Miners clean up awards at skill positions
Photo by Josh McDonald Members of the Wallace Miner football team were named to White Pine League All-League team, pictured are (from the left) Jaden Dimitroff, Layton Gallagher, Erik Brackebusch, Matt Farkas, and Carter Bailey.
The Wallace Miner football team recently wrapped a season that had several highs and lows, but after the White Pine League named their all-league teams the Miners can celebrate the performances of several of their key players.
Layton Gallagher was named special teams player of the year and honorable mention running back, Matt Farkas was named as a first team wide receiver and second team linebacker, Jaden Dimitroff was named first team running back and second team defensive back, Erik Brackebusch was named second team quarterback, and Carter Bailey was named honorable mention wide receiver.
“We had a tough year,” Gallagher said. “We battled through a ton of injuries, especially at the end of the year.”
Gallagher himself was on the receiving end of one of those late season injuries as he suffered a serious ankle injury during the Miners’ game with Prairie.
Fellow senior Matt Farkas suffered a fractured wrist midway through the season, which makes his first team selection even more impressive.
“It sucked not being able to be out there and help my team, especially because I was having a good year,” Farkas said.
The season was a tough one, and Brackebusch thinks that a lot of it was due to inexperience in spots where they had been really strong before.
“We lost a lot of our linemen from last year,” Brackebusch said. “Our guys this year worked hard, but we had guys up front last year who had been doing it for years and going from a veteran line to one that isn’t as experienced made it kind of tough for myself, Jaden, and Layton.”
Freshman Carter Bailey was a huge bright spot for Wallace this year and should have the coaches excited about the passing game in the coming seasons.
Bailey was pleased with the coaching in his first year and thinks, moving forward, that he will continue to develop into an even deadlier deep threat than he was as a freshman.
“Our coaches do a good job getting us ready,” Bailey said. “They know where to encourage us, where to get us fired up and I think we are just going to get better.”
For Idaho’s best 8-man conference, Wallace should be excited about the future of the program.