Written by: Will Hoenike
Former Council Lumberjack star Wyatt Vining is playing football at The College of Idaho. Could little brother Wade follow in his footsteps?
The younger Vining earned second team All-State honors as a defensive lineman after collecting over 100 tackles last fall, helping the Lumberjacks to a perfect 5-0 record, Long Pin Conference championship, and berth in the 1A Division 1 (now 1A state playoffs. First-year head coach JC Tucker and his staff may move him around on defense to maximize his talents in 2024 as Council looks to repeat as conference champs and possibly make a run in the postseason.
Council isn’t afraid to challenge itself on the field. The team played both eventual 8-man state champions last season (1A Division 1 Butte County and 1A Division 2 Kendrick) and also hosted Kamiah, a state qualifier at the 1A Division 1 (now called 2A) level. That trend continues in 2024 as the Lumberjacks will play at Kamiah on September 6 before hosting 2A Notus one week later.
What makes it possible is a pile of returning talent, especially at the skill positions. The ‘Jacks will need to replace graduated linemen Nate Jordan and Travis McMichael up front but return a pair of two-way All-Conference honorees in senior RB/LB Decker McLinn and junior WR/DB Garrison Zeilinski. Both are versatile enough and explosive enough to make plays in a variety of ways.
Junior Owen Hatfield returns as the team’s starting quarterback and also plays in the defensive backfield for the Lumberjacks, adding to the talent and experience, as does Tucker Laine, a senior receiver and linebacker.
Council dominated the Long Pin in 2023, winning all five games by a combined score of 203-33. Finding players to step into roles vacated by the nine departing seniors from that team will be important, especially along the offensive and defensive lines, but there is ample talent on the roster for a return to postseason play in 2024.
The classification, along with the slight change in name – from 1A Division 2 to 1A – has tweaked its playoff format. Each of the classification’s district champions will earn an automatic berth into the postseason. The remaining spots will be filled on an at-large basis as determined by a mathematical formula provided by MaxPreps.