Colton football to play with Genesee

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Jun 18, 20200

The Colton School District has announced a co-op agreement with Genesee for football, to allow Colton students to play for the Idaho Class 1A-1 Bulldogs, similar to how 1B (Washington) Oakesdale kids have the opportunity to play football for 2B Colfax.

Because Colton’s enrollment is small enough, it does not affect Genesee’s classification.

Colton expects to send about 10 kids out for the team.

“If there is football,” said Paul Clark, Colton superintendent, referring to possible COVID-19 restrictions. “We want our kids wearing our colors, playing on our field, but if we can’t, we want them still to play.”

Under new Washington state rules, Colton may have had a chance to play six-man football, to play teams farther west, or within Eastern Washington if enough schools wanted to drop to six-man.

“It would mean our kids traveling long distances. We discussed it,” said Clark, noting talks with Athletic Director and last year’s interim coach, Jim Moehrle.

Schools on the Olympic Peninsula, such as in Coast League District Four, have played six-man football for the past two years. This year, the Coastal League will be completely six-man, after the WIAA representative assembly passed an amendment on the matter in May.

The WIAA also sought out schools in Eastern Washington to gauge interest.

“Interest was expressed but the number of schools were so few it wasn’t realistic because of the travel aspect,” said Justin Kesterson, WIAA assistant executive.

The Colton co-op with Genesee is set only for the 2020-21 school year.

“Six-man can help a lot of these schools out,” said Ken Lindgren, WIAA executive and Oakesdale athletic director. “The saying is, ‘let’s keep football alive.’ Football’s got a bad rap going, we’re trying to keep football alive.”

The six-man game includes changes which include scoring, field length and width.

“There’s some nuances to it that are completely different from the 8-man game,” Kesterson said.