Written by: Will Hoenike
A senior-laden roster awaited first-year head coach Patrick Young when practice began this summer in Clark Fork. Nine of the Wampus Cats’ 19 players on the opening-night roster were seniors, including All-North Star performer Chase Sanroman.
The team is coming off of a five-win season that included a trip to the 1A Division 2 postseason. Clark Fork hosted its first-round game, breaking a playoff drought of over ten years, and will look to build upon those successes in 2023.
Young, himself a Clark Fork graduate, will have to replace productive front-line players Antonio Mayorga (defensive line) and Nathan Shelton (offensive line) but has a good supply of talented skill position players to help buoy the Wampus Cats. Sanroman and fellow seniors Jackson Clemens and Dillon Ryan-Downing are all capable with the ball in their hands, as is fellow senior Ethan Howard, who did not play in the team’s Zero-Week loss to rival Mullan/St. Regis.
The team’s offense was pretty consistent last season. The only time the Wampus Cats were held under 30 points was its season-ending playoff loss against eventual 1A Division 2 state semifinalist Castleford. Defensively, the team’s results were mixed. In its five wins, the opposition scored a total of 40 points. In its four losses, the opposition averaged 51 points per contest.
The North Star League gets two berths into the 1A Division 2 playoffs. The league consists of five teams and, due to scheduling challenges, the teams generally compete against each other twice per season, once at each team’s home field. Clark Fork’s task is straight-forward – win its remaining home games and find a couple of wins on the road. If that objective is met, the team should be in good position to possibly reach the postseason for a second consecutive season.