Written by: Will Hoenike
In some ways, it was a “what are the odds” season in the two-team Scenic Idaho Conference. The two teams, Wallace and Lakeside, split their two regular-season meetings. Each team’s win came on the road. And the ensuing tiebreaker event needed four overtimes before Wallace could get the best of Lakeside and qualify for the 1A Division 1 playoffs.
It all left the Miners wanting more in 2022.
“Now we have been there (the postseason) and now we want to take the next step and earn another trip to the playoffs,” said Wallace head coach Jared Young. “We are excited to see if we can turn up the heat a little bit more on offense and be sound defensively.”
The Miners won six games in 2015 and qualified for the postseason. In the ensuing six seasons, the program has won just 12 games but signs exist that Wallace is ready to return to the upper echelon of 8-man football teams in the Idaho panhandle.
“Out guys got a good taste of success last year and I think they are hungry for more,” Young said. “Good things are ahead for the Miners.”
It starts at the quarterback position, where all-conference performer Landon Streeter returns for his senior year. As a junior, Streeter ran for more than 1,500 yards to spearhead the team’s ground-based attack. Adding to the arsenal is senior Parker Goldade, who can slide in and play a little quarterback if necessary, as well as Arik Wilkinson. Dallas Hackel, a sophomore who recently moved to Wallace from Montana, should contribute to the ground game as well.
Senior Brandon Travis leads the team’s offensive line and will be joined by another new Miner, junior Alex Cleveland, who is expected to serve as the team’s center this season. Sophomore Julian Davis should also see time on offense as a pass-catching target. It’s an aspect of the game the Miner coaches hope to improve upon in 2022.
“We’re looking to show an improved passing game and really keep teams honest in the run game,” Young said. “That should open up some better rush lanes for us.”
Defensively, Travis and Cleveland will anchor the defensive line along with Davis in front of Wilkinson and Goldade at the linebacker position. Streeter will anchor the defensive secondary as Young hopes the group can force more third-and-long situations for the opposition.
“When we do, we need to cover better and keep our eyes on our keys,” Young said. “We need to create more pressure on opposing quarterbacks and, like every team, need to strive to be better tacklers.”
After competing as 1A Division 1 teams in in 2021, Wallace and Lakeside will compete in the 1A Division 2 North Star League in 2022. There are five teams in the North Star (Clark Fork, Kootenai, Mullan/St. Regis are the other three) and each team will play a home-and-home series against the other four. Mullan/St. Regis has represented the North Star in the postseason each of the past three seasons. If Wallace wants to earn that top seed out of District 1, it starts with taking care of business against its rival located just seven miles away along Interstate 90. Wallace will host Mullan on September 16 before traveling ten minutes down the freeway in the final week of the regular season on October 21.
But that’s only one step of the journey. Wallace and Lakeside were separated by mere inches in 2021. Clark Fork traditionally fields a competitive program and Kootenai is in year two of its rebuild and should be vastly improved.
If Young’s team can navigate that road, it will accomplish what it is setting out to do, which is return to the postseason.