THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016
It’s no secret really that small communities rally around their schools.
School events like concerts, plays and anything extracurricular, you’ll have a hard time finding a seat in some cases.
So when the community of St. Maries rallied around its football team during the 12-0 season that was capped by a state 2A championship a few weeks ago, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.
WHEN THE Lumberjacks took on North Fremont of Ashton in the state quarterfinals at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, the fans packed into a section of the Dome to cheer them on to a 33-14 win.
The next two weeks, it was more of the same as St. Maries beat Bear Lake 20-14 then rolled past Declo in the championship game 31-8, both at Holt Arena in Pocatello.
It marked the school’s first state title since a state 3A volleyball title in 2009, when the Lumberjacks finished 29-4 to win at Coeur d’Alene High.
This time was different as the football program advanced to its first semifinal, as well as final this season. This group of players is no stranger to success at the state level, advancing to the semifinals in basketball and baseball in the last two years.
“With all the state experience they’ve had in the last three years, it’s exciting for them to get over the hump,” said longtime St. Maries coach Bryan Chase, who is in his third year as boys basketball coach. “It’s pretty exciting to see them get over the hump. I’m hoping that it carries over.”
Chase — also the golf coach at St. Maries — has taught business and economics at St. Maries since 1997.
“I think I was just as excited as they were,” Chase said. “I think I lost my voice after the championship game. There was nothing I wanted more than to watch them finish it. They just made plays when they had to.”
DENNIS HUMPHREY, in his fifth season as Lumberjacks wrestling coach, coached this group of seniors when they were just starting to learn the game in third grade.
“I’m still pretty attached to this group,” said Humphrey, whose son Hayden redshirted on the Montana-Western football team this fall. “I stopped and stayed with Hayden and we went down to watch the title game. It was pretty fun to do and I took my old high school coach with me. It was pretty fun to watch them make this happen.”
Former St. Maries quarterback Luke Feasline just finished his freshman year at Western, which finished 7-4 in the NAIA’s Frontier Conference.
Seeing that state title dream come true even reminded Humphrey of a classic movie.
“Seeing this happen for a town like St. Maries reminds me of Hoosiers,” Humphrey said. “It was pretty neat to see their hard work pay off.”
That hard work began when most of the seniors were still learning the game.
“This group of kids, they always wanted more during practice,” Humphrey said. “We’d work them hard during practice and they’d always ask for more. Some of the parents started to give us crap because of how hard we were working them, but the kids always wanted more. It’s pretty neat to watch them win it finally.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.