It was a disappointing end for the Carroll Saints on Saturday, beaten in the NAIA national championship football game by Sioux Falls, 23-7.
The loss snapped a 28-game winning streak for the Saints and kept the small school from Helena, MT, from defending the national title it won in 2007.
The loss marked the end of the collegiate careers of Idaho natives Zach Richardson (Capital), Zach Thiry (Bishop Kelly), and Rick Young (Post Falls).
It's part of a huge contingent of Idahoans dotting the roster of the premier NAIA football program in the country... including the likes of RB Gabe Le (Couer d'Alene), QB Dane Broadhead (Minico), WR Pete Richter (Timberline), and LB Chanler Buck (Blackfoot), who are all eligible to return in 2009... which has won five national titles in the past seven seasons.
The College of Idaho in Caldwell has been exploring re-adding football (the school used to field the team but dropped it decades ago) and seeing the number of Idaho athletes contributing to a high-level program must be encouraging to those who are spearheading the charge.
It doesn't look like anything is imminent on the Caldwell campus, largely because it sounds like the school is content to wait until it can (hopefully) transition to the NCAA Division III ranks before it takes on football. If that happens, it'd be joining a conference that includes Spokane's Whitworth College, McMinville's Linfield College, and Tacoma's Pacific Lutheran University.
More from the Helena Independent Record: www.helenair.com/articles/2008/12/21/sports/top/50spl_081221_saints.txt
More on Carroll College football: www.carroll.edu/athletics/football/