THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN, July 4, 2014

Clinton Marsters wants to make some aggressive additions in his first year as athletic director at Lakeside High, a class 1A school which draws from the Plummer/Worley area.

THE 30-year-old graduate of Genesee High seeks to gather some federal grants to help improve the athletic program and the school.

Marsters, who was hired in mid-May, replaced Jerel Hight. Currently, he is studying toward a bachelor's degree in athletic administration at Lewis-Clark State College. He played basketball, football and baseball at Genesee. He also served in the U.S. Army for a few years.

"I'd like to get more federal than state grants," Marsters said. "My goals and objectives are to improve the facilities. There are healthy living initiatives, things like that. The money would go to facilities, weight rooms, the football field. The field is not even, at one side there's a slope. Visitors have to go across the middle school gym, so it'd be nice to have some standalone locker rooms to build some momentum."

Due to the fact that the Knights will drop from Class 1A Division I to Division II next season Lakeside has a chance to perform even better in the district and possibly state playoffs.

"I think the challenge is going to be in the postseason," Marsters said. "It's changed a little bit. I think Lakeside will be there in the postseason."

MARSTERS WAS the assistant coach of the Lakeside boys basketball team on Chris Dohrmann's staff last season, before taking the A.D. job this May. The Knights won the best-of-3 game 1A Division I District 1 tournament by beating Wallace, then lost to Genesee in a state play-in game.

"I've got to go in listening," Marsters said. "I've got to figure out what are the norms in the community. I can't go in thinking I have ideas. Is there a high amount of students on free lunch? Yes. Is there a high demographic of at-risk youth? Yes. So do I have a pretty good idea of what grants I'm going to go after? Absolutely. Safe schools, healthy living initiative, any sort of at-risk youth athletic development grants, these are the three primary grants I'm going to be looking at. I'm sure there are grants particular or direct to Native Americans as well that we can apply for."

Marsters, who also worked for the Boys and Girls Club in Federal Way, Wash., lives in Coeur d'Alene with his wife, Brandi Prayton Marsters, who he met while working with AmeriCorps. Brandi works as a nursing program advisor at the Lewis-Clark State College campus in Coeur d'Alene.

IN 2012, Marsters was in the Plummer area running AAU programs, coaching a seventh-grade girls basketball team, Kootenai United, for the past two years. He also coached fourth-grade basketball teams.

"I really want to build around success," Marsters said. "I tell my players (in high school), 'We don't lose league games.'"

Marsters wants to try to bring back baseball to Lakeside High.

"I have good connections in this community," Marsters said. "There are good baseball coaches, they're polite, they're well-mannered.

"It'd be nice if I can have that conversation and get that ball rolling toward the end of this summer. Once this baseball season comes around, maybe we'll get something moving or we can be for sure be on track after this season's over. There are a lot of parents from the middle school and high school who have asked about bringing it back. It'd be nice to get the community behind our sports teams."

Marsters also wants to see if he can get the money to pay his coaches higher salaries.

"I'd love to fundraise money to pay coaches more," Marsters said. "I want the best of the best. I hope to keep the best in our community. We've got coaches that care about kids. You've got to care about kids."

As for football, Marsters also wants to somehow incorporate the uniforms of the old red-and-white Worley High Huskies and the Plummer Pirates into Lakeside's uniforms.

"I feel one thing's important is to honor where people come from," Marsters said. "I feel I will come up with a way to implement them into our uniforms."

So count the new athletic director as having plenty of goals and ambitions to make Lakeside High athletics even better.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at bbourquin@cdapress.com Follow him on Twitter @bourq25