Tiger tandem

SPIRIT LAKE - With a logging background and business to take care of while playing for the Timberlake High football team this season, identical twin brothers Bryan and Greg Mason have their options wide open.

Bryan is a 6-foot-5, 240-pound, returning second-team all-state offensive tackle for the Tigers; while Greg, born seven minutes earlier in Coeur d'Alene, is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound guard. Both starting seniors play defensive tackle and on offense, the two play on both the right side and left side of the line, depending on the formation.

The brothers, who were born on June 9, 1996, have worked for the past few years for Mason's Logging in Rathdrum. The business, open since 1979, is owned by their grandfather Ron Mason, 74, and co-managed by their father, 46-year-old Jim. Their uncles Jerry, Ron Jr. and Pat are also co-managers.

Mason's Logging runs logging equipment and work with clients such as Inland Empire Paper Company, which owns 116,000 acres of timberland around Idaho and Washington and it is the biggest landowner in Kootenai County. The business cuts several trees down, delivers them to the mill, along with various other duties. They operate locally.

In the recent past, the Mason brothers were considering following their family into the logging business. But with their talents in football - both have played varsity football since late in their sophomore seasons - things may change in terms of playing at the college level. They also enjoy hunting, snowmobiling, riding around on four-wheelers and of course, Greg drives around in a big red Ford F-250 truck.

"We've been considering working there (after graduating from Timberlake)", Bryan said. "I love to be out in the woods. We just run the equipment, change the oil in the trucks, hook chokers. I want to go play college football; I don't know yet. I want to stay in the state. After that, whatever happens. I'm thinking about majoring in forestry in college or becoming a diesel mechanic."

Timberlake had a successful season last year, finishing 6-4 and winning the Intermountain League before losing 35-21 at home in the first round of the state 3A football playoffs to Fruitland. In that game, Bryan helped his team rush for 263 yards and two touchdowns.

"They're great kids," Timberlake coach Roy Albertson said. "They're real good in the weight room during the year. They come in the summertime. They're very competitive amongst each other. Bryan was the lineman of the year, I think Greg would like to do that this year."

Albertson said Bryan plays on the left side as a defensive tackle, Greg plays on the right. Greg will also play some defensive end.

"For a couple of years there, they thought they were going to go and work with dad and grandpa in the logging industry," Albertson said. "Now they've realized that might not be possible and they've taken more of an interest of wanting to play at another level ... they can definitely play for an NAIA school but they'd have to probably go to a JC."

In mid-September of last season, while running 20-yard sprints in practice as a junior, Greg suffered a pelvic avulsion, which according to WebMD.com, is an avulsion fracture which occurs when an injury causes a ligament or tendon to tear off or avulse, from a small piece of a bone to which it is attached. As a result of the injury, he had to miss most of the season.

"It was just where some of the bone ripped away from ... I'm not even sure where it was," Greg said. "It was somewhere over here (pointing to his right side) ... I don't remember the pain, I was just mad. After football season (I was able to walk) in February. I had physical therapy, movements at the physical therapist. They would move my legs."

With their father Jim being 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, the brothers said they get their size from their late great-grandfather, Bud Mason, who was 6-foot-3, 280 pounds, and worked for the U.S. Forest Service for several years. Bud was a quarterback and cornerback on the Lakeland football team, graduating in 1986. In the 1987 and 1988 seasons, Jim played cornerback for Eastern Oregon University, an NAIA school in La Grande that competed against Whitworth, then he went back to logging.

"They've grown up around that logging equipment all their lives ... since they were 4 or 5 years old," Jim said. "They love being around it, it's just second nature to them. They've worked on every piece of equipment we've had. They love to do it and if it consists of anything to do with the woods, they're there."

Jim also said the Mason twins are looking at possibly playing for the University of Montana Western, a NAIA school in Dillon, and that one or both may return to logging or work as a forester, which involves timber harvesting, planting trees and ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action.

There are a few statistics the Masons can hang their hats on. Last season, Preston Rhodes, a senior last season, rushed for more than 800 yards, and returning running backs Daniel Buck (more than 750 yards) and Josh Lampert (500 yards) also benefited from Bryan's blocking.

After two games in the Tigers' 2-0 season this season, as defensive tackles, Greg had eight tackles and two sacks, while Bryan has six tackles.