THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott March 28, 2012

To say that the prep sports season has been odd this year might be an understatement.

From blowouts to buzzer beaters and the annual rite of spring for those teams in North Idaho, being postponed.

LOOKING BACK at some of the prep games I've seen this year, a few instances come to mind.

In early September, as the Coeur d'Alene Viking football team was in the midst of a undefeated season and second-straight state 5A championship, they took on a team from Whitney, Calif. at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, which had a quarterback that is bound for the University of Oregon.

From the defense, to the offense - the Vikings couldn't miss with anything they did.

Leading 45-6 at halftime, it was like they were on a different level than the team opposing them that night.

And they didn't for the remainder of the season, going on to win the state championship in Boise in November.

Coeur d'Alene scored a ton of points, forced a bunch of turnovers, but the one thing that impressed me was winning a game with a running clock.

On that particular night against Moscow, the game was over so quickly, those fans that packed into Viking Stadium could have caught halftime at Lake City across town.

CHANCES ARE, the situation like the one on the second night of the girls state basketball tournament won't happen again for a while.

Or at least not for a few months.

Both the Timberlake Tigers and Coeur d'Alene Vikings advanced to the semifinals of their respective tournaments and were playing in separate venues 19 miles apart.

Timberlake and Snake River, a team the Tigers beat the previous season to advance to the state championship game, wound up playing a double-overtime game with the Tigers finding a way to win.

Had Timberlake senior guard Kara Wenstrom missed a 3-pointer with time running out, Timberlake might have seen Intermountain League rival Priest River for a fourth time.

Meanwhile 28 minutes away in Nampa, the Coeur d'Alene Vikings were in a battle for their shot at a state title. By the time that we finally made it to the Idaho Center, both the Vikings and Centennial had battled back and forth with the lead.

But in a game with so many momentum shifts, the final one went to the Patriots and the Vikings wound up finishing third after beating Highland of Pocatello the next day.

WHATEVER THIS spring has in store for area schools is still to be determined.

As events continued to get postponed due to bad weather, the tougher it could get to fill in all those games once it begins to warm up.

But the teams in this area have shown in recent years that weather doesn't matter once things get started.

Until then, much like everyone else, the only game in town is the waiting one.

Once that ends, it will business as usual for a lot of teams.

That is, for those that don't get stuck in the mud.

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].