St. Regis-Mullan moving to Montana west division

Pending final approval by the Montana High School Association executive board in mid January, some significant changes are on the way for 8-player football in the state.

Under proposed changes by the board, the St. Regis-Mullan, Idaho Cooperative, which has been playing conference and state playoff games in Idaho for the past few years, the co-op Tigers will now participate in an expanded Montana 8-Player West Division.

The board meets in mid-January as part of its annual gathering and will make a final ruling on the matter pending comments by the schools involved.

The change would place St. Regis-Mullan back in the Montana postseason playoff format.

The Tigers have been very successful in the Idaho 8-player leagues and are expected to continue to prosper in the Montana West Division.

The new division alignment will have four divisions: East, South, North and West with accommodations for future alignment and expansion put in place.

Under the new format, the West Division will add St. Regis-Mullan, which had been playing league games on the field in Mullan as part of the Idaho system.

The “new” West will now consist of Arlee, Charlo, Darby, Plains, St. Ignatius (Mission), Superior, Seeley, St. Regis-Mullan, Troy, Valley Christian and Victor, a total of 11 teams. The South Division will also add Twin Bridges which will make it an 11-team division under the proposed changes.

The East Division, which includes powerhouse Fairview, will have 10 teams and the North Division will have nine teams, including Shelby, Belt and Fort Benton.

St. Regis co-head coach Jesse Allan said he was pleased with the new alignment and looks forward to competing in the Montana system.

“We appreciate the MHSA for allowing us to continue the co-op with Mullan and compete in Montana,” Allan said. “With the success we have had in Idaho, it wasn’t really a necessity as much as just a natural shift in participation numbers between the two schools. The co-op has been amazing for both communities and if the MHSA would have not supported it we would have stayed in Idaho”.

Allan said it will be good to split up the travel involved in the co-op arrangement for practices next fall and noted that even with Mullan coming over to St. Regis more often, they will be home an hour or more earlier than St. Regis was due to the time difference between the two states.

Allan also noted that most of the tough games the co-op has played in recent years have come from games against Montana schools, and described the West as a “tough” division that will be very competitive. One of the Tigers’ losses this year was to playoff team Shelby, while one of their wins was against Superior.

“Playoff hopes will more likely come down to the last few games of the year in the Montana West,” he said.

Superior head coach Jeff Schultz said he is mostly supportive of the change, which will allow the St. Regis-Superior rivalry to flourish on an every year basis instead of the occasional games between the two as it has been of late.

The two teams played this year in the season opener for Superior and the second game of the year for St. Regis, with St. Regis-Mullan pulling out a down-to-the-wire 58-52 win before a large group of fans from the towns who are just 14 miles apart on Interstate 90.

Schultz said the only thing he wishes would be different would have been to place Seeley in the North Division to better balance the overall number of teams in each division. That would allow each team to play the other Division schools once each year.

“It will be good to be able to play the schools that are in the West,” he said.

With Board final approval, the new format will begin this coming Fall, resulting in more home games for St. Regis and better local competition this coming year.