The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT March 7, 2012
Outside of a couple all-star basketball games, the winter portion of the high school sports schedule has concluded.
Or so it might have seemed at the end of the boys high school boys basketball tournaments last weekend in the Boise area.
WITH THE start of the baseball season scheduled to begin on Friday with Timberlake traveling to Orofino, chances are that this area won't see any sports until the middle of the month.
Neither the baseball nor softball schedule got started right away last year, but with some sun in the coming days, maybe some scheduled games with Post Falls at Lake City could get played on schedule.
And after watching parents and volunteers getting the field ready to conclude the state 5A softball tournament - don't count anything out when it comes to games getting played at Lake City High.
The one thing you can count on is that there's no chance that this spring will compare to the madness of last year.
Games will get played, whether in the cold or on nice days, which didn't happen all that often last year.
From covering a state tournament that had temperatures in the 70s to 80s last spring on one day to a downpour the next, you really might have to expect the unexpected.
BASKETBALL TEAMS from North Idaho College are likely more than ecstatic to have received byes for the first round of the Region 18 tournament.
For the Cardinal men, they can allow point guard Keon Lewis to rest his sprained ankle that he suffered against Southern Idaho on Feb. 25 in Coeur d'Alene. Lewis played last weekend, scoring 16 points in 39 minutes of NIC's 80-79 win last Saturday against Utah State-Eastern Utah in Price, Utah.
The women, after clinching the region's top seed to the tournament, can sit back along with Snow College as the other four teams play in quarterfinal games Thursday.
Most importantly, with the Cardinals leaving late Tuesday night on a charter bus, it will also allow the team to rest after the 648-mile (one-way) trip to Salt Lake City.
“It was nice,” NIC men’s coach Jared Phay said after Saturday’s win. “With Keon’s ankle, it was good to give him an extra day. That’s what we needed to do. After busing down, this will give us an extra day to recover.”
NO MATTER what happens this weekend, both teams will have different paths should they win their regional tournaments.
The men’s team, whoever it might be, will have to play against the winner out of the Arizona Region in a play-in game to nationals next Tuesday. On the bright side, whoever wins the Region 18 title will get to host that game.
The women’s champion advances directly to nationals.
But for right now — it’s all about one thing for any team.
Weathering the upcoming storm.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].