Just four years ago, when the St. Maries Lumberjack football team slumped to a 2-7 finish to the season, the future didn’t look all that bright.

Now, thanks to a ton of work in the weight room and a team first attitude, they can laugh about all that now.

“I get to work with these kids in the weight room every day and it has been fun to see the strength and speed gains made over the years,” St. Maries coach Craig Tefft said. “We pulled the seniors’ freshman scores up the other day and had a good laugh about how weak and slow they used to be. We could see it building when this group was sophomores. The challenge was to keep them together and working hard in the weight room. I feel like football camp has been a real game changer for our program. We have really built our teams at camp.

Now, they’re a team that’s physical, fast and someone not to be taken lightly, even if you’re in a higher classification.

And that’s no laughing matter.

The start can be traced back to the past four years at football camp at Montana Tech in Butte, where the team has put in most of the strategy for how to play offensively and defensively and really develop an attitude for the season.

“Everyone on the team was already on board with it,” senior defensive end/tight end Nate Masterson said.

“We had what our goals were going to be at the end of last season and after camp. That was definitely the start of some good things. We had some young guys that got to work their way into the mix there.”

Then they had a weekly weightlifting program during the summer with players separated into teams.

“The amount of work that everyone has put into the season has been huge,” senior running back/defensive tackle Donaven Rottini said. “Showing up for (weight) lifting and just doing the things that they need to do to get better has been huge. Getting good grades has been really important. Everyone does their school work so that they can continue to play on Friday nights. Just another year of experience has really helped. I’d like to go to college and play football somewhere eventually, but I’ve got not idea where yet. I haven’t had any serious offers as of yet, but I’ve talked to a few scouts and done that. But nothing really big yet.”

St. Maries, a 2A school, enters Friday’s Central Idaho League opener at Grangeville with 6-0 record, after running the table against former (3A) Intermountain League rivals. And those games were not even close.

St. Maries beat all four IML schools by a combined 198-45. In its other two nonleague games, St. Maries blew out Riverside 39-0 and Deer Park 46-0, both on the road.

“Timberlake was a fun game,” said Masterson, who helped the Lumberjacks roll past the perennial IML champion Tigers 47-7. “Probably my favorite game this year was the Deer Park game. Everything just started clicking for us in that game. Everything went right in that game.”

St. Maries returns most of its starting defense from last year.

“We brought back our entire starting defense from last year, which has been a huge thing for us,” Masterson said. “Just having a lot of experience back has really helped. We’re just continuing to work hard in practice each and every day.”

Rottini (6-foot-1, 210 pounds) transitioned from lineman to running back near the end of the regular season last year.

“It’s really not that big of a difference because I’ve played it before,” Rottini said. “My 7th/8th grade year I played running back, so it wasn’t that big of an adjustment.”

Kiefer Gibson (6-1, 175) has been the team’s quarterback for the last two years, entering Friday’s game with 23 touchdowns this season and one interception.

“I think that everyone plays a role to our success,” Gibson said. “You’re not just relying on just one guy all the time. Our success takes everyone doing their job on each night to get things done. It’s really a team effort.”

Gibson remembers some of the lean years growing up, when the program was struggling to get wins.

“I know back in the day, the program was down a little bit,” Gibson said. “But I think it’s gotten a lot better and is going to continue to get better.”

Allowing such a low number of points on defense, that’s something that any team might wish for.

“It’s pretty fun to be a part of this defense,” senior middle linebacker/running back Zack Rouse (6-0, 185) said. “We’re a physical group and we all seem to know what we’re supposed to do. We’re a senior-heavy group and we just go out and get it done.”

Offensively, they’ve got speed in all sorts of places.

Example — seniors Jake Sieler (5-9, 160) and Kaleb Brown (5-9, 150), who are returners on the team’s special teams group. Sieler has already returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and had another called back due to penalty. Brown had a 55-yard kickoff return for a score against Bonners Ferry.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Sieler said. “The entire team gets really pumped if either Kaleb or I run one back. Last year, we kind of got known for that and the entire team really gets pumped up when stuff like that happens on special teams. Scoring a touchdown is my goal every time I get the ball. I just hope they kick it to me. That’s my goal, to return it for a touchdown each and every time I get it.”

Practices are one thing, but Sieler added that team meals on Wednesday nights are where they start talking about what needs to happen on the field on game day.

“I love it,” Sieler said. “Everyone is super nice and it’s like a big family and brotherhood. We’re all a big family. We have a team dinner each Wednesday and get together and talk about what we’re going to be doing in the game and just get our minds right.”

“They have always been a very close group,” Tefft said. “Most of them play three sports and have been through a ton of competitive situations with each other.”

After playing at Grangeville on Friday, St. Maries will host Orofino in CIL play following a bye week to close out the regular season on Oct. 21.

“It should be a really good game,” Rottini said of Grangeville. “Honestly, I’d just love to beat them because they shut us down last year.”

Grangeville beat St. Maries 27-12 in the league opener for both in 2015 at St. Maries.

“Watching film on them, they’re always a good team,” said Gibson of Grangeville, which won the state title in 2015. “It’s a good fight each year and should be a good one that will require the entire team to step up at their best.”

“I think it would be huge for us to get a win this weekend at Grangeville,” Masterson said. “We definitely want to go into the playoffs with some momentum and make a run for state.”

“It’s going to take a lot of energy, especially to start the game,” Sieler said. “We’re going to have to start really fast and play with unity and just play well overall to get it done.”

St. Maries has already tasted some success with this group in other sports, with Sieler, Masterson and Gibson playing on the school’s basketball team that advanced to the state semifinals last March.

“I’m not really sure which sports I like more,” Gibson said. “I’m leaning toward basketball, but enjoy playing them both. I like the physicality of football, but I’ve played basketball a long time. It’s kind of my thing.”

Sieler is also a guard on the team’s basketball team.

“I’m a basketball kid that plays football definitely,” Sieler said. “Growing up, I just loved both sports. But something about basketball — especially when I was young — was more important to me. I love both sports, but I definitely love basketball more than football.”

Masterson won a state 2A wrestling title as a sophomore before opting to play basketball as a junior.

“We’ve just got to stay focused on our goals,” Masterson said. “We just need to keep everyone healthy and on the field.”

Masterson’s older sister — Marlee — played on St. Maries’ state 3A volleyball championship team in 2009, the last time the school won a state title in any sport.

“She just told me to enjoy this while it lasts,” Masterson said. “High school is short, and only lasts four years, so make the most of it while you’re playing sports.”

On Tuesday, St. Maries climbed to the top spot in the 2A rankings in this week’s Idaho prep football media poll.

“It’s kind of fun to look at, but other than that, it doesn’t really help us too much,” Masterson said of the rankings. “Everyone is good in the playoffs.”

“It has been a very fun group of kids to coach,” Tefft said. “This group is by far and away the most unselfish group of kids I have coached. They are all about winning. They have been taught by their parents to always put the team first.”

And with the community support, the program has a lot to be excited about going forward.

“It’s amazing,” Gibson said. “We’ve had a great turnout in each of our games. Through the booster club and all of our fans, I’d really like to thank them for all their support.”

“It’s been a good thing,” Rouse said. “I’ve really felt the love of the community. It’s been nice this year.”

Should they continue their physical play, all involved will have a lot more to laugh about at the end of the season.