THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Keeping the north the north in football

Sure, it’s a little strange and odd, with Clark Fork, Wallace, Lakeside and Genesis Prep playing in the 2A Scenic Idaho Conference in volleyball this fall.

However, in the 1A North Star League, Clark Fork, Wallace, Lakeside and Coeur du Christ compete in football only.

Mullan and Kootenai, which are in co-ops with other programs in football, still are in the North Star League in other sports with Coeur du Christ — a league champion in its inaugural year as of Thursday.

But make no mistake, those rivalries still run deep on the football field.

THE TRIO of Wallace, Clark Fork and Lakeside all took advantage of the Idaho High School Activities Association’s new rule where programs could petition down a classification in separate sports this year, all opting to play at the 1A level in football only.

“We thought it would give the north the best chance to have a league,” Wallace coach Jared Young said. “Those were the teams we’d have to play, and I think it’s good for North Idaho for us to be together. We don’t have a lot of teams here, so financially and school-wise, it just makes sense.”

Genesis Prep does not offer football. Mullan is in a co-op with St. Regis (Mont.) and Kootenai is in its first full year of a co-op with St. Maries. After years of playing in Idaho, Mullan/St. Regis opted to play a Montana schedule this fall.

The holes in the schedule left Wallace scrambling to fill four games on its schedule. 

Well, two.

“We picked up two right away when Coeur du Christ came in,” Wallace athletic director Corey Miller said. “And it was amazing just how quickly they came in. They told us they were going to have football last spring, and it was amazing because it’s not easy to put a football program together. We usually start scheduling in March or April and it just really came together.”

Wallace added nonleague games with Timberline (Weippe) and St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse to fill out its schedule.

“We’d had quite a few losing seasons in a row, so when you send an email seeking games, teams want to play you,” Miller said. “Kendrick, it’s probably hard for them to find games. We’ve got nine games this year.”

WALLACE WAS once a member of the Central Idaho League, long before St. Maries joined and played in 11-man games against Potlatch and Grangeville, among other programs.

The Miners still played two 11-man games as a member of the North Star League against St. Maries and Kellogg before moving into the 8-man schedule.

Under the new classification rules adopted this year by the Idaho High School Activities Association, schools with enrollment from 179 to 90 fall in the 2A classification, with 1A from 89 and below.

"We haven’t been at 179 in maybe two decades now," Miller said. "It used to be 159 when (former Wallace athletic director Dave) Rounds was here. We’d be at 162 and he’d petition down to be in that league. Now, they’ve bumped it up with two playing classifications. We’re at 130 kids in the school this year, so we’d have to grow by 40%.”

In recent years, Wallace has struggled to get players out for the football program, but have 26 on the roster this year, even fielding a JV team for a game against Mullan/St. Regis last Monday.

“We’ve got that problem where we don’t have any kids coming in because there’s no place to live,” Miller said. “There’s no places here, or Mullan, to build houses and people are having tough times finding places to live in the valley in general.”

Young added that a return to the White Star League, a mix of District 1 and 2 teams in 1A Division II, was not on the table.

“It’s a lot of travel and kids miss school,” Young said. “We tried something like that years ago, and it’s tough. It’s a good league, and something we might have to do in the future. But we really want to keep the north the north.”

First-year Lakeside coach Jerry Louie-McGee, the former Lake City High and Montana star, has the Knights at the top of the league at 3-0 after a 70-48 win over Wallace at the Marimn Health Coeur Center on Sept. 13.

“Wherever they put us, we’re just going to go out, play hard and compete,” said Louie-McGee, who was hired to be the school’s coach last June. “When I came into this Day 1, I knew this was a special group. One thing I’m proud about them is that they take everything to heart. They take it personally and they want to win. And a lot of those things, you can’t instill into players. It’s embedded in them.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.