The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Oct. 10, 2012

On an evening that seemed more fitting for winter on Friday night, a few area high school football teams went a long way toward helping figure out their future plans.

While there's still a few weeks to go, between Friday's games and this week, a lot can be settled by the time the final horn sounds.

WITHOUT EVEN playing a 5A Inland Empire League game on Friday, the Lake City Timberwolves moved one step closer to clinching one of two home field advantage spots when the league begins its playoffs on Oct. 26.

Thanks to wins against Post Falls and at Lewiston, all Lake City needs is a win by cross-town rival Coeur d'Alene, which travels to Lewiston this week.

Lake City, which faces Chiawana this week in Pasco, Wash., also travels to Viking Stadium next week in a game that could have more to do with who's hosting who when the playoff games start.

Lakeland, which hasn't even played a 4A Inland Empire League game, can clinch a playoff spot with wins over Sandpoint and Moscow - starting after this week's nonleague game against district rival Timberlake in Spirit Lake.

Throw in volleyball matches starting this weekend, and the fall season is starting to wind down a lot faster than it seems to have started.

As of Tuesday, the only thing to have been determined is the site of the 4A Region 1 tournament, which will be held in Sandpoint featuring the Bulldogs, Moscow and Lakeland.

The 3A tournament will have a district champion not named St. Maries for the first time in six years after the Lumberjacks dropped to the 2A classification in all sports but soccer.

WITH THE state tournament in 5A soccer coming to the Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene area next week, hopefully the crowds will also.

In the last three times I've ventured down to the state basketball tournaments in Boise, often times the crowds don't really get too big until the final two days.

For those fans of the game, they’ll show up to watch — even if the match doesn’t involve local teams.

And hopefully they do, because watching those games in Boise to half-empty gymnasiums doesn’t seem to have the same kind of energy and intensity as those where it is almost standing room only.

Not that a crowd of over 1,000 isn’t possible, because should a local team be in that title game, anything less might be more reason to keep these tournaments in Boise instead of rotating every five years.

While playoffs in football, volleyball, cross country and soccer come up north every once in a while, chances to see this level of competition don’t come around all that often.

Do yourself a favor — get out and enjoy it while you can.

It doesn’t happen as often as it should.

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 jelliott@cdapress.com.