The Front Row with MARK NELKE Feb. 23, 2012

Here’s something you wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago — fans gathered around a laptop at the scorer’s table at Coeur d’Alene High, watching the final seconds of Coeur d’Alene’s semifinal game against Centennial at the state 5A girls basketball tournament in Nampa.

It happened at halftime of Coeur d’Alene’s boys game against Lewiston in the first round of the 5A Region 1 basketball tournament, and fans seated behind the scorer’s table watched the end of the girls’ webcast on IdahoSports.com — just enough to watch a Centennial girl hit a go-ahead 3, and the Vikings unable to respond with a tying or winning basket at the buzzer.

I thought back to the old days — before webcasts and cell phones — when North Idaho teams went down south to play. If the game wasn’t on the radio, you had to rely on someone down there calling someone up here with updates, and hoped they spread the word.

Texting? Tweeting? Blogging? Who would have thunk of that back then?

• In case you were at the Coeur d’Alene-Lewiston game and wondering, there is no running clock in the fourth quarter in the postseason when one team leads by 30 points. That rule only applies during the regular season.

• Upon further review, North Idaho College finished second instead of third at the Region 18 wrestling tournament Feb. 11 in Yakima.

After recalculating the results, NIC was second with 75 points and Highline, which was originally second, finished third with 72.5. Clackamas still won handily with 104.5 points.

The national tournament is Friday and Saturday at Rochester, Minn.

• Geno Bonnalie is officially in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 27-year-old Lewiston man received an email from the Guinness World Records organization recently, officially confirming the 2,000 holes he played in a seven-day stretch at the Lewiston Golf and Country Club in late June and early July was a world record.

Not long after that first email, Bonnalie was notified that two records he though he had set — 493 birdies in seven days, and 67 birdies in one 12-hour period — were also confirmed by Guinness.

“Obviously, it’s much cooler to have Guinness say, ‘Yeah, you have the record,’” Bonnalie told the Lewiston Tribune. “Once I got that (email), I was pretty pumped.”

While trying to play his way into the Guinness Book of World Records, Bonnalie also raised money for the Cystinosis Research Foundation. Bonnalie’s cousin, 7-year-old Tina Flerchinger, has suffered from the rare disease her entire life. Bonnallie ended up raising more than $15,000.

Tina is the niece of Ron Jacobson, a Post Falls city councilman.

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.