THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE July 22, 2010

Julian Burgess said he might want into coaching someday, but he has found himself in that role a little sooner than he might have expected.

Burgess, an infielder for the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen American Legion AA baseball team, was recently declared ineligible to play, and is now an assistant coach of sorts for the Lums, who open play in the Area A (district) tournament today at 5 p.m. vs. the Prairie Cardinals at Post Falls High.

"It (coaching) is not that bad, but I don't want to give up on my playing career quite yet," Burgess said.

HERE'S WHAT happened.

In 2006, as a 14-year-old who just finished his freshman year at Lake City High, Burgess tried out for Coeur d'Alene's youngest Legion team, the Lakers.

He was cut, which allowed him to be released from the Coeur d'Alene program and transfer to the nearest program, in this case Prairie, which consists of players primarily from Post Falls, Lakeland and Timberlake high schools. He made Prairie's A team, where he played for two years. He played the last two years for Prairie's AA team, the Cardinals.

After graduating from Lake City in 2009, Burgess played this spring at Whitworth University in Spokane. Still 18 (he doesn't turn 19 until October), he had one more year of Legion eligibility left.

This year, his head coach at Prairie had moved on, and some of the kids he had played with at Prairie had moved on, and Burgess wanted to play for Coeur d'Alene (which consists of players from Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high schools) with some of the kids he had played with in high school. He had asked to transfer back to the Coeur d'Alene program in previous years, but had been unsuccessful.

This year, Burgess said he checked with Derrick Ater of Lewiston, who is the chairman of Idaho American Legion, and was told last winter if he could get a release from Prairie, he could try out for Coeur d'Alene and be eligible.

He got the release, tried out for the Lums and made the team.

He played with the Lums through June, played with them in a tournament in Omaha, Neb., and played with them through the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene wood bat tournament, which concluded over the Fourth of July weekend.

Then he received another phone call from Ater, saying he was ineligible.

"Ater called me and said 'I made a mistake,'" Burgess said.

"He said he made a mistake, and declared him ineligible," Lumbermen coach Lloyd Duman said of Ater.

"He said because I left Coeur d'Alene Legion, I got my release, and if you leave once, you can't come back," Burgess said.

Duman said he understands rules are rules, but said he was upset that "he (Ater) made his decision and then changed his mind."

"It just basically destroyed us," said Duman, whose team finished the regular season 19-25 overall, 9-7 and in second place in the North Idaho League. "He's one of our team leaders. It was tough on the kids, because they're probably closer than any team we've had in a while."

Burgess was offered the opportunity to return to Prairie to complete this season, but declined. He said had he known all along he couldn't have played for anyone but Prairie, he would have considered hooking up with a college wood-bat team for the summer.

"I did everything he said, and it kind of backfired," Burgess said.

Reached by phone in Lewiston on Wednesday, Ater declined comment for this story, saying the matter has been dealt with.

IN LEWISTON, coach Tom Grunenfelder said he has had to cut players who have tried out for his Lewis-Clark Legion baseball teams. They end up going to play for the Legion program in Pullman. And some, after a couple of years, want to come back and play for Grunenfelder and the Twins. And he knows they can't because "once you have one release, you can not have a second release," he said.

Grunenfelder caught wind of the Burgess situation, and said he and the coaches from Trail and Cranbrook - also teams in the North Idaho League - asked Ater about it.

"Did I file a formal protest? Absolutely not," said Grunenfelder, who said he has taken an earful from Coeur d'Alene and Prairie supporters since the ruling came down. "Rules are rules.

"I don't know why I'm the bad guy; I'm actually doing them a favor," he added, noting that had Burgess not been found to be ineligible until, say, the state tournament, it could have prevented another team from going to state. "I posed a question on eligibility. I feel bad the kid is not playing, but a rule's a rule."

SO IN the end, an error was made on the interpretation of a rule, and the person responsible owned up to it to the player and the team. The coaches questioning a possible rules violation can't be faulted for bringing it to the attention of those in charge. If they keep mum, it's not fair to the other teams in the state who may be unaware of what's going on.

Burgess and the Lums were only doing what they were told is OK, until they were told it was not.

And a player who was really hoping to finally go to state in his final year of Legion baseball will have to watch his teammates try to get there, unable to help as much as he wanted to, as he encourages them from the bench.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].