Sprague steps up to claim the crown at the Metro Area Lineman Challenge

A year ago, an upstart group of young lineman from the Sprague High School football team, competing in their first Metro Area Lineman Challenge, battled their way to a fourth-place finish in the team standings at the event.

Not bad, but for the Olympians, it wasn’t quite good enough.

With that in mind, a motivated Sprague squad returned to the event this year. This time, the Olympians left with smiles on their faces – and the championship trophy in hand.

Sprague, behind a determined effort, won the team title at the

2025 Metro Area Lineman Challenge

, held Saturday under sunny skies at Hare Field in Hillsboro.

“This means a ton, dude,” Sprague senior-to-be Carter Wilson said after the Olympians received their championship trophy. “We came in here last year, it was our first year, and it was like, ‘alright.’ This year, we actually had practices preparing for this day, making sure that we get better, and better, and better, and we prevailed.”

“We’re not necessarily the biggest team, we’re not the strongest team, but, overall, being able to come out here and do this and surprisingly win, is great,” Olympian senior-to-be Bohdi Jones said.

Sprague topped the field of 27 teams, representing 18 schools, with a score of 60 points. That gave the Olympians a one-point victory over second-place Sunset, which scored 59 points.

“I think the main thing that pulled us through was that we all just had, on average, great performances throughout the entire thing,” Sprague junior-to-be Emmett Hunsacker said. “We all worked really hard and we all had a solid standard that we set, and we pushed through it and got the win.”

“I think our effort was through the roof,” Sprague junior-to-be Ayden McVey said. “We had great effort in every event we competed in. Overall, I think we did wonderful. We came here ready to compete. We had our brothers with us, and competing as a team is how you win. You know – chemistry.”

“Last year, we came in fourth,” Jones said. “We didn’t come in expecting to win this thing, but we put our best foot forward and just tried our best. Winning was a big surprise, and amazing.”

The 5-foot-9, 200-pound Jones certainly seemed to do his part in helping the Olympians capture the team title, as he finished in fourth place in the lightweight division individual standings.

“It was great,” he said. “I didn’t do the best in some events, but I tried my hardest, and I did better in other events. I improved.”

Jones topped the Olympians in the 40-yard dash with his time of 5.10 seconds (second fastest mark for all competitors on the day), in the shuttle run with a time of 4.53, in the standing broad jump with a distance of 97 inches and in the vertical jump, with a leap of 31.5 inches.

Sprague, as a team, seemed to thrive in the bench press event, where Jones, McVey, Hunsaker, Maxwell Knapp and Joe Garcia all lifting 185 pounds at least 16 times, with Knapp and Garcia each having 19 lifts.

Jones, Wilson, Hunsacker, Knapp, Garcia and Christian Allen, from the Sprague 2 team, each reached double figures in the tire flip event, with Hunsaker having a team-best 12 flips, with tied the top mark for all competitors.

Wilson led the Olympians in the farmer’s carry with a distance of 105 yards, which tied for the sixth-best mark for all competitors.

“Our team, just all-around, showed great competitiveness,” Wilson said. “Individually, I think we all did really good. In the bench press, I’d say we had a bunch of us go over 15. In the farmer’s carry, nearly everyone had more than 40 or 50 yards, and in the tire flips, we nearly all got at least 10.”

“I think overall, we just worked super hard at our events, and we all did good,” said Knapp, who was an all-South-Central Valley honorable mention pick at guard last year.

Now, looking for the victory at the Metro Area Lineman Challenge to provide some momentum, the Sprague linemen are looking optimistically at the upcoming fall high school football season.

“This feels great, but there’s still more work to do, obviously,” McVey said. “This is definitely a stepping stone for our journey, heading into traditional camp soon.”

The Olympians are coming off a 2024 season that saw them go 9-2 and reach the quarterfinal round of the Class 6A Open playoffs. Sprague did graduate some key seniors off that squad, including South-Central Valley Offensive Player of the Year Kenya Johnson and standout quarterback Dukatti Witherspoon. But that doesn’t seem to dim the Olympians’ high hopes at all.

“We’re definitely pumped up for the fall,” Wilson said. “We can’t wait for this next season. We really feel prepared and we’re ready to hold up to the season we had last year.”

“We’re going to be coming in like a freight train,” Jones said. “We’ve been training year around, day in and day out. We’ve been working for this, and we’re ready.”

The Olympians will open their 2025 schedule on Aug. 29 when they travel to Summit for a nonleague game.

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