THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A little love for the 5A portion of the IEL

The Inland Empire League is a bit of a confusing entity. 

It’s a seven-team league where the members look to take care of each other, scheduling wise. 

But it’s also two, smaller leagues, based on enrollment — a 6A IEL (Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Post Falls) and a 5A IEL (Lakeland, Sandpoint, Lewiston and Moscow). 

In recent years, the 6A IEL schools have had more success at their state tournaments than the 5As. 

And in general, the bigger schools tend to beat up on the smaller schools in the 6A vs. 5A matchups — though that has changed in recent years as well, which makes for more entertaining games between the two leagues. 

With Lewiston dropping to 5A when the classification numbers shifted in 2024, it didn’t necessarily shift the balance of power. But it did strengthen the 5A IEL. 

“We’ve got such a great league,” Lakeland athletic director Matt Neff said the other day. “Yeah, you added a juggernaut right into our league, but it’s made all of us better. All of us realize, we are working our tails off to ensure we can compete, because if you relax for a moment in our league, you’re going to get left behind.”

THIS PAST year, in football, the 5A IEL had three teams in the 16-team state playoffs, all in the top 11, based on MaxPreps rankings — Lewiston (8), Lakeland (9) and Sandpoint (11). And Lakeland would have been higher had it won the Kansas Tiebreaker, but Lewiston took the higher seed by winning. 

In the first round, Lakeland won at Lewiston, and Sandpoint won at No. 6 Minico. 

In 5A girls soccer, Moscow lost to Sandpoint for the regional title, but won a state play-in match — then won the state title. 

In girls basketball, Lakeland and Sandpoint were ranked 1-2 in 5A by MaxPreps. Lakeland won the regional title, which in some years would have kept Sandpoint home, if the 5A IEL only received one berth to state. 

But this past year it was 1.5 berths to state from the league. Sandpoint won its play-in game — then played for the state title. 

In boys basketball, Lewiston played for the state title — beating two of the three teams in the 6A IEL along the way. 

In baseball, the 5A IEL had three teams (Sandpoint, Lewiston and Lakeland) in the top 12 of the MaxPreps rankings.  

But because Preston — ranked WAY out of the top 12 — earned an automatic bid by winning its district tournament, Lakeland just missed being one of the 12 teams who landed in the four three-team State Regional Series. 

If not, there would have been three 5A IEL teams in a state tournament ultimately won by Sandpoint. 

SIDE NOTE: This has nothing to do with MaxPreps rankings, but Neff reminded us of the showing of the 5A IEL in track and field this season. 

Sandpoint’s boys won the state 5A title, Lewiston was second and Moscow fourth. 

Moscow’s girls won the state 5A title, and Lakeland was second. 

“Eight trophies — and five of them went to teams from the North,” Neff said. “Hats off to North Idaho track, which has the worst weather, those kids are out there in driving rainstorms and snowflakes, and for them to go down and compete with all the rest of the state, and take that much hardware home, I don’t know if that’s ever happened across the board, from one league ... man, did they put on a show.” 

WITH THE new postseason format, district/regional champions will still qualify for state. And some of the larger districts will still get more than one automatic berth to state. 

But MaxPreps rankings will be used to determine the other at-large berths, if not berths into a state play-in round. 

Either way, there’s a second chance. 

Lakeland volleyball has been among the best teams in the state in recent years, with a state title in 2020, a runner-up finish in 2024 and a third-place finish last year. 

But in 2021 and ‘22, the Hawks were upset at regionals, and because only one team from the region advanced, they stayed home from state. 

“Now if that happens, your MaxPreps rankings will be recognized, and you can still get in that tournament,” Neff said. 

This year, the state 5A football playoff field shrinks from 16 teams to 12. The 6As have been at 12 teams for years; the others have fluctuated between 12 and 16. 

"So the 5As were a little bit of an outlier,” Neff said. “Some of those 14, 15, 16 seeds that are traveling eight hours, spending $10,000, $15,000 to play the No. 1 seed, that’s a lot of money for probably what are not the most competitive games, year in and year out.” 

Even if that means that, say, in football, only two teams from the 5A IEL get in. But again, if that third team isn’t in the top 12, rankings wise ... 

“I think 12 is a fair balance,” Neff said. 

In the other sports under the new format, having a strong MaxPreps ranking can save a team that stumbles at districts/regionals. 

Whereas in the past, if there was no play-in game or no at-large berths based on rankings ... well, sorry. 

Around here, look no further than Post Falls boys basketball, ranked in the top five in MaxPreps last season. The Trojans nearly knocked off Lake City, another top-five team, in a district tournament where just one team advanced to state. 

No play-in game for Post Falls. No at-large berth to state, based on MaxPreps rankings. 

One week later, the Trojans watched from home as Lake City won the state title. 

“I’ve said that for years, you have to have the best teams at state,” Neff said. “So figure it out.”  

Sounds like somebody did. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.