Competing On Level Field Lc’S Prospects Boosted With New Fall Season

How soon could the change of high school seasons for North Idaho boys soccer teams result in a state championship for a Panhandle team?

Perhaps as soon as this fall. That’s when North Idaho teams start playing in the same season the state championship is decided.

All regions but North Idaho have held their seasons in the fall since the sport’s inception at the high school level, and state-qualifying Panhandle teams have gone to state every year knowing they would be at a disadvantage before ever stepping on the field.

Many years, North Idaho teams have traveled to state having played just two matches - those being their state-qualifying matches - only to square off in state openers against teams with 16 to 20 matches under their belts.

So North Idaho administrators last month voted to level the playing field.

Lake City is using the final spring season as a tuneup for the fall.

LC coach Jim Facciano decided to keep 20 players on varsity, four more than usual, to prepare for the fall. Of the 13 players who’ll return, nine are juniors.

They’re the heart and soul of a team Facciano expects to challenge for a state championship.

The LC juniors, along with nearly half of Coeur d’Alene High’s team, were on the Coeur d’Alene Sting team that won the U-16 State Cup last spring and advanced to the Far West Regionals.

So it’s not surprising that LC and CdA were both undefeated at the midway mark of the league season Tuesday when they met in the first of two league matches. The talent-laden Timberwolves (7-0 in league, 10-0 overall) were too much for the Viks in a 5-1 decision.

The majority of the players on the city teams will begin practicing for the State Cup as a U-17 team when the prep season ends following the North Idaho Cup in early May. The Sting hope to repeat their state title when the State Cup is held in CdA on Memorial Day weekend.

LC was picked as the team to beat this season largely because most of the talent on the State Cup team attends school there.

“Our approach has been that the drive to a state championship begins now,” Facciano said.

LC is undefeated in league in Facciano’s three years as coach. The Timberwolves posted a 10-0 mark two years ago. They were 12-0-3 last year.

But both LC seasons were abbreviated early in the season-ending North Idaho Cup. LC should turn its postseason woes around this year.

The Timberwolves are playing with better focus. Some of the drive, several players say, carries over from last fall when they thought they should have won a state title. LC went to state as North Idaho’s top seed. After a first-round victory, the T-Wolves fell to traditional power and eventual state champ Boise 2-0. Sandpoint knocked off LC 4-3 in the consolation final.

“We know we can win a state championship because we beat the Boise teams (in the State Cup),” junior midfielder Sam Stroh said. “Last fall was disappointing. We really felt we could have won.”

Stroh, juniors Connor Quinn (midfielder) and J.J. Barlow (midfielder) and senior Cole Thompson (sweeper) have been playing together since fourth grade, and most of the juniors have been together at least three years.

The T-Wolves juniors were in seventh-grade when CdA overcame the disadvantage of not playing in the fall and won a state title in 1993, the year before LC opened.

Thompson will miss not playing with his friends in the fall.

“I think they’ll definitely have a chance to win state,” Thompson said. “We’ve been getting better every match.”

Junior forwards Carmine Terracciano (14) and Philimon Tudor (13) lead in scoring. The team’s best quality, unselfish play, is also reflected in the statistics.

Quinn leads the Timberwolves in assists with 11. Stroh and senior forward Brian Landers are tied with eight.

“Sam and Connor are our playmakers,” Facciano said. “They have a great ability to see the whole field.”

The forwards are adept at using their athleticism to finish attacks.

Tudor moved to Coeur d’Alene from Zambia as a freshman. He played what he called “unorganized” soccer while growing up in southern Africa, but has polished his game in the prep and club programs since his arrival.

“His strength is his ability to handle the ball, and he does it with style,” Facciano said.

“My teammates expect me to score and that motivates me a lot,” Tudor said. “We’ve got a lot of good individual players.”

Terracciano, who moved from Sandpoint last summer, is LC’s most committed athlete and a difficult offensive player to defend.

“He makes great runs and has a great shot,” Facciano said.

A starter at Sandpoint last year, Terracciano was unsure how LC would stack up against his former team. Last week, LC defeated Sandpoint 4-2 in the teams’ first league match.

“We’re playing very well,” Terracciano said. “We just have to keep playing unselfishly.”

Who will they play? The one drawback for the switch in soccer seasons for North Idaho League boys teams is the loss of games against Washington teams. But Lake City coach Jim Facciano doesn’t see filling out the schedule being a problem, especially with the NIL’s growth to eight teams in recent years. All NIL teams will play a 14-match schedule. LC and Coeur d’Alene are planning a preseason tournament on Labor Day weekend involving at least three Boise teams and another NIL team. “So we should have about as many matches as we’ve had in the spring,” Facciano said. Facciano dismisses the notion that turnouts for soccer and football will be affected by being played in the same season. Fewer and fewer athletes have played both sports in the past five years, and the majority of crossover athletes have been placekickers.