The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT May 26, 2010

Not the kind of finish fans were used to

The Treasure Valley.

The site of a few great sports moments in the past year: The Idaho Vandals winning the Humanitarian Bowl, Coeur d'Alene winning the 5A girls basketball title and the Post Falls boys winning the 5A basketball title, just to name a few.

Most importantly, it is the place you go to escape the horrible weather and enjoy some 60-plus degree temperatures in the Boise area.

How wrong that turned out to be.

MOST OF the talk for the past couple weeks had been on just how well things were going to go at Ramsey Park for the state 3A softball tournament.

Considering the area got most of the rain in the morning, all of the 15 scheduled games went off without incident as Kimberly defeated Fruitland for the state title.

On the first day of the tournament, the weather wasn't fitting for the start of a spring tournament, with anything from sun to hail to high winds throughout the afternoon in Coeur d'Alene.

Driving rain showers on Tuesday put a damper on many of the best golfers in the state, who were completing their tournament in the area.

Locals Alex Pounds of Coeur d'Alene and Kaceelyn Pouttu of Kellogg defeated the elements for medalist wins.

Pounds, playing on his home course, won by a stroke in his senior season, while Pouttu, a freshman, was playing in her first high school state tournament. Both led into the clubhouse last Monday and were able to hold on despite the nasty conditions in Hayden Lake and Post Falls, respectively.

IN RECENT years, track athletes have come back from the state meet fresh off finishing the season with their best times or jumps of the season and coming back a little tanner in the meantime.

Well, that didn't happen this time.

This time, fans had to brave rain and snow when the finals in the 3A, 2A and 1A classifications on Saturday.

The weather got so bad, the lights were on at Bronco Stadium as visibility grew worse as the day went on.

Matches in the 3A tennis tournament were moved up to get matches in, with a couple baseball and softball games being played on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday to determine state champions.

Had those games not been played, it could have gotten interesting to determine just how tournament organizers may have decided the state champion.

To me, a championship should be settled on the field, not just comparing who did what in the tournament.

This year, there was no comparing how things finished to previous years.

Rain didn't slow anyone in the north.

Games in the south - that's another story.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2020, or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.