In an always-stacked Western A Division, it’s not often a Northwest team takes home the prize, but it just might happen in 2021.

Columbia Falls, the last area team to win the State A championship (in 2017), returns a team that is fast and talented, if a little young and maybe a little undersized.

For the Wildcats to hang with Hamilton (runner-up in 2017-18) and Dillons (champs in 2011, 2013-14 and 2016), they’ll have to rely on quarterback Mason Peters… and quarterback Cody Schweikert.

“They’ll both play,” Columbia Falls coach Jaxon Schweikert said. “Cody (his sophomore son) is young and learning the position but has arm talent. Mason (a senior) has been a two-year starter and is a wily player. They’ve worked really well together.

“Mason is really slippery in the open field. Cody runs more like a fullback. Both can line up in different spots on the field. You could see them both out there on offense at the same time.”

Seniors Peters — he threw for 1,836 yards and ran for 443 in 2020 — along with lineman Raphe Salmon, running back Isaiah Roth, receiver-linebacker Cade Morgan and safety-receiver Zane McCallum lead the way.

“Those guys are top notch,” Schweikert said. “Then we have this youth movement.

“In the past (the Wildcats made the State A title game in 2016-17) we’ve had some teams that played pretty fast and were fun to watch. We feel this team is like some of those teams of the past.”

The Western A has added East Helena to the fold; the Vigilantes increase the ranks to 13. An unbalanced schedule means point differential may be needed to decide which seven teams make the Class A playoffs (five of the 10 Eastern Division teams will advance).

Whitefish, Libby and Polson are among those in the hunt for those spots out of the quarterback-rich Northwest sub-division.

Polson has Jarrett Wilson at QB; Whitefish counters with Fynn Ridgeway. Circle Oct. 22 on your calendar: That’s when the two teams square off.

Whitefish is the other area program with recent success, having won the 2015 State A crown, its first since 1979. Ridgeway has a couple standout receivers in Bodie Smith and Jaxsen Schlauch, three-year starter Barret Scott at tight end and a promising running back in Cody Berry.

Polson counters with receivers Colton Graham, who hauled in 1,056 of Wilson’s 3,115 yards passing last fall, and Xavier Fisher.

The Pirates will get a later start than the rest: Butte Central suspended several players for training rules violations and forfeited its opener with Polson.

Libby had to replace Jay Beagle at quarterback and Dawson Young at running back, but coach Neil Fuller likes what he sees from new QB Ryder Davis, a senior. Jace DeShazer could get the lion’s share of carries in the Loggers’ run-first offense.