Garfield-Palouse football has found its footing after hiatus

Nov. 2—PALOUSE, Wash. — For three years after going 9-2 and making the Washington Class 1B state tournament, the football field at Garfield-Palouse was quiet. Lights weren't turned on Fridays, the sound of pads crashing was absent and the only Vikings to be found on the gridiron were wearing blue jerseys with the name "Pullman" on them.

With not enough numbers in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic), students interested in playing football weren't able to suit up in the usual black, red and yellow. Students from Garfield-Palouse who wanted to play football participated on the Pullman football team during those years.

Garfield-Palouse athletic director Scott Thompson's magic number for interested football players was 12: enough to field a lineup for an 8-man team in the Washington Class 1B Southeast League and enough reserves to make up for potential injuries, ineligibilities or other circumstances. The Vikings during their three-year hiatus never had more than eight kids interested.

In 2022, Garfield-Palouse finally had that magic number of players interested and the familiar sounds of football returned to Palouse. The team's return also meant some logistics needed to be taken care of. The school had to order new equipment and the lion's share of the cost went to new football helmets. Signing the check was no problem for the school if it meant being able to field a team for the first time in over 1,000 days.

But just because there was a team finally suiting up in Palouse didn't mean that it was going to be successful — at least not right away. In 2022, the team lacked numbers compared to the rest of the 1B Southeast and was entirely underclassmen. The Vikings went 1-8. The first win in three years didn't come until the last week of the season against Yakama Nation Tribal in Toppenish, Wash. The results didn't deter the community from welcoming back Friday night lights.

"We still had great support," Thompson said. "People were excited to see the kids on the field and this year they've turned things around."

Coach Garrett Parrish jokingly stated that he bases success in attendance on how many burgers are sold at the concession stand. In his words, they sold a lot.

The team struggled in its return season, but the talent and coaching was never a question. In fact, it would be the two things opponents would point to as being strengths for Garfield-Palouse in postgame interviews. The losses came down to numbers and experience, as 8-man football typically does. The team's roster fluctuated between 10 players to eight, back up to 10, to as many as 17 in 2022. The reasons for the volatility in numbers included injuries, ineligibilities, late-season additions and returns from injuries.

The Vikings have made a huge turnaround this season. Players from the 2022 squad have improved with more experience (some have improved drastically) and those not convinced of the prospect of playing football last year have joined the team or are interested. The team had 23 total players this season and 22 were eligible for every game before this week. With the improvement and the growth came results.

Garfield-Palouse is 6-2 and its only two losses came against back-to-back league champions Liberty Christian and the third-place team in the conference DeSales. The Vikings will conclude their regular season at 7 p.m. Friday against Dayton in Dayton, Wash. A return to the state tournament is out of the question — Liberty Christian and Pomeroy will be the league's representatives in the state playoffs — but a 6-3 or 7-2 record is still a margin of improvement that even Parrish didn't expect.

"We've just come a long ways as a team," Parrish said. "Obviously, getting a year older helps, especially on the (offensive and defensive) lines. ... This year we were able to line up and run the ball a little bit, which helps a ton. Last year we had to resort to throwing it, and throwing it quick, just so we weren't getting our running backs demolished."

One of the few drawbacks from Garfield-Palouse's season is that most of it happened away from Palouse. The Vikings only had three home games — one-third of this season. The family and supporters of Garfield-Palouse have traveled well the whole season despite the amount of away games and there's no reason to suspect they won't make the 95-minute drive to Dayton on Friday.

Most of the 2022 squad are still underclassmen and won't be completely graduated until spring of 2025, allowing the Vikings to continue to build and grow. If the current rate of improvement keeps up, a postseason appearance can be a matter of "when" rather than "if." But there remains a lingering question after 2025.

Thompson worries history might repeat itself after the graduating class of 2025 leaves and there might not be enough players to field a team. There's currently 90 kids that go to Garfield-Palouse. Around 60 of them participate in athletics. With such a high percentage of the student body already participating in sports, there's not a lot of wiggle room to recruit or convince enough players to sign up for football should the same situation in 2019 happen again.

But, at the rate the team is adding and convincing players to join, there's a chance that 2019 and 2025 will have as much in common as apples to oranges.

This week during practice, with all the eighth graders on the team away to participate in basketball, starting quarterback Bryce Pfaff at FFA Nationals and a couple other players ineligible for practice and games, the Vikings still had more players practicing this week than they had total for most games last season. Garfield-Palouse has just one senior and several more students are interested in joining next year. If the Vikings continue to improve, more and more students might take interest in putting on the jerseys with "Vikings" and "GarPal" spelled across the front.

"It's nice to see (the interest)," said running back/wide receiver/safety Lane Collier, who is one of this season's Prep Athlete of the Week. "Because I know once we leave, hopefully there'll be another team that we can come and watch and support. And it's nice seeing that other people like the game, too."

The reintroduction and continued success of the football team has given the community something to do and support on Fridays. It also helped elevate Garfield-Palouse athletics back to full strength. After the football team came back in the fall of 2022, the baseball team returned in spring of this year after its own three-year hiatus. The cross country and track and field teams have achieved success at the state tournament level, and the girls and boys basketball teams nearly always have packed houses while playing at home in Palouse.

On the drive into Palouse, the town's welcome sign says "home of the Vikings." Now, after three years, that home finally has all rooms available for its students.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.