Written by: Keller Sherman
After a disappointing 0-9 record in 2022, the Parma Panthers petitioned to remain at the 3A classification despite 2A enrollment numbers and were approved. Therefore, they will remain in a loaded Snake River Valley Conference and will look to work their way out of the league’s basement. 2nd year head coach Cassidy Kotte’s team will look to show signs of improvement as he continues a difficult rebuild task.
Parma returns a handful of key players that will be crucial to the team finding success. Among these are second team all-conference running back Charlie Camacho as well as Trenton Pierce and Danny Zapata. Braxton Heffellfinger and Westin Osborn will step up to the varsity level and be expected to make an immediate impact. Tate Oberg will be absent from last year’s team and Kotte feels that he will be “missed due to leadership and consistent performance on the field.”
The offense finds its strength in being a “physical, team focused style of play.” Kotte also expects to improve in “the ability to stay on schedule and develop scoring drives.” On defense, he believes the team excels in “team speed and playmaking ability” while he hopes to see improvements in “tackling.” The development of a team-first mentality will be emphasized this season as well as “the willingness to play for each other.”
Parma’s season kicks off slightly later than the rest of the state as they won’t play until Week 2 when they travel to Vale, Oregon. They will then play two straight games against 2A competition on the road at Nampa Christian then at home versus Marsing. Conference play begins on a difficult note as defending conference champion Homedale comes to town.
After the game against the Trojans, they will travel to Fruitland before returning home for two straight games against McCall-Donnelly and Weiser before closing things out with a road date at Payette. With three home games against opponents expected to be in the top half of the league all at home in Homedale, Weiser, and McCall-Donnelly, perhaps a big upset is in the cards for the Panthers.
Kotte’s team will look to show improvement in 2022 and while an always difficult conference slate will make that task difficult, turning some of those blowout losses into close, hard-fought contests would go a long way in building that team-first mentality that Kotte emphasizes the importance of. Finding a couple wins in the non conference slate will also be important in getting the team to believe they can win before they head into the meat of their conference slate.