Landscapes altered

The Intermountain and North Star leagues will look significantly different in the 2004-2005 school year.

It will be most conspicuous, perhaps, in football.

Lakeland of Rathdrum, a powerhouse in most boys’ and girls’ sports in the Intermountain League the past 20 years, has jumped up a classification notch to 4A and will play in the Inland Empire League.

Former IML member Wallace, meanwhile, which has spent the past 12 years living predominantly single in 2A, drops to 1A and joins the North Star League.

Just which team is poised to claim Lakeland’s dominant post in IML football remains to be seen. And whether Wallace, which will be the biggest kid on the NSL block, becomes an immediate bully in the 1A ranks, also remains to be seen.

Here’s a look at both conferences with most teams preparing for season openers Friday.

IML

Lakeland’s streak of conference championships came to an end last year at six straight. In fact, Lakeland slipped to third in its final trek through the IML.

Defending league champion Bonners Ferry and runner-up Timberlake were the league’s state playoff qualifiers. They’re expected to go head to head this fall when the league’s playoff allotment drops to one.

The order of finish, though, is expected to be reversed by Timberlake.

Talk at the Spirit Lake school is about more than its first league championship. But you’re not going to hear second-year coach Roy Albertson engaged in any such chatter.

“They’re (the Badgers) the champs until somebody dethrones them,” Albertson said. “They’re going to be the team to beat.”

But Albertson did allow that his team isn’t playing for anything less than a league title – not after losing twice at Bonners Ferry last year, including a heartbreaking loss in the first round of the state playoffs.

“Our kids have a lot to prove this year,” Albertson said. “We’ve got a bunch of seniors who were very sour about losing in the first round of the playoffs last year. They’ve worked very hard to get better.”

The Tigers have Oct. 15 circled on their calendar. That’s when Bonners Ferry visits in a game that should decide the league title.

With just one team advancing to the playoffs, though, Albertson cautions it wouldn’t be wise to look past any league games.

“Nobody can afford a league loss,” Albertson said.

Second-year Bonners Ferry coach Caleb Arceneaux said Lakeland’s departure will be felt by all teams.

“Losing Lakeland waters down our a league a little bit,” Arceneaux said. “We’ll miss Lakeland from the standpoint that we lose a full state berth. Lakeland has definitely been the dominate program for years.”

Still, Arceneaux figures the chase for the league title will be similar to last season.

“It came down to us and Timberlake last year and I see the two teams duking it out this year,” Arceneaux said.

Kellogg coach Tim Kimberling pegs Timberlake as the favorite. And he’s excited to see what the league will be like without Lakeland.

“It’s going to be a little more wide open without the powerhouse in there,” Kimberling said. “It’ll be interesting to see who steps up and becomes the powerhouse.”

NSL

To most teams, Wallace is a mystery. A big mystery. None of the eight-man teams has a previous history in football against the Silver Valley team because Wallace has played 11-man games.

Common sense, though, says that the Miners should have no problem adapting to the smaller game.

The change has kindled a revival under Wallace coach Dave Rounds.

“I was ready to bag it,” Rounds said of coaching. “It was getting kind of stale. And the long bus rides weren’t any fun. We’re not going to be making the long trips to Grangeville and get our butts kicked. I am excited.”

Also new to 1A eight-man this year is two Divisions. Division I will feature the biggest schools while Division II will feature the smallest schools.

Wallace and Lakeside fall into Division I while Clark Fork, Mullan, Kootenai and Post Falls Christian are in Division II. Wallace and Lakeside will go head to head to decide the Division I state playoff berth, while two Division II state berths will be determined among the other four teams.

Wallace is given the nod over Lakeside and Clark Fork is considered a lock for one of the two Division II berths. Mullan and Kootenai will battle for the other berth.

Clark Fork and Wallace figure to challenge for the league title.

Several of the teams will play each other twice. But just one game – the second – will count in the league records.

“We have as good a chance as anybody else does,” Clark Fork coach Frank Hammersley said.

“Clark Fork and Wallace should be at the top of the league,” Lakeside coach Ron Miller said.