2024 Fall Preps Preview: Record-setting receiver Brayden Allen, Ridgeline football look to build upon last season’s success

A little success can be a funny thing. It can breed confidence, but it also brings higher aspirations – and expectations.

So it is with the 2024 Ridgeline football program.

The Falcons – who won four games in their first two seasons combined – qualified for the postseason last year after a 7-2 record in the regular season. They then went on to win a Round-of-32 game to reach the state playoffs for the first time in program history in just their third season and finished 8-3.

Everyone is anxious to see what they can do for an encore.

“We’re building on, you know, three years of improvement,” Ridgeline coach David Myers said. “But we obviously graduated a pretty talented class of kids. And so, this is going to be a new challenge for us in terms of replacing kids that have graduated. We’ve had essentially the same team for three years now, so this is a new phase of our growth as a new school.”

The Falcons saw a group of 11 players, 10 starters, move on. Most were three-year starters in the nascent program.

“Replacing that large number of kids, you know, it’s a different look,” Myers said. “We’ve got kids that don’t have that same level of varsity experience and playing time, and it’s not their third year on varsity in those places.

“So we, of course, have a lot of returning kids that are experienced and talented, so we’re going to be leaning on them, but we want those (other) kids to be catching up quickly.”

Returning your all-league quarterback and a receiver who’s name is in multiple places in the Greater Spokane League record book is a good place to start though.

“We’re pretty excited about what we have returning offensively,” Myers said.

Senior quarterback Landon Garner was named offensive MVP for the GSL 4A/3A division last season, but that honor could very well have been bestowed on his favorite target, senior receiver Brayden Allen, as well.

Through his junior season, Allen is the league’s career, single-season and single-game receptions leader. His 197 career league catches put him 54 ahead of second place. He caught 90 passes during league play last season (30 more than second place and 41 higher than No. 3) to set the season record along with 878 yards and 12 touchdowns – tops in both categories.

Overall, he had 112 catches for 1,112 yards and 14 TDs.

Allen enters play this season needing 553 yards to pass Shadle Park’s Tanner Pauly at the top of the league career yardage list. To do that, he will have to leapfrog four others on the way.

“I don’t know if I get to 90 (catches) again,” Allen said. “I mean, I don’t know if that’s the goal in our offense this year. But I think I just want to get more yards. That’s my goal – just getting more yards and getting in the end zone more.”

He would have been even closer to the yardage mark by now, but he was limited during his sophomore season while still recovering from surgery to remove a bone tumor from his femur that left him with 28 staples in his leg. He was nonweight-bearing on the leg for three months that spring.

But despite the prolific stats, Allen enters his senior year with just one college offer on the table. What else does he have to prove?

“There’s always something more to prove, because there’s always someone out there working harder and being better than you,” Allen said. “So, I’ve always got something to prove, whether it’s to myself, coaches, anybody.”

“Braden has an amazing feel of the game,” Myers said. “He understands spacing, he understands what we’re trying to do offensively. He understands what the defense is trying to do. And so he does a really good job of getting into those spaces, getting open, influencing the defenders.”

Allen seems to have a exceptional ability to catch the ball regardless of the situation.

“(Allen) has spectacular hands, and can make those amazing catches when that ball gets anywhere near him,” Myers said. “He does a great job with contested catches. He’s physical. And so all those things make Braden as special as he is and as successful as he’s been.”

In this “transfer portal” era, Allen is proud to have stuck through the first rough couple of years to enjoy the success the Falcons are having now – and he likes the team’s chances this season.

“Playing out of same school for four years, like, a lot of people nowadays are transferring and going all different places. It’s kind of nice to finish all four years with all of my friends. I’m definitely excited to see how it goes.”

He spoke about the pressure to follow up last season’s playoff appearance.

“There’s definitely a lot to expect (coming) off of a good year,” Allen said. “But, I mean, that’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to push ourselves to the best of our abilities and to get to that point. So we just have to keep working hard every single day and see where that’s going to get us.”

Garner completed 70.1% of his 328 pass attempts in league games last season for 2,198 yards with 28 touchdowns. He had 10 passed intercepted, but considering he threw 100 more passes than No. 2 last season, it’s not a bad ratio. Overall, he thew for 3,042 yards on 69.4% completions with 36 touchdown passes.

Still, the quarterback was humble about his role in the offense and the leadership of the team.

“I don’t think it’s ‘my team.’ ” Garner said. “I think it’s everyone’s team, really, because we have so many different leaders on offense and defense. So it’s not just me leading out there.”

It’s a fun offense for everyone participating in it.

“It is so fun,” Garner said. “For a quarterback, it’s the best offensive in the league, for sure. I can throw the ball 50 times (in a game). You know, it’s definitely a dream.”

“My freshman year, I was super stoked when I started seeing our plays and our play calls and stuff,” Allen said. “And just through four years, (the playbook) just opened up so much.”

Everyone acknowledged they won’t take anyone by surprise this season.

“I think all the surprise was was gone after last year’s performance,” Garner said.

“People are going to be expecting us to be good again,” Myers added. “So no, I don’t think we’re going to catch anyone off guard this year.”

Allen is up for the extra challenge.

“I feel like there’s just maybe extra pressure added to our team to come up with the same result as we did last year. But I mean, pressure just gives you something to work at.”