The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 3, 2013

With the prime rib and beef sticks mostly consumed for the holidays, it's time to start biting into some key 5A Inland Empire League basketball games.

We got a little appetizer last month with Lake City at Coeur d'Alene boys and girls, Coeur d'Alene at Lewiston girls, and Post Falls vs. Lewiston and Lake City girls.

But what we're really hungry for are the girls basketball matchups between Coeur d'Alene (11-3) and Post Falls (14-0) - two of the top three teams in Idaho.

They meet for the first time next Tuesday at Coeur d'Alene, then square off again Jan. 25 at Post Falls.

They could meet up again in the Region 1 tournament, and perhaps again at state.

One thing we probably won't have to worry about is either team holding onto the ball for long stretches of time, searching for a good shot - which is something Lake City did with some success before losing 49-17 at Coeur d'Alene, and Lewiston did with more success in a 43-41 overtime win over the Vikings at Lewiston.

"Those people that are advocates for a shot clock will take this (Lake City) game and the Lewiston game and say, 'This is why you need one,'" Coeur d'Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said.

"But if you do that, these (Lake City) kids don't have a chance. They have to do what he (coach Bryan Kelly) was telling them to do. As long as they were doing that, they were in the game. It was a game."

Poffenroth said he was fine with the strategy Lewiston and Lake City used against his team.

"And the other thing everybody doesn't understand about the clock, and it's been proposed in the state of Idaho, is everybody presses once you put it in, because that takes time off the clock. So instead of 30 (seconds), it's down to 23, or 22, or 18 ... to run your offense. It takes away from the bigger, tall teams, and puts the emphasis on the smaller, fast teams. I don't think they thought that one through."

Poffenroth, who worked with a shot clock when he coached at Central Valley in Spokane before coming to Coeur d'Alene, said he wouldn't be in favor of one in Idaho.

In Idaho, Borah held the ball to stun city rival Boise 17-7 in the 2001 5A girls title game. Last year, in Oregon's state 5A girls title game, Willamette held the ball on Springfield and 6-foot-5 Mercedes Russell, who has signed with Tennessee, before losing 16-7.

Other than that ...

"I haven't seen anybody but (former Borah coach Jim) Pankratz abuse it. And he's been out for a long time now. And they point to the Oregon state championship game of last year, but it had to be that way, because Mercedes Russell is so good, nobody has a prayer, unless you do that. Instead of getting beat by 40, you get beat by seven.”

POST FALLS’ boys team has made four straight trips to state, and Coeur d’Alene has been there the past two seasons. Both were hit hard by graduation after last season, but both have shown there was more where that came from.

Coeur d’Alene, with a roster largely consisting of sophomores, made it to the finals of the Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational, and is off to a 7-2 start. Post Falls finished third at that tourney, and is 5-4.

“I knew these kids would be good,” Coeur d’Alene coach Kent Leiss said of his team. “I didn’t know how soon, but they’re progressing pretty well right now.”

Those two teams also meet for the first time this season next Tuesday at Coeur d’Alene.

SO MUCH for the state track meets returning to one site — at least for now.

The IHSAA voted last month to move the 3A, 2A and 1A meets to Middleton High, and leave the 5A and 4A meets at Dona Larsen Park in Boise.

Middleton High is some 35 miles from Dona Larsen Park, in case you were thinking of running back and forth between the two sites.

With Bronco Stadium in Boise, the longtime home of all the meets, no longer available due to expansion of the football stadium, the meets were moved elsewhere beginning with the May 2012 meets, which were held at five different sites in the Boise area.

Dona Larsen Park opened this past fall, and the idea was to have all five meets there once it got up and running. But parking is an issue at the site, and there were concerns about not having enough seating for fans of all five meets.

So the meets will be split up for at least the next two years, IHSAA executive director John Billetz said.

“Also being a new facility and not knowing what the issues or problems a new facility presents, we just thought it would be in our best interest to start small and then see how we want to proceed in the future,” Billetz said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.