I wrote the cover story for the Post Register’s 2015 high school football preview. The article was about Mackay High School, a small-town team that won eight state titles in 19 years.

The last state title came in 2005. Ten years later, Mackay can barely field a team.

I investigated the causes of this sharp decline, and I set to find out if the Miners would ever return to their peak.

Here’s the link to the story. This is how my story opens:

The numbers baffle Jack McKelvey.

Mackay High School currently has five boys in the sophomore, junior and senior classes.

Combined.

Three of those boys are on the football team, which McKelvey is coaching for his 24th season. Sophomore Colt Kraczek is one of the two boys foregoing football for academics (“a brilliant mind,” McKelvey called him).

“He could probably help us,” McKelvey said, pausing for a moment. “Anybody could. We need bodies.”

When Mackay opens its football season against Butte County on Sept. 3, nine players will don the red and white. And for the first year in their history, the Miners are playing a JV schedule.

This is a long fall for Mackay, which won eight state titles in 19 years. Coaches, officials and former players say the decline is due to people moving away.

“Our enrollment here at school dropped so rapidly and so low, it’s been hard to hang onto what we had,” McKelvey said. “It’s a numbers game.”