"At the end of the day, you still have to play"
The Kellogg High School boys golf team is headed to state for the 22nd consecutive season. But this time they're headed down as an underdog. Pictured from the left are Landon Manty, Easton Towne, Johnny Stovern, Brodie Robinson, Mason Bailey, and Boden Glindeman.
Courtesy photo
PINEHURST – For more than two decades, there has been one constant in North Idaho athletics... Boys golf at Kellogg High School.
For 22 straight years, Wildcat golf has qualified for the golf state championships, bringing home 11 trophies during that stretch, including four championships and seven fourth-place or better finishes.
“There should be another championship there,” head coach Danny Kenyon said. “You can ask anyone, we were the best team in 3A that year.”
That year was 2020, when Covid-19 shutdowns ended spring sports during their first week of practice.
This time around, Kellogg is hoping on a bus for a 10-hour trip to Burley, where they’ll play on a course that none of them are familiar with at River’s Edge Golf Club.
2025 has been a little different. Few teams have challenged the ‘Cats the way Priest River and Genesis Prep did this year. And while each team got their licks in during the regular season, at last week’s district match, it was Kellogg drawing the short stick after losing a single-hole tiebreaker and finishing third.
Fortunately, with classification shift and changes, District 1-2 boasted nine full teams, which meant the top three qualified for state. However, the 3A Tournament is also the biggest because it encompasses teams from the 1A, 2A, and 3A classifications. Last year, 86 golfers competed at state, some as individuals, some representing the 15 teams that qualified together. Kenyon expects that, even with the classification changes, it should be about the same this time around.
With experienced seniors Brodie Robinson and Easton Towne providing the leadership, and talented junior Johnny Stovern in the mix, Kellogg has more than a fair shot to come away with another trophy, but the color of that trophy will depend on how his guys respond to pressures of new competition and a new course.
“I tried to give the boys the Hoosiers speech, with the tape measure,” Kenyon said. “Their golf course looks a lot like ours does; it’s rated similarly to ours on difficulty. It is a little longer, but I think we’ll be fine.”
Kenyon believes his guys can assume a little bit of an underdog role going in. River’s Edge is the home course for last year’s runner-up, Declo, who are likely the favorites this year. Genesis Prep finished third last year, while Priest River’s Palmer Coleman was the 2024 individual champion.
“Palmer’s great, Genesis Prep has some really good golfers too, so we’re used to playing with high-level golfers,” Kenyon said. “We’ve played right along with them all season. We’ve even beaten them a couple of times. We’re ready to compete with anyone.”
Beyond knowing their fellow North Idaho teams, Kenyon doesn’t spend much time looking elsewhere in the state to see what the scores are or how other teams have fared.
“I don’t really want to know. What good is it to know how good everyone else has been? I don’t want to overthink it, and I don’t want my guys to think, ‘well, I need to shoot this to beat these guys and add that pressure onto themselves.’ I’d rather we just go down there, knowing what we know, and play. At the end of the day, no matter what you’ve done to this point, you still have to play.”
At this point, it’s fair to call Kellogg a golf school, but even with the legacy of 22 straight state tournaments, 16 league championships, 15 district championships, and 11 state trophies hanging over the team, he isn’t worried. In fact, he believes that he and his team enjoy the added pressure that comes with golfing for the purple and gold.
“Obviously, the goal at Kellogg is to win a state championship in golf every year,” Kenyon said. “You can ask our kids, our parents, or anyone who plays regularly here at Pinehurst, we have an expectation to win. And if you don’t win, you had better still bring home a trophy. We embrace that. We love that our golf community believes in us. And I’m so proud of these kids for carrying on this legacy.”
The 3A State Golf Championships are this Monday and Tuesday, at River’s Edge Golf Club in Burley, Idaho.