capital came out and defeated then-unbeaten Mountain View the next week.

“That was our biggest game of the season,” Buhr said. “We wanted it more than they did. Afterward, I think they were scratching their heads and wondering what had happened.”

Buhr knows what it’s like to have to rally. As a junior, he was moved from guard to center just before the matchup with Eagle, which had defeated Capital in the state title game the previous season. He welcomed the change, but was nervous, too.

“It was super scary,” he recalled. “It was our biggest game of the season and there was so much resting on my snap. Eagle had a noseguard who was really good. I knew I had to rise to the challenge. I ended up playing great and we rolled them.”

Buhr also recalled another difficult night – Capital’s final game at Coeur d’Alene in the 5A semifinals. It was cold, windy and rain and snow was falling sideways. The worst conditions he had ever played in, he said.

“The field was just a mud pit,” he said. “I was barely able to get my fingers on the ball to snap it, and it had mud all over it.

“That was a strange game. I don’t think I had a bad snap the whole game, but the Coeur d’Alene center did and yet they still won. We had a series of really bad events that night and the odds were against us for sure. It made for a long bus ride home, for sure.”

While the season ended on a sour note, there were plenty of highlights, starting with the team’s summer camp at Gold Beach, Ore. There, Buhr put a hit on a Ponderosa High School (Calif.) player that he’ll remember forever. Buhr said he and Hunter Nettles also combined to lay out a Meridian player later in the season.

Mostly, though, he’ll remember walking on the field with his parents, Karl and Stacey Buhr, on “Senior Night” and then beating Borah in one of the best games he has ever seen.

“We pounded the ball on them,” he said. “I think the O-Line can safely say that was when we were at our best.”