The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Jan. 23, 2013

To get where you want to go, you've got to beat the best competition possible.

Seems easy, right?

But for some coaches in the area, easy is not an option.

AFTER SPENDING six weeks waiting, the North Idaho College wrestling team got back into action last weekend by traveling to the Clackamas Open in Oregon City on Sunday.

But first, the Cardinals, who are the top-ranked team in the NJCAA, took on fellow Region 18 schools Highline College in Des Moines, Wash., Southwestern Oregon in Coos Bay and third-ranked Clackamas of Oregon City, Ore., on Saturday.

"It's important to see how you're going to stack up against a ranked team against Clackamas," NIC coach Pat Whitcomb said. "I think these guys stepped up and put together a No. 1-ranked effort, especially in a hostile environment."

The Region 18 tournament is back at Clackamas on Feb. 9.

"We had a fair amount of fans and parents that made the trip down," Whitcomb said. "Even in the matches we lost (against Clackamas), we could turn them around and a few you could see again in the national finals."

NIC competes in a duals tournament at Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., on Friday and Saturday before wrapping up the regular season with a home match against Simon Fraser of Burnaby, British Columbia, on Jan. 31.

BEFORE THE Coeur d'Alene High and Post Falls wrestling teams can focus on the competition at the North Idaho Rumble, which starts on Friday at Coeur d'Alene, there's one thing standing in the way.

Each other.

Coeur d'Alene, which won state 5A championships in 2010 and '11, travels to Post Falls for a dual on Thursday at The Arena.

Post Falls is the second ranked team, Coeur d’Alene eighth in the latest IdahoWrestlingNews.com poll. Post Falls was second to Lewiston at state last year.

After a two-year hiatus, Kellogg High held its first George Wild tournament last weekend, with a slimmed-down eight-team tournament on Saturday at Andrews Gymnasium.

With some teams unable to compete or pulling out of the tournament, the field got smaller and smaller to the point where a few put together B and C teams to make it more competitive.

The tournament wasn’t held after the wrestling program was cut at Kellogg, then restored after the efforts of some community members helped save wrestling, along with baseball, softball and other non-varsity sports teams.

It might have seemed like a failed effort to some to regain what the George Wild had been to some — with up to 25 to 30 teams competing over a two-day period in the years after it was established in 2002.

No matter if it’s another state or national title, you don’t get it without some hard work.

Easy can wait until the offseason.

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.