The Front Row with MARK NELKE June 14, 2012

This 'n that as the school year winds down ...

Stop the clock talk: Every now and then some undermanned high school team stalls throughout most of the game, and the masses cry for a shot clock.

In 2001, Boise held the ball and upset Borah of Boise 17-7 in the state 5A girls title game at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

In March, Willamette High of Eugene, Ore., held the ball, but lost to Springfield 16-7 in the state 5A girls title game. (If Springfield sounds familiar, that's the team that beat Coeur d'Alene in December in the semifinals of the Nike Northwest Invitational in Beaverton, Ore.). Springfield led Willamette 4-0 at halftime.

Shortly after that game, the National Federation of State High School Associations announced it had voted down a proposal for a national shot clock.

Individual states are welcome to use a shot clock. Washington has a 35-second shot clock for boys games, 30 seconds for girls games. Idaho does not use a shot clock, nor does it seem to have any desire to.

And I don't think Idaho needs a shot clock. Local teams seem to shoot in plenty of time as it is, and the last thing we need is to watch high school boys and girls have to heave up a bunch of wrong-footed fallaway jumpers at the end of a shot clock. We see enough of that nonsense as it is in the NBA.

If a team doesn't like the other team holding the ball, then go pressure 'em. Even the best high school ballhandling teams I've seen have trouble hanging onto the ball for any length of time against good pressure. I cringe whenever I see teams try to stall at the end of games to protect their leads.

So leave the shot clocks to college and the NBA.

Back to the play-ins: With St. Maries dropping down to 2A from 3A this fall, the Intermountain League is left with four teams and, in football, was looking at only the league champion advancing to the state 3A playoffs.

Instead, the IML decided to play eight regular-season games, instead of nine, and use that ninth week for cross-district first-round (play-in) games to the state playoffs.

The top three teams from the IML will play three teams from the Snake River Valley Conference in a tripleheader at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. The IML's fourth-place team will be done for the year after eight games.

The IML champion will play the fourth-place team from the SRV; the IML No. 2 team will play SRV No. 3; and IML No. 3 will play the SRV champion.

Timberlake High athletic director Tim Cronnelly said the benefit of this setup is, in years the IML is particularly strong, the league could get more than one team through to the playoffs.

A total of 16 teams statewide will be in the play-in games. Cronnelly said IML teams are usually able to find nine regular-season games, but the other districts have a harder time doing that — hence the play-in games in the ninth week.

“We have no problems getting nine (games), but we’d only get one into the round of eight,” said Cronnelly, noting in past years when the IML had more teams, they were getting two teams into the round of eight.

Another sought-after Viking: Coeur d’Alene High wide receiver/defensive end Chase Blakley, who will be a junior this fall, has received a scholarship offer from Eastern Washington.

The Eagles, of the Football Championship Subdivision, offered after watching him at the Northwest Elite football camp in Seattle, Viking coach Shawn Amos said.

Three other Vikings have received offers from Idaho State — quarterback Gunnar Amos and linemen Jeremiah Hazard and Matt James.

We tried to drink our fair share: A total of 49,250 containers of chocolate milk were handed out by the United Dairymen of Idaho at the state boys basketball tournaments in March, the Idaho High School Activities Association announced.

At state girls basketball, 31,575 containers of chocolate milk were handed out. At state wrestling, it was 17,000 and at state volleyball, it was 13,006.

The total cost to the United Dairymen of Idaho was $21,216.88, or slightly less than 20 cents per container.

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.