Eastern Idaho gets football fever

Friday was a big day for high school football in eastern Idaho, when five teams took part in a championships, meaning a lot of fan fever.

If there’s one thing football fans know how to bring to the party, it’s volume.

“We’re going to be cheering and jumping and just shouting, ‘Madison! Madison!’ over and over again,” said Michael Ichet, a Madison High School student, before the game.

Seas of fans filled the stands for the games, at every minute either jumping to their feet in excitement or sighing in disappointment.

And for some motivated teenage fans, the goal went beyond taking home the trophy. They wanted to see tears on the other team’s cheeks.

“It’s going to involve the other team going home crying. Just a slight pitiful tear, more in disappointment in themselves that we were too awesome for them,” said Michael.

Of course, not all fans could make to the arenas themselves, so found somewhat less raucous places to cheer their teams on.

In Blackfoot, Tommy Vaughn’s grill put up streaming footage for people to watch their local teams.

“TVs everywhere,” said manager Tyler Rupe. “A great crowd, it’s going to be a real good community feel, and we’re excited to have everybody around.”

Rupe said it was an easy decision to put this on, as he was once a Blackfoot High linebacker. He wanted to make sure everyone could watch his alma mater in the championship game.

“They were in Boise, where a lot of the community couldn’t go, so we decided to stream them so the whole community could come and enjoy and watch all our teams win,” he said.

And there was an extra share of excitement for folks in Bingham County.

With Firth, Blackfoot and Shelley, the county had three different teams in championship games Friday.

“I’m impressed that they’re doing so well,” said Firth football fan Loma Koontz. “They’re doing well and have for a couple years now in a row.”

See game scores at http://goo.gl/cmEPf.