Wake up in time to get to practice at 6:45 a.m., work up to a 15-hour day harvesting potatoes, and then go to sleep to get up and do it again. That’s the life of a high school athlete in southeastern Idaho for weeks during the season known to locals as spud harvest.
Despite the fact that they have to go to practice several times a week, these athletes are some of the local potato farmers’ best employees.
“The kids who play sports are really good workers,” says potato farmer Cade Crapo, who owns Crapo Farms in St. Anthony with his family. “They’re willing to go early to practice, and they work hard all day. The kids who are playing sports have the work-hard attitude already because they play sports and that kind of goes hand in hand.”
The farmers do have to hire extra workers to make up for the athletes’ time at practice, but Crapo says it’s well worth it. He says high school-aged youth are the perfect employees for spud harvest because they are able to work long hours for the couple weeks while their adult counterparts work full-time jobs.
Crapo Farms has several crews, but the one Cade manages has 30 to 35 kids, who he says are critical to getting potatoes harvested before the weather changes for the worse.
“We just can’t do it without them,” Crapo says. “They are our truck drivers, they are our sorters, they are running our crossovers. We can’t dig the crop without them—it’s critical that they come and help.”
Kohl Nielson is a running back and defensive back for the North Fremont High football team and a state champion wrestler in the winter. He’s been working spud harvest since he was 13 years old. This fall,he is working for Rex Baum Farms in Ashton. Nielson says spud harvest makes their practices more difficult.
“Your body’s tired and you just feel groggy a little bit,” Nielson says. “Practice is tough. Getting hit while you’re wanting to go home and get some sleep is tough.”
Each of the four high schools in the Upper Snake River Valley gives students a break from school for harvest.
Breklynn Gee runs cross country for South Fremont High School. She grew up with her father working for Crapo Farms. Though he no longer works for the Crapos full-time, he comes back to help with the farm during the busy spud harvest. Breklynn started working for the Crapos last year. She says her work schedule changes depending on weather and what they need to get done at work.
“Really the hours are not planned,” Gee says. “I just kind of take it how it comes. Usually I go to practice in the morning, then I go to work for the rest of the day.”
With practice at 6:45 a.m., waking up after a long night of harvesting potatoes can be rough.
“Sometimes it’s really hard to find the motivation to get up and go run,” Gee says. “I just really have to think about my team and being an example. I’ve made commitments, and I hate breaking promises. I like to keep my commitments. Some days it is hard, but I get past it.”
Aubree Mace plays volleyball for Sugar-Salem High School. She also works for Crapo Farms but works under Coy Crapo who is a friend of her father’s from high school. This is her second year harvesting spuds.
Crapo says working spuds can be monotonous, especially for kids just starting the job.
“You weed out the weaklings pretty quick,” Crapo says. “They find out how monotonous it is the first couple of days, but then they kind of get into the work and find out what it’s like and kinda get calloused over.”
Though working the spuds is hard work, that doesn’t mean fun is off the table. Nielson remembers a day when it started raining and the whole crew found themselves in a mud fight.
“It makes an interesting culture with 30 kids,” Crapo says. “They’ve all got their personalities, and they’re different.”
Crapo says high school-aged workers typically make between $10 to $12 an hour.
“It’s for a short period of time,” Crapo says. “Lots of hours, but lots of work gets accomplished in those hours. So it's worth it for us to make it worth it for them.”
No team in the Upper Valley is unaffected by spud harvest, but in the long run, many of these athletes feel it benefits them.
“I think I’m benefiting because I’m getting mentally tough,” Gee says. “I’m learning how to do hard things. In my sport, that’s really something you need to learn how to do because a race is never going to be easy. I think doing something like this ,having to work long hours and then wake in the morning and go run and do it all over again, helps me (become a better athlete).”