Earlier this year, Challis and Mackay high schools formed a baseball team with players from both schools. It is the first baseball team in the history of either school, both in the lowest classification (1A) of Idaho high school sports.

I initially reported on the formation of this team, and my story in the Post Register can be found here.

I also did a brief recap of the team’s first game, in which it was no-hit. That story can be read here.

And finally, I did a feature on how the team was performing with almost a full season under its belt. That story can be found here.

Here’s an excerpt of that final story:

Co-ops are fairly common in Idaho high school sports. Over the past five years, there has been an average of 26.2 co-ops per season in Idaho, according to data provided by the Idaho High School Activities Association. One of the four District 6 co-ops from 2009-14 was Challis-Mackay wrestling (2009-10 and 2011-12 seasons).

But these teams have come and gone. Many co-ops are heavily populated by one school, so when the smaller school graduates players, its representation in that sport often disappears. The Challis-Mackay wrestling team, for instance, graduated Mackay seniors, and Kevin Mora transferred from Mackay to Challis for his senior season in 2013. Now there’s only a Challis wrestling team.

The IHSAA only authorizes co-ops for two seasons, so if both co-op schools maintain players for more than one season, they would need to renew the team after the second year. Most co-ops fail to reach this point.

[Coach Ryan] Millick said his team has enough players for at least three more years.

Challis-Mackay currently has 14 boys from Challis and three from Mackay (Challis’ Josh D’Orazio is out for the season with a torn meniscus). Two players from Challis — Eric Rose and Tyler Hughes — had never played baseball before this year. Most hadn’t played the game since elementary or middle school in Babe Ruth leagues.

“This is my first time playing baseball since like eight years ago,” Mackay senior Naylan Whitworth said. “It’s fun to get into a sport I haven’t played in a while.”