THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott Oct. 19, 2013

With bigger goals on his mind, Lloyd Duman knew that balancing coaching the class AA Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen American Legion baseball team and trying to work toward a PhD at the same time could only last so long.

Duman, 56, who has been has been with the Coeur d'Alene American Legion baseball program since 1993, and the Lums' coach the past eight seasons, resigned recently to focus on his doctorate.

"I'm at the point now where I'm too busy during the summer," Duman said. "I didn't have time to put the effort in that the coach would need to give to it. It's a little bittersweet, but I had a good run."

DUMAN MISSED last year's state AA tournament - the eighth time in as many seasons the Lumbermen had qualified - due to being out of town working toward his PhD in leadership and change from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

"It's really the biggest reason, because I need the summer to make this happen," Duman said. "I've got to travel to the east coast and will have to do it again in January, May and July. It got to the point where I couldn't do a quality job and had to pick. I knew the time was coming, but I didn't know if it was something I really wanted to do. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it changes."

Cory Bridges, who has been an assistant coach alongside Duman for the last three years, also stepped down following the team's 16-30 finish this year. Bridges started the baseball program at Lake City High in 1995, and coached the Timberwolves through 2008.

"It's so time consuming," Duman said. "It's really a 24-7 job and Cory and I were feeling old after the year. I felt we ended on a good note because we had a young team and saw a lot of learning, and that was the most exciting thing. It's kind of nice to end on that note."

"We both decided that it was right time for both of us," Duman said. "We kind of felt like this last year, it was such a good experience to work with that group. To end on that note, we felt like it was such a positive experience. It got said, 'that's the best we can do.'"

Duman started coaching the Lums in 2006 and led the team to third-place finishes at state in 2006, '07 and '08. They finished fourth in 2010.

Over his coaching career, Duman went 276-160 for the Lumbermen, with former players like Zach Clanton - an assistant who coached the Lums at state this summer - Cody Spencer, current Lake City High baseball coach Travis Georgius, Daley Benson, his son Nic Duman returning to coach in the program.

"It's been nice over my tenure that the players have branched out and are stretching their wings," Duman said. "They're giving back to the sport and taking that next step, and it's nice to see that I've had something to do with that next generation. That's really nice to see."

FOR THE near future, Duman will also be able to spend time with his granddaughter, that is, when he's not in classes or teaching English and humanities at North Idaho College.

"That's going to be high on the list," Duman said. "Riding my bike will also be high on the list. I'll be spending a lot of the time working, but our granddaughter will be 2, so we'll be traveling to Boulder (Colo.) a lot."

His wife, Jamie, who has been on the Coeur d'Alene American Legion baseball board since 1998, will remain on as treasurer.

During the summer, Coeur d'Alene often times traveled to tournaments out of town on weekends during the months of June and July.

"It was a little ridiculous that every weekend we're traveling with 16 to 18-year olds," Duman said. "Taking this entourage around, it's always been exciting. That's one of the things I couldn't believe was how much we traveled, but I always tried to make it that we traveled across the northwest and had three trips to Omaha. My whole idea was to travel around the northwest, and we did that."

Jason Elliott is a sportswriter for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.