Here's a mind-bending question: How can the Sawtooth Conference eight-man prep football league be bigger and smaller at the same time?
It will be bigger starting with the 2010 season because there will be 15 teams instead of the current nine in the 1A Division 2 league for schools with student enrollments of 99 and fewer in grades 9-12.
The word "smaller" comes to mind because three newly admitted Sawtooth schools—Castleford, Lighthouse Christian Academy of Twin Falls and Sho-Ban of Fort Hall—are planning to drop down from 1A Division 1 (100-159 students) to Division 2 starting in 2010.
One other school, Magic Valley Christian of Jerome, will be playing football for the first time. Two other eastern Idaho schools, Clark County of Dubois and Leadore, have applied for membership after leaving Montana six-man football.
The Sawtooth additions created the need of splitting the new 15-school conference into two divisions, and then coming up with a fair and financially responsible way of allocating the schools to each division, according to Carey football coach Lane Kirkland.
Sawtooth Conference athletic directors and coaches met in Burley Thursday, Oct. 15 to hash out the changes, big and small, and come up with a 2010 schedule they can submit in a timely fashion to the governing body called the Idaho High School Activities Association.
Attending the meeting and giving advice on steps needed to obtain final approval from the IHSAA was Jay Darrington of Declo. He is a member of the IHSAA board of directors representing athletic directors.
"We had a pretty good discussion on all the proposals. Above all, we wanted to make sure the Sawtooth Conference stayed together and gave these smaller schools an opportunity to play football," said Kirkland.
Ninth-year Carey coach Kirkland was a strong proponent of separating Idaho eight-man football into the two divisions based on student population in 2003. And this is the sixth year of 1A Division 1 and Division 2 football with separate state tournaments.
Kirkland said the fact that more schools are coming into Division 2 is an affirmation of the original concept—strengthening the identities of schools located predominantly in small farm towns. Adding the total enrollment numbers of the 15 Sawtooth schools gives you 935 students, which is the size of Jerome High School alone.
All the small schools have financial concerns, which is why Carey School's proposal of a North/South geographical split was designed to minimize travel expenses fairly for all 15 schools, Kirkland said.
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"Our North/South proposal came up with an average of 190 miles per team for each away game. Other proposals were for an East/West split, and for putting the Fifth and Sixth District schools in one division, and the Fourth District in another. We wanted to keep the Sawtooth Conference together," he said.
The vote ended up 11-4 in favor of the North/South proposal, Kirkland said. It must now be submitted to the IHSAA board for approval and to determine how many berths will be allocated to the new Sawtooth in the 2010 eight-team 1A Division 2 tournament.
With its current nine teams, the Sawtooth now gets four state playoff berths, the Boise-area of five schools gets two and northern Idaho also gets two with its five schools.
Kirkland expects the 15-team Sawtooth to petition for a fifth state berth, possibly in the form of a playoff against a Boise-area team—especially since the Third District near Boise will likely drop from five to three Division 2 teams in 2010.
"I think we'll get it," he said about the fifth playoff berth.
Kirkland said the top two Sawtooth teams based on regular-season records in the North and South Divisions will earn 2010 state berths, while the third-place teams in each division might use a half-game playoff to settle a fifth berth.
Clark County and Leadore were both "kicked out" of Montana six-man football, Kirkland said—Clark County for its dominance and Leadore because its long distance from other Montana schools.
Last a member of the Sawtooth Conference in 2006, Clark County, just 30 miles from Montana, has played in the Montana six-man league the past three seasons and is taking a 7-1 record into Saturday's conference championship game at West Yellowstone, Mont.
Leadore (4-3) has played six-man the past two years and is the smallest school in the conference with just 30 students, compared to Carey's 74. "They only have 10 players, but Leadore was well represented at our meeting and made a full commitment to play football," said Kirkland.
Clark County, 130 miles away from Carey, and Leadore, 150 miles distant in the Lemhi-Bitterroot valley between Salmon and Mud Lake, are Carey's longest divisional trips in the future, although Carey would also have to travel 175 miles to Raft River for a non-conference game.
In the proposed North Division (2010-12 projected grade 9-12 enrollments in parentheses) are Carey (74), Camas County (50), Clark County (52), Dietrich (57), Mackay (67), Leadore (30) and Richfield (62).
In the South Division are Castleford (96), Jackpot (Nev., number not available), Lighthouse Christian (74), Murtaugh (49), Magic Valley Christian (46), North Gem of Bancroft (49), Rockland (45) and Sho-Ban (109).
Now with nine schools, the Snake River Conference Division 1 would have six next year—Hagerman, Hansen, Oakley, Raft River, Challis and Shoshone. Five of the six are in the Magic Valley, with Challis the outlying team some 200 miles from Twin.
Kirkland said about the changes, "Idaho will have 25 schools in Division 2 football and 26 in Division 1, which shows that this small school thing has worked. Without this divisional set-up, there are schools with very few numbers that might not be playing football at all."
In the preliminary 2010 season schedule decided Thursday, Carey will play early non-league games against two tough Snake River Conference 1A Division 1 foes—Raft River Sept. 3 and Hagerman Sept. 10.
The Panthers will then embark on their six-game North Division schedule: Sept. 17 vs. Camas County; Oct. 1 vs. Clark County; Oct. 6-8 vs. Dietrich; Oct. 15 vs. Mackay; Oct. 22 vs. Leadore; and Oct. 29 vs. Richfield.
Carey High School junior quarterback Caleb Cenarrusa, carrying the ball past Camas County’s Brandyn Williams here during an Oct. 9 game in Fairfield, hopes to lead the Panthers in the revamped Sawtooth Conference next fall.
