Mullan, St. Regis co-op approved

Reinforcements are on the way in 2018 for the Mullan football team (Photo Courtesy, Sherry Leitz)

IdahoSports.com reported last week that help is on its way for the Mullan High football team and it is coming from 40 miles east across the state line in Montana.

The proposed football co-operative agreement between Mullan and St. Regis (MT) has been approved by the high school athletic associations of both states and the two schools will form one team, competing as an Idaho squad, in the fall of 2018.

“What I’m most excited about selfishly is having a chance to compete,” Mullan coach Stetson Spooner told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “I like the idea of competition in practice and dependability, if someone misses practice, we’ve got someone else to throw in.”

Mullan and St. Regis have competed against each other in non-conference action in recent years. St. Regis beat Mullan in 2016 after Mullan toppled St. Regis in 2009 and 2014.

Some have wondered why Mullan wouldn’t co-op football (or, on a larger scale, athletics in general) with neighboring Wallace High School, located less than ten miles away. Boiled down to its simplest explanation, the combined enrollment for the two schools would push them into the 2A classification.

Spooner told Idaho8Man that he thinks the combined roster could be around 16 players, a big boost for a Tiger squad that seems to have hovered between seven and ten players for the past few years, including one season competing at a JV level as a six-man team due to low numbers.

The biggest benefit to having at least 16 players on the roster? The ability to practice eight on eight. The value of good practice repetitions is hard to understate and not just for the starters, but also the younger players coming off the bench. It gives them a better chance to be prepared and succeed as well.

Mullan is coming off of a 1-6 season, picking up its first win over an Idaho 8-man program since October of 2013 when the Tigers defeated Timberline of Weippe in late October. Spooner also has the advantage of one of the state’s top returning 1A players in junior-to-be Skye Galloway, who was a second-team All-State honoree last fall as a sophomore.

The District I “North Star” teams – Clark Fork, Lakeside, Kootenai and Mullan – have failed to advance to the 1A Division 2 state playoffs each of the past four seasons. District I and II have shared two berths with Deary and Kendrick of the White Pine League claiming those two spots from 2014 to 2017.

The last District I North Star League team to qualify for the 1A Division 2 state playoffs is Kootenai in 2013. The last District I North Star League to win a state playoff game was also Kootenai, who defeated Tri-Valley, 58-32, on November 5, 2011.

Want a little more history? The last time a current North Star team besides Kootenai reached the 1A Division 2 playoffs? That would be Mullan in both 2008 and 2009. Those Tiger teams were ousted in the first round by Kootenai and, in each of those two seasons, there were no White Pine teams from District II to qualify for the playoffs.

#Idaho8Man