The Front Row with MARK NELKE Dec. 20, 2012

In the recently concluded state 5A football playoffs, two of the four teams that reached the semifinals came from North Idaho.

Doesn't look like that will be possible in 2013.

The brackets for next year's 5A football playoffs recently were approved as a first reading by the Idaho High School Activities Association board of control. District 3 (the Boise area) would get five berths, District 5 and 6 (eastern Idaho) would get two, and District 1 and 2 (North Idaho) would get just one.

The brackets could be finalized at January's board meeting.

Coaches in the North pushed for the final week of the regular season to be used for play-in games, to give more of the other teams statewide (including North Idaho) a chance to play their way in.

"There was discussion of a play-in but since we are in the middle of a two-year cycle the south and east were not in favor of this," said Todd Gilkey, Coeur d'Alene High athletic director and IHSAA board member. "It could be something we look at in the future."

SIMPLE MATH, not recent results, are used to determine the number of playoff berths a region receives.

This year, eastern Idaho, with five teams, and North Idaho, with four teams, received two playoff spots each. The Boise area, with 10 teams, received four berths - and though all four teams got knocked out in the first round, that doesn't affect the formula for determining berths.

So that playoffs berths are divvied up equitably over a five-year period based on representation, sometimes a region will only get one berth to state when it usually gets two.

Next year happens to be one of those years in the North.

And unfortunately for the North, the numbers look even less promising for the future.

There's talk of perhaps a couple 4A teams in the Boise area moving up to 5A in 2014, the first year of the next reclassification cycle. And the east might add a team or two as well. Meanwhile, the North figures to stay at four, meaning, in future years, if the North can’t convince the rest of the state to add a play-in round, they might be stuck with just one playoff berth for a while.

• The unofficial 5A Inland Empire League/Tri-Cities hoops challenge is history for this season, with the 5A IEL winning 12-4 overall. Post Falls’ boys went 2-3, Coeur d’Alene 2-0, Lake City 1-0. Post Falls’ girls went 5-0, Coeur d’Alene 1-0, Lake City 1-1.

“We’ve been down here three times,” Post Falls boys coach Mike McLean said the other night from Richland, Wash., where the Trojans fell 70-64 to Hanford. “People might think we’re crazy to come down here three times, but we’re learning a lot about ourselves.”

Especially with a mostly new varsity team. Post Falls beat Kennewick and Chiawana at home, and lost at Kamiakin, Richland and Hanford.

“All three places had great atmospheres, we played in three hostile environments with a young team, we’ve been heckled ... adversity is our truth serum we’re drinking now,” McLean said. “Coming down here three times in 10 days, this is good for us. We’re going to try to put ourselves in difficult situations.”

• The 17th annual Battle for the Prairie Pig spirit basketball games between Lakeland and Post Falls are scheduled for Friday at The Arena at Post Falls, with the girls game at 5:30 p.m. and the boys game at 7:30.

Lakeland won the spirit competition last year, for the 10th time in 16 tries.

Post Falls had dominated on the court, winning the last 11 boys games and the last seven girls games.

• A preview of some possible matchups at the state 5A girls basketball tournament in February takes place this weekend, when Highland of Pocatello visits Coeur d’Alene on Friday night at 7 and Post Falls on Saturday afternoon at 2.

Highland is ranked second in the state media poll, Coeur d’Alene third and Post Falls first.

Highland, which features Kansas-bound twin guards Dakota and Dylan Gonzalez, is 8-0 and last week handed Madison of Rexburg its only loss with a 58-24 thrashing in Pocatello.

• Glacier High’s boys basketball team of Kalispell, Mont., which features Ryan Edwards, a 6-foot-11, 300-pound center who has signed with Gonzaga, plays at Lake City on Friday night at 7:30 and at Coeur d’Alene on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

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.