The Front Row with MARK NELKE April 5, 2012

A few weeks before his team was to play in the state championship game, Bubba Duran discovered he couldn’t run for more than two minutes without his legs tightening up.

That was troubling news for the Coeur d’Alene High senior football player.

“I didn’t know exactly what it was, but that’s when it started,” Duran said. “In the state (title) game, I was on the ground, like half of the game, cramping. I didn’t know what it was.”

Shortly after helping Coeur d’Alene win its second straight state 5A football crown, Duran was diagnosed with compartment syndrome, which according to one website “is a serious condition that involves increased pressure in a muscle compartment. It can lead to muscle and nerve damage and problems with blood flow.”

In Duran’s case, he was not getting enough blood flow to his legs.

So during the latter part of football season, and now during baseball season, where he plays shortstop, Duran only runs during games — not during practices.

Short of surgery, all he can do now is ice, rest, stretch, and do physical therapy. He can’t ride a stationary bike — all he can do is lift weights.

“If he runs too much, his feet go to sleep,” Coeur d’Alene High baseball coach Nick Rook said.

“I’ll start cramping, and I’ll lose feeling in my feet,” Duran said.

After baseball season, Duran said he may have surgery in an attempt to fix the problem. Surgery would entail cutting open both sides of his calves in both legs — all in an attempt to create more blood flow in his legs.

Duran said he was leaning toward playing football in college, but his condition has changed those plans. Idaho had talked to him about walking on, and Eastern Oregon University in La Grande has offered him a scholarship. Instead, he now wants to play baseball, but has not yet settled on a college.

• Eight members of the Coeur d’Alene High boys basketball team were disciplined when they admitted to drinking alcohol after their first-round loss at the state 5A tournament last month in Nampa, school officials said.

Coeur d’Alene lost to eventual champion Borah of Boise 49-45 in a first-round game Thursday afternoon, March 1. The alcohol incident occurred that night, officials said. The following afternoon, Coeur d’Alene lost 69-60 to Highland of Pocatello and was eliminated.

An anonymous call to The Press questioned whether the players had indeed been disciplined.

“They were dealt with according to the rules of our athletic code that they signed,” said Coeur d’Alene High athletic director Todd Gilkey, who declined to divulge specific punishments.

Gilkey said he got a phone call from someone two weeks later, and that was the first he or the Viking coaches knew of the matter, he said.

“I got it (the call) on a Saturday, and the following Monday we dealt with it,” Gilkey said. “It’s disappointing that they (the eight players) would make that choice.”

• You’ve heard of the NFL Scouting Combine, for NFL-bound college football players.

They also have combines for high school players hoping to get noticed by colleges.

Addison Johnson, a sophomore wide receiver/defensive back, competed at a Nike Sparq Combine in Long Beach, Calif., last Saturday and placed fourth out of 1,266.

They were measured in the 40-yard dash, the shuttle, the vertical jump and the power ball.

He is currently ranked 31st in the country, after results from all 11 combines were compiled, Coeur d’Alene football coach Shawn Amos said.

“This is a very impressive showing for a little ol’ North Idaho kid,” Amos said.

Another Viking, junior running back/defensive back Reece Mahaffy, finished 113th at the same combine.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.