The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT June 25, 2011

Over 14 years in the Coeur d'Alene School District, Kris Knowles has taught everything from anthropology to the history of sports.

Now, the Coeur d'Alene High graduate will attempt to guide a pack of Badgers back to the promised land of high school state championships.

KNOWLES WAS recently named athletic director at class 3A Bonners Ferry High, replacing longtime AD Ted Reynolds, who resigned to take the same job at Middleton High.

"It's something I've always wanted to do," Knowles said. "I've been working three years on two different master's degrees in educational administration and athletic administration. It's something I've always felt I wanted to do."

Knowles, 36, worked with students in the Coeur d'Alene School District from 2000-04 at the Kootenai County Juvenile Detention Center.

"It was a good job," Knowles said. "I enjoyed it."

Knowles took a teaching job at Lake City High in 2004 when he became the Timberwolves' head boys basketball coach. He did that for two seasons, then was an assistant coach when the girls basketball team won the state 5A championship in 2007. He was also an assistant under Jim Winger when the Lake City boys basketball team was the state runners-up in 2002.

He continued to teach at Lake City while coaching at North Idaho College, where he was a volunteer assistant to men's basketball coach Jared Phay for the past two seasons.

"Both Lake City and NIC are very important and special places to me," Knowles said. "But to be in administration and an athletic director is something I've always wanted to do. It's certainly not 5A and that will be a little bit of a transition, but I'm very, very pleased with the opportunity."

NIC earned the top ranking in the NJCAA men’s preseason basketball poll in 2010 and complied a 50-14 record in the past two years.

“It’s a really good fit for me,” Knowles added. “It’s a big career transition.”

“I’ve got mixed emotions about it right now,” Phay said. “It’s been fun working with him and I’m happy for him. That’s a direction he wants to go and I’m excited for him. He’ll do a great job.”

Phay added he’ll miss his presence on the bench.

“He was very knowledgeable about basketball,” Phay said. “He’s got a good mind for the game and it was great to have him around here.”

The transition from the 5A Inland Empire League to the 3A Intermountain League has already began for Knowles.

“I’ve been up there every day for the past two weeks,” Knowles said. “There has been nothing but support and positive messages from everyone I’ve met.”

His wife Kelli, who coached and taught at Lake City, also accepted a position within the Bonners Ferry faculty as an English teacher.

“We’re both going to be Badgers,” Knowles said.

The district recently passed a supplemental levy for $2.8 million, ensuring that athletics will remain safe for the next two years in the Bonners Ferry School District.

“It’s not just an issue in Boundary County,” Knowles said. “It’s definitely a struggle, but the second levy passed pretty easily. I know the tradition and it’s a very strong one. That’s one of the reasons I chose Bonners. We as a family decided that’s where we wanted to be.”

KNOWLES ADDED he’ll also miss those rivalry games that had become familiar over the past decade.

“I’ll miss Fridays on the bench the most,” Knowles said. “With either having those NIC vs. CSI or Lake City vs. Coeur d’Alene games, I’ll miss watching them tee it up. I’ll miss those Friday nights when you get a little extra juice as a coach. Both coach Phay and (Corey) Symons, you can’t find two better people than those two guys. They’re good basketball people.”

Of getting back on the bench, that won’t happen right away in Bonners Ferry, Knowles added.

“I don’t see it in the near future,” Knowles said. “If there’s a situation where I could help, I’d lend a hand, but not as far as a head coach right now.”

For now, he’s just looking forward to shortening the commute from Coeur d’Alene to Bonners Ferry.

“I’m a little tired from the drive every night,” Knowles said. “But it’s nothing that’s a big deal right now. Getting home to my family and being with them is.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].