The last time Colfax and Sutter hooked up in a CIF Northern California Regional boys basketball play the Falcons reached the NorCal finals and came within a basket of reaching the CIF State championship game.

The year was 1999 and Ron Pucci’s Colfax Falcons, the No. 2 seed out of the Sac-Joaquin Section defeated North Section champion Sutter, 45-41, before a packed house at Yuba College in a first round game.

Colfax went on to defeat Pacific Grove in the NorCal semis that season but lost a heartbreaker to Christian Brothers in the NorCal finals played at Delta College in Stockton.

Pucci’s Falcons finished that season with a record of 30-5 and were ranked No.4 in Cal-Hi Sports’ final Div. IV state top ten, the highest finish ever in the state rankings by a Colfax High boys team.

Going back even further, Colfax and Sutter were both members of the Pioneer League in 1962-63 and again from 1970-72.

In fact, in 1971, Colfax, Sutter and Lincoln ended in a three-way tie for the Pioneer Basketball League boys championship.

Colfax, coached by Bill Farrell that season and led by Dave Miles, Lynn Fontana, Frank Paoli, Dean Lein and Jim Day, defeated Sutter twice but lost to Lincoln in league twice. Sutter, on the other hand, defeated Lincoln twice to leave the league in a tri-championship.

Lincoln then defeated Colfax – again – at Sierra College in a special playoff game that qualified the Zebras to the then Burney Tournament of Champions, a popular small school event played in Shasta County that ended in the earl 1980s when the CIF went to a state-wide playoff system.