High School Football Preview: Sugar-Salem Diggers

SUGAR CITY, Idaho (KIFI) - Being the best means putting in the work.

The Sugar-Salem Diggers football team hit the gym at the crack of dawn nearly every day. It’s taxing, but there’s no reason to mess with a winning formula.

Local News 8 asked running back and linebacker Dawson McInelly about the last time he tasted defeat.

“I actually have not lost a football game in my high school career,” he admitted with a shrug.

“Teams with Division I guys that are going to college in some crazy place - we blow ‘em out,” added wide receiver and safety Abe Baldwin.

It’s been almost three years since that last loss.

"It was the [2021] state championship game against Weiser,” head coach Tyler Richins recalled. “It’s a very vivid, painful memory, and I think about it every day.”

Sugar-Salem has captured five state championships in six years. They haven’t lost more than one game per season during that entire stretch.

“We’ve been a highly successful program for the last several years,” Richins said. “We know we have a bullseye on our back and there’s a lot of expectations out there.”

“I like it,” McInelly said. “I like to have the target on our backs. I like to have the upper hand and have people shooting for us. It makes us better.”

For Sugar-Salem, lifting trophies starts with lifting weights. 

"We spend far more hours in the weight room than we do on the football field,” Richins explained.


“It’s a lot of what we’re known for,” he continued. “I mean, even throughout the state, you get people who talk about how good our weight room is. We have other strength and conditioning coaches from other schools who want to come in and see what we’re doing.”

“It’s one thing getting stronger,” McInelly said. “But the next thing is just showing up and having the commitment.”

“It’s the commitment factor - in here,” Baldwin added, pointing to his head. “Like, you gotta show up every single day.”

Richins said the team’s weights regime conditions players to push forward when it matters most. In 2023, they outscored opponents by an average of 34 points. He believes those lofty expectations are a great motivator.

“I think that when there’s pressure, it also allows you to rise up,” he asserted.

"Does this team have the capability of going undefeated?” Richins asked rhetorically. “Absolutely. They have the capability of doing that.”