Bruce Bertrand
Bruce Bertrand is in his mid-sixties and has been a sports fan almost his entire life, and as a sports fan, he has felt the agony of defeat more often than the thrill of victory. But in the summer of 2019, Bruce was living with his two sons, Michael, who was twenty-seven, and Ryan, twenty-three. Ryan was entering the second year of his Master’s program in psychology and his third year as part of the Kuna high school football staff, coaching the receivers and special teams. In the two previous years, Kuna had a combined record of 8-10 and missed the playoffs in both those seasons, finishing sixth in the conference the year before. The expectations were not high coming into the 2019 season. Three teams in their conference were rated in the top five in the state preseason polls, and a fourth team made it to the state semi-finals in 2018. But that is why they play the games, right? And Kuna would play thirteen games this season all the way to the state championship game.
