Photo By Danielle Forsberg - #65 Tate Oberg
Preseason Coaches' Poll
T-1. Homedale
T-1. Weiser
3. McCall-Donnelly
4. Fruitland
5. Payette
6. Parma
Written by: Keller Sherman
Coming off a winless 2020 season, the Parma Panthers are bringing in a new leader for their program in Cassidy Kotte. Kotte led Nampa Christian to the playoffs in two of his four seasons there and now comes to Parma to take over for Alex Wilson, who departed to take on a new role as Parma’s athletic director. Kotte will try to turn things around for a struggling program that has not won a game since October 3, 2019.
Although this program has struggled as of late, there are some bright spots. Parma brings back four all-conference selections. These include Tate Oberg on the offensive line and at linebacker, Fernando Camacho at defensive back, Sean Wilhite on the offensive line, and Colt Murdock at wide receiver.
It will be up to the senior leadership that Kotte feels is strong within this program to help fill the holes left behind by last year’s seniors. The departure that Kotte feels will hurt the most however is Isaiah Krohn, a team captain and an all-conference first team defensive selection whom Kotte described as having unique athletic talent and leadership ability.
Despite these departures, Kotte names one senior in particular, Vince Avila, that he expects to step up and do great things.
A team based offensive system is what Kotte feels will lead his team to success, but he also wants to see more focus on the run game. Redzone scoring is another area that his team will need to improve on if they hope to work their way out of the basement of the conference.
Kotte does see some strengths in the defensive system currently in place as well as the ability to play fast and create turnovers. This is something that Kotte would like to see his team continue to build on. However, just like he hopes to improve the running game on the offensive side of the ball, Kotte also wants to see improvements on stopping the run game on the defense.
The schedule does not do any favors for this Panthers team. They will open things up with the 2nd place finisher in the 2A Western Idaho Conference at New Plymouth. They will follow that up by hosting the Vale Vikings, a traditional Oregon powerhouse from just over the Snake River.
The highlight of the non-conference slate however is a September 10th visit from Kotte’s previous school; Nampa Christian. If they can get a win here, it would help to build momentum as the Panthers get into the thick of their schedule. After hosting the Trojans, they will make the trip across the state to American Falls to face a Beavers team that cracked the 3A state playoffs last season despite a losing record.
The Panthers will face a challenging non conference slate, but they will have a great opportunity to open conference play on a high note when Payette visits on September 24th. The Panthers lost a narrow 31-28 decision to the Pirates last season. Parma will be looking for revenge from that defeat and a win would mark a major momentum builder as the Panthers get deeper into conference play.
However, with the advantage of having arguably the easiest opponent at the start comes with the disadvantage of having to face much tougher competition going down the stretch and that is exactly what the Panthers will face in the month of October. It doesn’t get much harder than having to travel to three-time defending conference champion Homedale, which they will do to open up the month on October 1st.
Parma will return home to host Fruitland for an early Senior Night the following week. The Panthers would love nothing more than for their seniors to win their last home game in Parma, especially with two very tough road games at McCall-Donnelly and Weiser to close the season out. Weiser is a team that coach Kotte believes could surprise some people this season. He states, “It seems they have been taking the right steps, year by year, developing their program”.
Kotte will have his work cut out for him in his first year coaching the Panthers. While he faces a challenging schedule in his first season, he feels that his team can rise up to the challenge. The team will be young, but Kotte feels that the senior leadership will help his team grow.
Coach Kotte knows that the most important thing his team needs to do this season is to build momentum. The first step for his team is to build a competitor’s mindset. In doing so, he hopes that will grow into a winner’s mindset which in turn will translate to wins on the field. Most importantly, this will allow his team to come together and play their hearts out every Friday night. Kotte knows that he is rebuilding this team from the ground up and hopes that this is just the first step towards great things to come.