The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT October 30, 2010
There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming winter sports season for a few local teams.
Whether it's getting a good ranking in a preseason poll, or returning with something to prove, it will be a good winter in the Pacific Northwest.
AS THE preseason polls were released earlier this week in the NJCAA, the North Idaho College men's basketball team was tabbed third, with the women ranked sixth.
The NIC men, who open the regular season Tuesday at home against Salish Kootenai, return only one starter in Michael Hale from last year's Region 18 runner-up team.
NIC's women, who open Thursday at Miles City (Mont.) Community College, lost only two players from an eighth-place finisher in last year's NJCAA tournament, the team's second straight trip.
What you can probably expect to see will be some ultra-competitive games at Christianson Gym, no matter who's coming to take on the Cardinals this season.
It will be tough to tell what the second-ranked NIC wrestling team, which opened Friday night, will bring to the table in the early weeks of the season, but believe that the chances of a lot of faces from the Coeur d'Alene area will be on hand.
One way or another, it will happen, because NIC hosts the national tournament at the Spokane Convention Center in late February, sandwiched in between the boys and girls state tournaments.
A VALUABLE lesson I learned during the high school basketball season - never count anyone out when the chips are down.
Traveling to my first state tournament last year, I had awhile to think about each matchup at both the Spokane and Boise airports.
Not even in those thoughts did I imagine a scene where a team that I'd been covering less than seven months (Coeur d'Alene) and a team I'd covered for more than seven years (Kellogg) could end up playing for state titles.
The Vikings had been there a few times, but never did I picture the day when I’d be walking into the Idaho Center and have half the teams be from the northern part of the state.
Some won, some lost, but it was definitely a learning experience that weekend in Nampa.
AREA PREP wrestling teams will also have some lofty goals to live up to as the Coeur d’Alene Vikings attempt to recapture the magic that led to the first state wrestling title in school history.
Individual champions came from Post Falls, Lakeland and Timberlake last year at Holt Arena in Pocatello; this year the championships shift to Nampa.
If last year was any indication, this year could be another banner year for many of the teams in the area.
It’s just how we roll in North Idaho.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached via telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.