THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Feb. 26, 2014
It was a sight last Saturday night that might not be seen again for a few years.
Two legendary girls basketball coaches, leading teams into a state championship game.
One had to win, and the other had to walk away with a loss.
DALE POFFENROTH led the Coeur d'Alene Vikings to a ninth state 5A championship in school history last Saturday night at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, beating Rocky Mountain of Meridian 69-54.
For Poffenroth, it was the second straight time he'd beaten Rocky Mountain coach Emery Roy in the state tournament; the Vikings also beat Rocky Mountain in the 2013 opener 55-36.
"It's fun," Roy said of facing Poffenroth, after Rocky lost to the Vikings in the state title game. "You want to play the best and it's just fun playing the best because if you can beat him, you feel like you've accomplished something. Whether you win or lose, you can battle with them, and it's always going to be fun and they're always going to be tough. I enjoy it."
With the win, Poffenroth improved to 590-141 in 27 seasons as coach, including 216-38 in 10 years at Coeur d'Alene. In his 37th season, Roy is 775-168, winning four state titles at Meridian and another five at Centennial. This is his second season at Rocky.
Poffenroth beat Roy when he was a coach at Centennial 54-50 in overtime in the 2009 title game, the second of three straight titles won by Coeur d'Alene.
In Roy's final season at Centennial in 2012, he got the best of Poffenroth in a 58-56 win in the semifinals. It was the only time in the past nine years the Vikings had failed to reach the title game. Roy's Centennial team also beat Poffenroth's Vikings in the 2006 state title game.
"I like to coach against him," Poffenroth said, "because he knows what's going on and if you're not smart about what you're doing, he'll find a way to stop it."
On Saturday, Sydney Williams scoring 19 of her 23 points in the second half helped Coeur d'Alene get past Rocky Mountain for the title.
"That's why we couldn't go to our bread and butter, because Emery will find a way to stop it," Poffenroth said. "Our bread and butter was Williams, but we couldn't go to her until halftime, because he would have adjusted to it - and you don't want to do that. He's a very intelligent man."
Roy, in what could have his best coaching job of the weekend, helped his team rally from a 27-11 halftime deficit to beat Lewiston 44-41 in the semifinals.
BOTH COACHES had five seniors in the starting lineup on Saturday night.
"We'll start over, and hope a bunch of eighth graders show up," Poffenroth said. "Hopefully they'll see that opportunity is there and say that I'm going over there because there's a chance to play. But it's a fresh start for us."
Both addressed the 'R' word. Retirement wasn't it.
"We're not reloading, but rebuilding," Poffenroth said. "We had too many kids move away and with the way the economy is, I understand that. Oh yeah, I'll be back. We just need to find the pieces to get back here next year."
"It's the same here," Roy said. "Both of us are losing a lot of players, and the other teams in the Boise area are just getting better and better."
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 [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.