Rising Sun Haueter making a splash

By Jeff Morrow, Tri-City Herald sports editor

KENNEWICK -- Recently, Southridge's Tony Reiboldt kept looking at the film of last year's game against Wenatchee, and something became clear to the second-year head coach and his staff.

"We were just looking at how effective Chris Haueter ran the ball," Reiboldt said.

Somewhere during the 2010 high school football season, that fact got lost, Reiboldt admits.

"Our offense kind of metamorphasized," he said. "We really turned into more of a passing team by Week 5. By Week 5, it was evident we had a quarterback (Matt Mendenhall) who could sling the ball all over the field. So we went more to the air at that time."

While Mendenhall was tops among CBBN 3A quarterbacks in passing yardage with 2,602, he had just 14 TD passes to 10 interceptions, and the Suns finished the season at 4-6.