Shakeup in the North Star League

High school sports are supposed to be about fun.

But like it or not, those boys basketball games in the North Star League last year weren’t fun.

In many cases, they weren’t close either.

So for now, some of the smaller schools (Division II) opted not to play Genesis Prep Academy of Post Falls this season. Genesis Prep will play as an independent this year before moving up to the Division I level when the classification cycle changes.

“They’ve chose not to play us,” Genesis Prep principal Conrad Underdahl said. “And we’ve honored that request.”

The change comes in volleyball, boys basketball and girls basketball. Boys basketball has been a sport dominated by Genesis Prep since joining the league, going 39-1 in its four years as a member of the North Star League. The school’s boys basketball team won state titles in 2018 and 2017 and were third in 2019.

Genesis Prep had its 31-game win streak in league snapped at Wallace, a Division I school, on Dec. 13, 2018, then won seven straight in league by an average of 30.5 points to advance to state.

Genesis Prep’s girls basketball team advanced to the state 1A Division II title game in 2018, and also finished third in 2017 and fourth in 2019. Lakeside’s girls advanced to state in basketball in 2016 (finished fourth) and 2017.

As far as postseason play is concerned, Genesis Prep will enter the District 1 volleyball and basketball tournaments as the third seed, according to Lakeside co-athletic director Jerel Hight.

Lakeside, a Division II school, and Wallace, which plays as a Division I independent in football and volleyball, will continue to play Genesis Prep.

Division II North Star teams Kootenai, Clark Fork and Mullan chose not to play Genesis Prep during the regular season this year.

“We decided to keep playing them because in past years, the level of competition has been getting closer,” Hight said. “And we want to continue to give that level of competition and opportunity to our athletes. Our kids see those games as a challenge, and when a Genesis Prep game comes up on our schedule in any sport, they start to get an excitement you want to see in high school athletes. They want to beat the Jaguars, and every time we hit the court, we feel we have a shot. We want to continue to foster that excitement and challenge in our athletes.”

In their four years in the league, Genesis Prep’s girls have gone 24-11, winning the last three district championships. Lakeside won the district title in 2015-16, the last time Genesis Prep failed to qualify for state in girls basketball.

Underdahl said the Jaguars volleyball and basketball teams have been able to find other regional opponents to replace the missing league games. Genesis Prep’s basketball teams, in particular, already schedule much larger schools in nonleague play.

Genesis Prep’s volleyball team — 21-34 overall and 16-24 in league since joining the league in 2015 — has yet to qualify for state.

“We’ve been able to fill our schedule for the most part,” Underdahl said. “Not that we’ve got the kids coming back that we’ve had in previous years, but we want to compete with teams that are going to result in games that will be enjoyable to watch.”

And no, the change isn’t just about the lopsided games, school officials said.

“Getting beat by 60 points wasn’t really the issue,” said Mullan athletic director Stetson Spooner, who is also the football coach for the combined Mullan-St. Regis team. “The issue was more correlated with the fact that Division II school — the smallest division in the state due to rural location or extremely low enrollment due to surrounding environment low population — was located in the middle of the largest populated three cities in the north.”

Genesis Prep, as a private school, has no school boundaries, and can draw from a larger area than can the other North Star League schools. Also, Genesis Prep is able to accept F-1 (international) students, something the other league schools are unable to. Some of those students have been key members of Jaguars teams.

Kootenai canceled its football season last week due to low numbers. Of the eight that played on the Warrior varsity boys basketball team for the 2018-19 season, three have since graduated, and three have transferred, leaving that program in jeopardy.

“We don’t have any freshmen coming in, so unless some of those other kids step up, we’re going to be in the same boat (in basketball),” said Kootenai athletic director Doug Napierala, who is also the school’s football, girls basketball and track and field coach. “I’m going to monitor it a little closer and if we’ve got to make a decision to cancel that as well, it’s going to be done a lot earlier.”

Girls sports are also hurting at Kootenai, according to Napierala.

“On the first day of volleyball practice, we had two players show up,” Napierala said. “We’re looking at numbers right now that we won’t have a JV team for the near future.”

Lakeside was classified as Division I, then dropped to Division II in 2014 when enrollment numbers started to go down.

Mullan had only six players on its boys basketball roster last season, but played with five most of the season due to injuries. Mullan has played a JV girls schedule the past two years, but is scheduled to field a varsity squad this year.

The classification numbers in Division I for the current two-year cycle are 159-100 students, and 99 and below for Division II. For the 2020-22 cycle, Division I will be 159 to 85 students, and 84 and below for Division II.

“All credit to Genesis Prep as they continuously asked to be moved up two and three classifications larger, but were denied,” Spooner said. “Due to lack of fairness, we decided to flat out not play them and just see them in district competition. From myself personally, zero ill will has been felt or shown to Genesis Prep. Genesis Prep is a great school to work with and build the relationships that we have with each other.”

“Lakeside has experienced an influx of kids that weren’t on the radar five years ago,” Hight said. “I was the athletic director when we petitioned down because our class sizes were getting smaller and more people were leaving the area. Now, our population is growing, but this really hasn’t equated to bigger sports teams.”

Lakeside girls basketball coach Chris Dohrman also led his team to state in 2015 and 2017, beating Genesis Prep in the district title game in 2016 on the way to a fourth-place finish at state. Lakeside defeated Genesis Prep in the 2015 district title game as well, when the league only had one berth to state.

“I’ve never had any issues with Genesis Prep,” said Dohrman, who is also the Knights’ football coach. “The way they’re able to get players from different areas, it gives them an advantage. Their location, they can draw from the Post Falls area. Some of those other issues the other schools have, I don’t have myself.”

And if it means having to get past Genesis Prep to get to state in basketball, then Dohrman welcomes that game.

“If we’ve got to play them in a district tournament, then we should play them,” Dohrman said. “You don’t want to run into districts and have that be the first time that you see them. The last couple of years, they’ve been tough to beat with Rachel (Schroeder) and Bella (Murekatete).”

During the 2016-17 season, Lakeside’s girls took both regular season games against Genesis Prep, but fell 48-46 in the district championship game. Lakeside hasn’t beaten Genesis Prep since.

“The last few years, we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Dohrman said. “But we enjoy the challenge of playing them.”

“Participation here has always been a struggle,” Hight said. “We’ve always had a large portion of our school population that does not participate in any extracurricular activities, so our challenge has been finding ways to involve them in any sort of activity.”

Based on the adjusted classification numbers starting in 2020, only Kootenai and Mullan would remain at the Division II level, with Clark Fork, Lakeside and Genesis Prep joining Wallace in Division I. It’s possible Clark Fork could petition to remain in Division II.

The path to the state tournament in both divisions for the 2020-22 cycle is still unknown.

“I know Clark Fork is really close to, or just under that new 84 number, so hopefully they can stay,” Spooner said. “Lakeside is also a tremendous contributor to our league’s strength and we are hoping that the state will acknowledge and take into consideration their tremendous mid-year enrollment drop that seems to be an annual issue for them.”