All-State teams announced

Mullan sophomore Skye Gallaway ran through enough tackles to earn second-team All-State honors in Division 2 (Photo Courtesy: Sherry Leitz)

The Idaho Statesman released its annual All-State football teams for Idaho, including separate teams for Idaho's Division 1 and Division 2 classifications in 1A.

Being named to one of these All-State football teams, either first or second team, is a tremendous honor for any of the players and we salute them all. Fans will almost certainly debate some players who they felt deserved more recognition but we salute the Idaho Statesman in Boise for taking the time and putting in the hours to compile these lists.

First of all, these teams are based solely on the votes of coaches. That's it. Is it a little surprising, for example, that Kendrick's Jerry Gorbett didn't make the first or second team in Division 2? Some fans will certainly think so. He's a tremendous player who had a strong season. But coaches went with Carey's Houston Hennefer and Garden Valley's Darell Peppers, who also had extremely strong seasons. That doesn't diminish what Gorbett did and what he meant to his team.

(Again, using Gorbett for sake of example, not to deliberately single him out for any reason)

A few of our own Idaho8Man observations:

1) We were really happy to see Mullan sophomore Skye Gallaway (2nd-Team WR in Div 2) and Wilder senior Ezequiel Vargas (2nd-Team RB in Div 1) earn accolades. With Gallaway, we often see deserving kids left off based on his team's record. But the coaches deserve credit here - Gallaway earned it and the coaches voted for him.

And Vargas, we felt, was one of the more underrated players all season. Versatile, tough, quick. He was the key that made that Wilder engine go. He was playing as well as anyone in 8-man football over the last 3-4 weeks of the season.

2) With about two weeks to go in the regular season, we did an informal survey of about a dozen 8-man football coaches, both Division 1 and Division 2, across Idaho to get a sense of who they thought would win the 8-man Player of the Year. The most-mentioned name - and it wasn't close - was Deary senior Jalen Kirk. So it came as a mild surprise to see he was a second-team honoree in Division 2. The two first-team honorees, Tri-Valley's Teddy Ertel and Salmon River's Canyon Harper, both had outstanding seasons as well and we're guessing the voting was tight. Kirk is an exceptional player who many think has a good opportunity to play college football. And second-team All-State is nothing to hang your head over. For anyone.

3) There's a lot of youth on the All-State teams. Harper, a junior, is now a three-time All-State honoree. The Division 2 Player of the Year, Carey's Porter Mecham, is also a junior. First-team Division 2 LB Orion Southwick of Tri-Valley is a junior. Butte County's Keyan Cummins, a sophomore, was second-team in Division 2 on both offense and defense. Other players who have at least a year left - Galloway (sophomore), Deary's Eli Frazier (junior), Rockland's Pratt Matthews (junior), Carey's Omar Morales (junior), Valley's Jason Hardy (junior), Lapwai's Kendall Leighton (junior), Oakley's Chandler Jones (sophomore), Challis kicker Vetle Ravn (junior), Prairie's Spencer Schumaker and Caleb McWilliams are both juniors, Oakley's Austin Bedke (junior), Challis's Mitch Cotant (junior), Genesee's Kolby Moser (junior), Valley's Zane Mussmann (junior), Challis's Blaine Ammar (junior), Valley's Collin Tverdy (sophomore), Lapwai's Tui Moliga (junior), Prairie's Owen Anderson (sophomore), Valley's Nic Anderson (junior) and Genesee's Daniel Lindquist (junior).

In Division 1 specifically, there were 37 players honored, counting Player of the Year Edward Becker of Genesee ... nearly half of them (18) were either sophomores or juniors.

4) Thinking ahead to next year already? If you want to play the "look-ahead" game, here are some names to watch for possible Player of the Year honorees in either Division 1 or Division 2: Chandler Jones from Oakley, Keyan Cummins from Butte County, Kendall Leighton from Lapwai, Jason Hardy from Valley, Canyon Harper from Salmon River and, of course, Porter Mecham could repeat in Division 2, just to throw some names out there.

Want a possible dark-horse candidate? Bubba Summers from Clearwater Valley. He'll be a junior RB/LB for the Rams next fall.

This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list. Probably not too many people were pegging Becker or Mecham as runaway candidates at this point last year.

#Idaho8Man