The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 8, 2012

Former Lake City High standout Carson York says he's looking at six weeks on crutches, followed by a six-month rehab, following surgery Wednesday to repair the torn patellar tendon he suffered in his right knee in Oregon's Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin on Monday.

"I should be ready for next season but it is going to be a long road," said York, a junior left offensive guard for the Ducks. "Currently I'm just enjoying the win, couldn't be happier even with the bum knee."

York, a three-year starter, was injured making a tackle on an interception in the second half.

"The tendon tore before I made the tackle," York said. "I was at a full sprint chasing him, and when he cut back toward me I attempted to plant off my right leg and it just popped. Apparently I still made a decent tackle but I don't remember any of it. Rose Bowl adrenaline, I suppose."

After being carted off the field and being treated, he was able to return to the sideline and watched on crutches as Oregon finished off its first Rose Bowl victory since 1917.

He was able to share the celebration with another former Lake City standout, Brandon Hanna, a senior and reserve defensive end for the Ducks, who went out a Rose Bowl winner in his final college football game.

"Brandon and I were talking after the game about how in our wildest dreams growing up we never thought two kids like us from ol' Coeur d'Alene would be Rose Bowl champions," York said. "It hasn't really set in yet."

After watching West Virginia dismantle Clemson by the arena football score of 70-33 in the Orange Bowl, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Mountaineers match up with Boise State when the Broncos join the Big East in 2013.

Oh, that's right - West Virginia is headed for the Big 12, possibly as early as the 2012 season.

Makes you wonder if there will be anybody left to challenge Boise State in a couple of years, or is it going to be just like the WAC and the Mountain West the past few seasons.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was watching three future Idaho Vandals when I covered the state 5A championship game at Bronco Stadium in Boise.

Coeur d’Alene quarterback Chad Chalich and wide receiver/defensive end Deon Watson gave verbal commitments to the Vandals in the weeks to follow.

Last Thursday, Eagle High kicker Jace Johnson gave the Vandals a verbal commitment.

The 6-foot, 195-pound senior wrapped up his high school career with a second consecutive appearance on the All-Idaho first team as a kicker.

Johnson made 56 of 57 PATs and 7 of 9 field goals for the Mustangs. Eighty-eight percent of Johnson’s kickoffs went for touchbacks, including three of his five kickoffs vs. Coeur d’Alene.

In high school, kickoffs are from the 40-yard line; in college, they’re from the 35.

In the state title game vs. Coeur d’Alene, with temperatures in the 30s on a Friday night, Johnson had touchbacks on three on his first four kickoffs, and as I recall, none were close to being returned. One of his kickoffs was taken at the 5-yard line, and his last kickoff was an onside kick.

Johnson told the Idaho Statesman he would likely grayshirt this fall, then join the team in 2013 with five years to play four seasons. Idaho’s current kicker, Trey Farquhar, will be a senior this fall.

When I first started at the Daily Bee in Sandpoint in 1982, one of the first coaches I covered was Bob Hamilton, who coached the Bulldog girls basketball team from 1975-85, and passed away recently at the age of 80.

Because we were an afternoon paper at the time, and deadline wasn’t until the next morning, we talked for quite a while after games.

Because he was a former sports writer, we talked a lot about journalism as well — imagine me, just starting out in the business after college, covering someone who had more experience in my craft than I did at the time.

His teams were fun to watch and cover because they played so hard, especially on defense. Plus they were good, making it to the state A-1 championship game three straight years (1982, ‘83 and ‘84).

A few years ago, down in Boise at the state 4A boys basketball tournament, Sandpoint won a game at state for the first time in a long, long time. But no one down there knew exactly how long.

Hamilton had long since retired as a teacher and coach, but he remained the resident historian for Bulldog athletics. If anyone would know the last time Sandpoint’s boys won a game at state, Bob would know. So we called him. Of course, he knew. He was the reason we were able to pass that information on to our readers.

Many of us “old-timers” remember the ‘84 title game, an overtime victory by Coeur d’Alene over Sandpoint before an overflow crowd at Coeur d’Alene High.

Hamilton hated talking about that game ever since, even when I called him 20 years later for a story looking back at that game. That was back in the days when the regional tournament was a best-of-three series, so two teams could square off up to six or seven times in a season. And in those years, Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene waged some highly competitive girls basketball battles.

But of the three state title games Sandpoint played in, as I remember, Hamilton always maintained that was Sandpoint’s best chance at a title. And to lose, in overtime, to your rival in their own gym — to come that close to a state title — especially gnawed at him.

I understand.

But, looking back at how girls basketball has evolved since that night, I think we can safely say that everyone involved in that game — including Bob Hamilton — emerged as a winner that night.

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.