In the predawn dark, a sliver of light from inside Pocatello High’s weight room falls onto the sidewalk.

Behind a blue door cracked open with a weight plate, a small group of Pocatello football players get their morning workout in as the city wakes up, doing sets of pullups and lunges as Drake and Travis $cott thumps out of the speakers.

Most of the time, this wouldn’t be an uncommon sight — the Indians’ weightlifting sessions are generally scheduled for the morning.

But now, in-season, three days before they play Century in a game that carries the pressure of multiple heavy tags — district title, crosstown rivalry, state playoffs on the line?

That’s a bit different for Pocatello.

Because of the demands that come with being in middle of a full football season, Indians coach Dave Spillett has shut down morning weightlifting sessions during the season in past years.

But this season, something changed.

“Hunter was hounding me, saying ‘I don’t want to stop, I want to keep lifting,’” Spillett said. “And so when you’ve got guys like that that are begging to get in here and do work, and he’s not going to have grades issues or anything like that, I’m going to open it up for dudes like that.”

Some days, linebacker Hunter Killian is the only person in the gym with Spillett when the coach opens it up at 6 a.m.

This summer, with all the gyms closed because of COVID-19, Killian would ask Spillett if he could come over and lift weights in Spillett’s garage.

It’s emblematic of a hard-working attitude that’s made Killian one of the top defensive players in the state over the past two years.

As a sophomore in 2019, he stepped into the lineup when senior Jarett Lindley suffered a season-ending injury and ended up as a second-team all-state selection.

Still just a junior in 2020, he has 82 tackles, seven tackles for loss, three interceptions and four forced fumbles in seven games as the Indians (6-1) prepare to host Century (4-3) at Iron Horse Stadium on Friday.

It’s a game that will decide the 4A District 5 title, clinch a state playoff berth for the winner and, of course, decide crosstown bragging rights.

And Pocatello will go into it led by a junior linebacker who, ever since he’s stepped into the lineup, has carried with him the poise of a veteran.

“Hunter had to learn how to be the leader of the defense as a sophomore, which has made things just natural for him this year,” Spillett said. “He’s got everything. He’s obviously got the football knowledge, he’s got the work ethic, he’s got the attitude. But away from the field, he’s got the grades. Great kid, great family, he really is one of those guys that’s got it all.

“He is a really big part of our success over the last two years.”

***

Seeing the article that Killian’s mom posted on Facebook, Spillett just had to laugh.

It was an old Idaho Falls Post Register clipping from the days when Killian’s dad, Scott, was a high school star at Skyline.

“No one stood out more than Killian,” former Post Register sports editor Chris Wood declared, recapping his 13 tackles and two TFLs in the Grizzlies’ 28-0 win over Idaho Falls in a state semifinal.

For Spillett, reading that was just like deja vu — and then there was the picture.

“It was like I’m looking right at Hunter,” Spillett said. “They looked like twins. I read the article, it was pretty funny to read, because basically it outlines who Hunter is now, and they were talking about his dad back in high school. ... It’s talking about tough-nosed football, to a tee, it’s describing what Hunter is. And they look identical.”

Killian, as Spillett says, was bred to be a linebacker, and it’s tough to find someone more picture-perfect in the role then the Pocatello junior.

Listed at 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, he’s long and rangy. Playing downhill, he can be a guided missile in the hole, smashing into ballcarriers so hard it’s a surprise their shoes and socks don’t come off at the hit like it’s a Looney Tunes cartoon.

“I’ve always thought it was a cool position,” Killian said. “Linebackers are leaders of the defense most of the time, and you get to have the big hits and everything. ... I like to play fast and have fun, that’s my main goal. What my dad tells me every day is just, whatever you do, do it fast. So if you’re going to make a mistake, do it 100 miles an hour.”

Killian was primarily a defensive end in youth football, but switched to linebacker when he got to Pocatello. Killian won a starting spot at outside linebacker as a sophomore, but when Lindley, who Spillett thought might have been an all-state player himself, went down, Killian shifted inside to middle linebacker.

Suddenly, just a few games into his high school career, Killian was the leader of the Indians defense. When coaches sent the plays in, he was the one making the calls in the huddle and, more than ever, he was expected to make plays.

“The nerves last year were crazy,” Killian said. “I remember the Century game last year was crazy, I couldn’t sleep the night before. I was shaking all day at school. But once we got into the game, it was fun, of course. We did lose that game, but we learned a ton from that game.”

Shaking off the nerves, Killian helped lead the Indians to four wins in six games down the stretch, clinching their first playoff berth since 2011.

Along the way, Killian discovered that, having become one by default, he really liked being a leader.

“It’s not something that he does sometimes,” Spillett said. “He’s the first guy to go slap someone on the head and tell them they did a great job. Sometimes young guys think that leading means they get to scream and yell at guys and feel like they’re the boss, and Hunter’s the exact opposite. ... That’s a pretty rare quality for a young guy.”

If the Indians win Friday, they’ll have made it back-to-back playoff appearances — and three in a row might be on the way.

Killian is just one of a strong class of juniors that broke into the lineup last year for Pocatello. Quarterback Zach Park, receiver Matt Christensen and running back Ryan Payne are also part of the class that’s started to return the Indians to glory.

“Going into (last) summer, I knew that I was going to open it up and we were going to have battles and competition everywhere, and I made sure that our kids knew that,” Spillett said. “I don’t care if you’re a sophomore, junior or senior, we’re going to roll out the best guys and we’re going to be very competitive. It wasn’t a surprise, the competition was wide open and some of those guys went out and grabbed some of those spots.”

It’s a class that’s aware of the struggles that Pocatello football has had in the last decade — and the narratives that have been built up around them — and decided to stomp on them.

It’s a class that’s seen where the Indians have recently resided in the local gridiron hierarchy and turned that into a chip on their shoulder.

“At Pocatello, I just believe that we earn everything we get,” Killian said. “Nothing is handed to us, we have to earn it. We’re practicing at a dog park every day. We’ve never really had a home stadium that we call home, anything like that. Century has their new field, Iron Horse for Highland, but I guess it’s just another thing that we have to deal with. ... I say it gives us a big chip on our shoulder, because we want to have these nice things. It seems like sometimes we get the short end of the stick, but we have the best record in the city right now.”

If Pocatello wins Friday, it’ll complete the best regular season for the school since 2010.

But no matter what happens, when Monday morning comes around and the city starts to wake up, you’ll find Hunter Killian in the weight room at Pocatello, the light and the music peeking through the crack in the door, onto the sidewalk.

“Stuff like this, waking up early, working out, all the hard work gets you prepared for games like this,” Killian said. “That’s what I kind of tell myself now, is I put in the work each week, so now I’m ready for the Friday game. I’ve always believed that hard work gets you anywhere you need to go, so if you’re waking up, working out everyday, you’re going to have good gamedays.”