POCATELLO — Elation was expressed at midfield at Holt Arena, where the American Falls seventh-grade football team celebrated a youth football championship Saturday.

It was premature because the squad didn’t realize it needed to snap the ball again to run out the clock, but the players were eager as football success has been difficult to obtain in American Falls.

Perhaps what happened in the Southeast Idaho Youth Football League this season is a sign of positive things to come for a longtime struggling American Falls High School football program.

Two American Falls youth football teams played in championship games Saturday at Holt Arena, plus another secured first place earlier this month in its league standings.

“Success builds success,” said Cory Hollingsworth, the second-year American Falls High School varsity football coach. “Football is such a morale game where kids have to believe in themselves and what they’re doing, so success does that.”

The Southeast Idaho Youth Football League features two divisions per grade from fifth-eighth grade. While the fifth-grade championships are determined by regular-season records, there are playoffs for each of the six divisions in higher grades and the championship games were all played Saturday at Holt Arena.

The American Falls Patriots defeated the Snake River Panthers 32-28 in the championship game of the SIYFL’s first-tier seventh-grade division.

“We’ve been an underdog for years and they’re starting to believe,” American Falls Patriots coach Brian Adair said. “They believe they’re as good as anyone else, if not better. It’s confidence, confidence in what they’ve been taught is going to carry over into the game.”

The American Falls Falcons lost 22-16 in overtime against the Marsh Valley Eagles in SIYFL’s title game for the second-tier eighth-grade division, while the American Falls Beavers finished first in the second-tier fifth-grade division standings earlier this month.

Succeeding in football has not been as prevalent at American Falls High School, which has not won a state championship in the Idaho High School Activities Association era and has been dominated in its three-team conference by Snake River, which finished 9-1 against the Beavers in this decade at the varsity level.

“In American Falls, we’ve never had a talent problem to compete, We’ve just had depth issues,” said Brandon Wilkinson, the American Falls SIYFL youth football director and coach of A.F.’s eighth-grade youth football team. “We need to give (the high school program) more players and give them more depth.”

The varsity team is also begging to have less coaching turnover, as Hollingsworth was the third A.F. varsity head coach in three years when he stepped into the role last season.

But after the Beavers finished 2-6 this season, he said he is “definitely” coming back.

“It’s a great school,” Hollingsworth said. “It’s got a great administration and good kids and it’s a good place to be and we’re working to make sure it has a good football team too.”

That includes the coaches working in the American Falls youth program that accomplished something worth celebrating Saturday.

The seventh-grade American Falls Patriots clinched their title after quarterback Troy Parish found fullback Austin Adair for a 43-yard game-winning touchdown pass in the closing minutes of the game against Snake River.

“We have some great coaches in our youth program right now and the success is starting to build and I can’t wait to see how it progresses in the future,” Wilkinson said. “And I can’t wait to see it roll over into our high school program.”