THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE, October 3, 2013
Belated congrats to Coeur d'Alene High football coach Shawn Amos, who picked up his 100th victory as Vikings' coach when they won their season opener at West Linn (Ore.). He's now 101-66 in his 17th season at Cd'A, 112-71-1 in his 19th season overall.
LAKE CITY City High volleyball coach Bret Taylor hit the 100 mark in coaching victories at the high school level last Saturday, when the Timberwolves defeated Glacier of Kalispell, Mont. After winning Tuesday vs. Moscow, Taylor is 101-83 in his seventh season as high school coach. He coached at Coeur d'Alene for two years, and is 71-48 in his fifth season at Lake City.
Taylor previously had a couple of stints as North Idaho College volleyball coach.
Knowing Taylor, he could probably care less about milestones, though he probably wouldn't mind getting win No. 102 tonight - when Lake City travels to defending state 5A champion Lewiston.
AMOS, by the way, is one of eight finalists selected by USA Today for "Best coach in Idaho football."
The other finalists -- Bill Brock, Middleton; Lane Kirkland, Carey; Lee Neumann, Centennial; Mitch Buck, Madison; Stan Buck, Blackfoot; Tim Brennan, Bishop Kelly; and Tom Harrison, Pocatello.
Impressive names, all. However, a couple others who should be on that list include Van Troxel of Lake City, and Geno Mariani of Highland.
Anyway, you can vote at http://contest.usatodayhss.com/vote/bestcoach2013/id. As of Wednesday afternoon, the top vote-getters were Stan Buck and Lane Kirkland.
WATCHING CHAD Chalich excel so soon as a Division I quarterback, it's interesting to look back at the recruiting interest he had in high school. Some pretty good schools liked him, but kept their distance because he was "only" 6-foot-1. And even Idaho's offer to the former Coeur d'Alene High standout came kinda late in the game.
see NELKE, B4
Two years later, as a redshirt freshman at Idaho, he's just another example of a quarterback showing it's just as important -- perhaps even more important -- what he has between the ears, not just how tall he is.
Now, if the Vandals could only find a way for him to not have to take so many crushing hits ...
MARK RYPIEN, the former Shadle Park, Washington State and Super Bowl MVP quarterback who also has ties to North Idaho, recently competed in "Big Break NFL Puerto Rico," a golf competition aired on The Golf Channel. The show premiers next Tuesday at 6 p.m. and airs weekly on Tuesday nights.
Rypien and other former NFL players Tim Brown, Marc Bulger, Al Del Greco, Chris Doleman and Jerry Rice recently participated in a conference call promoting the event. According to a transcript provided by a Golf Channel PR guy, here's what "Ryp" had to say about a couple of topics:
On the pressure of competing on Big Break NFL Puerto Rico: "To be on a stage and put in an environment where we are playing golf for somebody else, holy smokes, you know, I thought playing in Tahoe was difficult. This thing is tenfold."
(Rypien won the inaugural American Celebrity Championship golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 1990, and finished second this year.)
On the first month of the NFL season: "The fear of the game, none of these quarterbacks have the fear anymore. You don t have the fear of 56 (Lawrence Taylor) coming down your backside breathing down your neck to knock your head off & The rules have changed and quarterbacks have the luxury of doing what they want to do and the defense is really like Chris said, in handcuffs."
ROCKY MOUNTAIN High of Meridian, which came in ranked second in the state in 5A football, was stunned at home 42-26 by fourth-ranked Capital of Boise last week.
Capital (5-0, 4-0 5A Southern Idaho Conference) trailed 20-7 at halftime and 26-14 in the third quarter before scoring the game's last 28 points.
Rocky (4-1, 3-1), you may recall, beat Lake City 63-41 in its season opener. Also that night, Capital won 35-0 at Post Falls.
If the seeds hold true, the top team out of Boise will travel north to play at the top team from the 5A Inland Empire League in the state semifinals.
COMING OFF off that thrilling 36-30 victory at Post Falls last week to open 5A Inland Empire League play, Lake City (3-2) is idle this week. The Timberwolves return to action Oct. 11 at Sandpoint, then close out the regular season with three home games -- Oct. 18 vs. Chiawana of Pasco, Wash., Oct. 25 vs. Coeur d'Alene and Oct. 31 vs. Lewiston.
"We're still a work in progress," Troxel said. "Having a bye, we can get Gavan (Rosteck) and Tucker (Louie-McGee) and some other guys healthier."
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.