4A/5A Inland Empire Leagues join forces in 7 sports, what does the mean for Sandpoint athletics?

SANDPOINT — Big changes are coming to the 4A Inland Empire League.

The league, consisting of Sandpoint, Lakeland and Moscow, will combine with the 5A Inland Empire League made up of Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Post Falls and Lewiston in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball for the 2020-21 school year.

The schools will stay at their current classifications but one league table made up of the seven schools will be taken.

The details were outlined in an article published by the Coeur d’Alene Press last Sunday.

In the league standings, the 4A team with the best league record will earn the No. 1 seed to the 4A regional tournament and the same will go for 5A. Which means those current crucial league games Sandpoint has with Lakeland and Moscow have a different meaning because now the Bulldogs could lose to their 4A counterparts but still earn the top spot to regionals if they have a better league record.

As stated above, the change doesn’t apply to all sports but was done for two reasons — scheduling and to create more meaningful games.

“Really there’s been conversation about what we do for scheduling for a number of years,” Sandpoint athletic director Kris Knowles said, “but really in the November Inland Empire League meeting is really when the conversation really started to evolve and got to a point where the athletic director and principals made the decision that we should kind of reconvene as a conference so that we can make all those games count and make it a little bit more exciting as a conference.”

It can be hard to fill out a non-league schedule with the limited amount of schools Sandpoint has to choose from in North Idaho. Knowles said they also find it difficult to schedule games with teams from other states such as Washington because “they seem to change a little bit more quickly than we do as far as their classifications.”

Currently, the change will only be in effect for the next school year but discussion about extending beyond that is ongoing.

So what does all this mean for Sandpoint? The first thing is, in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball and volleyball, the Bulldogs will play each 5A IEL team twice next season. So instead of the four league games they have now with just Lakeland and Moscow, they will have 12 with the six schools in the IEL.

For baseball and softball, a concrete decision on how many times the 5A’s and 4A’s will face each other has yet to be reached but Knowles said what will most likely happen is Sandpoint will play single home-and-home games with the 5A’s instead of home-and-home doubleheaders like they do with Moscow and Lakeland.

But doesn’t Sandpoint already play the 5A IEL teams? The answer would be yes. Boys and girls soccer teams and volleyball played all four 5A IEL’s schools twice this past fall. Boys basketball has games with Lewiston, Lake City and Coeur d’Alene on their schedule this season while the girls have had contests with all four this year.

Baseball has a doubleheader at Lewiston and a home game with Lake City scheduled for this spring and softball has a home game with Lake City and doubleheader with Post Falls.

So its clear Sandpoint is familiar with the 5A schools in North Idaho. But this realignment and increase in league games will make the next sports year one to remember.

“In my opinion, it’s a win-win for everybody in the conference,” Knowles said. “I like it personally because it makes every game worth something. There are times for sure when we’re playing Post Falls or Coeur d’Alene where for whatever reason the mindset is different, ‘oh it really doesn’t count.’ Well now that will and I think that’s valuable as a competitor, I think that’s valuable as a coach and an athlete to say this game means something.”

And the Sandpoint coaches are certainly looking forward to the combined league.

“I think it gives us a little bit more motivation to do well against those teams so I really like it,” girls soccer coach Conor Baranski said.

“I can’t wait for next year to start,” boys soccer coach Tanner French said.

“It’s going to be challenging as far as regular season records, its going to be challenging as far as some matchups but in the long run its going to help 4A teams get better and be able to play at a higher level,” boys basketball coach Wade Engelson said.

“I have to admit I was pretty excited to hear about the agreement,” girls basketball coach Will Love said.

“Let the games begin,” volleyball coach Karen Alsager said.

One challenge Sandpoint faces nearly every season in every sport is simulating the competition they could potentially see it at state if they make it that far due to how far away the 4A schools in southern Idaho are. All of the Bulldog coaches were in agreement that having the opportunity to play the 5A IEL schools will give them a chance to do just that and allow the representative from the 4A IEL to be more prepared to compete at state.

Love was an assistant on the girls basketball team prior to taking over the heading coaching duties last season. He remembers having a tough time replicating the atmosphere of the state tournament during the regular season when they were able to make it that far.

“I think in my experience as an assistant coach on those girls team that went to state, one of the things that we were maybe missing was playing more intense games with meaning on the line so when we got to state it would be a different atmosphere for the kids,” he said.

If the combined league format continues, one thing Love would like to see is the JV teams getting a chance to gain postseason experience through a tournament.

The one school that was against the move was Post Falls. Engelson was an assistant coach at Post Falls prior to finding his way to Sandpoint. Over the last several years, the Post Falls boys basketball has refused to play any 4A schools in Idaho as they’ve built one of the most dominant programs in the state.

Engelson said he understands Post Falls hesitancy to combine the 4A and 5A IEL leagues but is looking forward to coaching against his former team next season.

“We’re good friends off the court but when we show up on the court we’re trying to beat them and they’re trying to beat us and there is no mercy ... there’s no friendship during the game,” he said.

Knowles is expecting more intense games next year and increased fan engagement and excitement with the change, but he knows there will be some growing pains for everyone.

“It won’t be perfect, we’re going to have our hiccups and our things that we’re going to have to work out the kinks on but I think that’s how it’s going to evolve,” he said.