SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – Central Valley football is putting last season in the rearview mirror.
The Bears finished 2-8 in 2025, but as they prepare for a new season, the focus around the program is on creating a different identity — one built on positivity, accountability and the tradition that has long surrounded Central Valley football.
Junior wide receiver and defensive back Noah Krogh said the biggest difference has been the way teammates respond to one another.
“Last year we would just play the blame game,” Krogh said. “There was not a lot of — we wouldn’t lift teammates up and that was just a big struggle. But now this year, we’ve got a lot, all 22 that are on the field. We’ve got just positivity.”
That mindset has been a major focus throughout the offseason.
Senior wide receiver Witten Fletcher said the Bears are intentionally avoiding dwelling on what happened last year while trying to establish a new standard for the program.
“Positivity, moving everything forward,” Fletcher said. “We have just not been focusing on last year. We want to create a new identity for ourselves. We want to be a positive group encouraging each other.”
Central Valley also has a relatively young roster, making that accountability even more important as the Bears head into the season.
Junior running back Ben Butner said the team has emphasized giving full effort every day.
“It’s like we don’t tolerate that 80%, 90%,” Butner said. “We’re pedal to the metal the whole time. And that’s just a mindset we have this year and going to continue for a long time.”
But the effort to turn things around isn’t limited to the players.
Head coach Ryan Butner has brought several former Central Valley players onto his coaching staff. About half of the staff are CV graduates, giving the current players a direct connection to the program’s history.
“About half our staff, I think, is CV grads and they’ve gone on to play some post-high school,” Butner said. “And so they bring a lot of experience and some energy to our practices and they fit in great.”
That connection to the past is important for a program with a long history of success.
Fletcher remembers watching older Central Valley teams during his freshman and sophomore years and said those teams showed him what it takes to build a winning culture.
“The biggest thing I took away from those older guys is the way they treated football as not just a sport, but as like a livelihood,” Fletcher said. “Everything they did was about the team, was about football. They would help each other out. It was very bonded team and we’re just trying to get back to that.”
The Bears also know the changes they want to make have to translate to the field.
Butner said Central Valley’s run game is an area the team has targeted for improvement after an inefficient season offensively.
“Our run game needs to improve,” Butner said. “It was not very efficient last year, and so we really want to improve on that side of it.”
For the players, though, the goal goes beyond simply improving the record. They want to restore the pride and expectations that have traditionally surrounded Central Valley football.
“We’re wiping that slate clean, starting fresh, and we are creating a new path for ourselves,” Fletcher said. “We want to just flip the script from last year.”
Central Valley opens its season Friday night against Logos.
COPYRIGHT 2026 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
