Written by: Will Hoenike
For each of the past three seasons, the Mullan-St. Regis football program has sent student-athletes to college with the opportunity to play football. This fall, a pair of former Tigers (Adam Ball and Luke Trogden) are making the move. And that’s from one of the smallest football programs in Idaho. So small, in fact, that neither school involved in the cooperative agreement would be able to easily field a team without the other.
Believe it or not, there may be another.
It seems that Caleb Ball has been around for so long that he should have graduated two years ago. But he’ll be back this fall for his senior year, his fourth as a starter for head coach Stetson Spooner, and big things are expected of the 5-foot-11, 170-pound athlete.
“Caleb is our motor,” Spooner said. “He is a huge play waiting to happen. When he has the ball in open-field situations, he is dangerous.”
Ball is part of a senior class that is 21-7 overall (10-1 in conference play) coming into the season. That class includes Blake Layton, Floyd Nelson, and Kason Lowman as well as Ball. And, while they’ve qualified for the playoffs each of the past three seasons, the one thing left to do is to make a deep run in the postseason.
In 2019, the Tigers received a bye into the 1A Division 2 quarterfinals, where they fell to Kendrick. In 2020, the team won its quarterfinal matchup over Horseshoe Bend only to run into a buzzsaw (and eventual state champion, Dietrich) in the semifinals. Then, last fall, it was a road loss at Carey in the quarterfinals.
A key to making that deep push this fall, according to Spooner, is up front.
“Up front, in the trenches in those big playoff games, has got to improve for us,” Spooner admitted. “We are generally outgunned up front against those other top five or six teams.”
Like Kendrick. Or Dietrich. Teams they could very easily see again this November.
Lowman, the lone senior along the front lines, will be a key piece for the Tigers. Layton and junior Austin Zingler will play tight end on offense, which means they’ll be counted on to make some big blocks as well. Mullan/St. Regis averaged 63 points per game in its six wins on the field (a seventh win came via forfeit) and, if the line can continue to improve, it seems possible to put up big numbers this fall as well, whether it is Ball and junior Alex Trogden running the ball or Ball throwing the ball to Layton, Floyd Nelson and John Pruitt.
Defensively, the team will have to replace the uber-talented and uber-productive tandem of Luke Trogden and Adam Ball, but Spooner doesn’t plan to change his approach. He likes his athletes and made it clear he plans to continue to play aggressive, high-reward football on defense.
The Tigers have controlled the District 1 North Star League since it split with the Whitepine League of District 2 following the 2018 season. Clark Fork has proven to be a worthy adversary but, to this point, Mullan/St. Regis has held the Wampus Cats off. Spooner also points to Wallace, who is playing at the Division 2 level this spring after playing as a Division-1 independent last fall, as a team to watch.
The co-operative agreement between Mullan and St. Regis, MT, is one of two participating in Idaho whose communities lie in different states (Genesee and Colton, WA, a 1A Division 1 team in District 2, is the other). Since the co-op has formed, the football program has made a point of playing at least one game in St. Regis. This year, the game comes in the season opener on August 26 when the Tigers host Superior, MT. The team’s other four home games will each be played in Mullan.