THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: May 11, 2014

It was in the middle of a nip-and-tuck softball game the other day, with a berth to state on the line.

At the end of the inning, the player came off the field, saw the mom standing outside the dugout, on the other side of the backstop.

The player walked through the dugout and out the other entrance, and player and mom exchanged a long hug.

And it wasn't even her mom.

JUST ANOTHER reminder of what moms mean to us in the world of sports, and how it blends into life.

Think of what they go through, the thoughts that go through their minds when, say, they see their son down on the football field, with an injury that requires an ambulance?

Imagine the strength they must muster to hold their families together when cancer strikes. Or when something even worse happens in the family.

SURE, THERE are plenty of stories out there about crazy sports moms.

I can't say I've seen many examples of that in my three-plus decades in North Idaho. But I understand the emotional part - covering high school wrestling matches, it was almost as entertaining to watch the moms watch their sons wrestle than to watch the actual wrestling match.

Then again, there was the one high school wrestling match up in Sandpoint in 1995 where the match was so hotly contested that the moms of BOTH wrestlers charged down from the stands and onto the mat after the match.

The Press' headline the next morning: "The mother of all duals."

But that's the exception around here.

I think of the moms who sacrifice quite a bit of their own lives, so their kids can have the best chance to succeed.

I think of moms who not only have their own kids playing, but dad is also the coach, and their house is a cool place for the team to hang out, so mom becomes a "mom" to a dozen or so kids.

I think of moms who were standout athletes in high school back in the day, their moms cheering on their every move, and now those kids are moms of their own, encouraging their kids from the stands, knowing that, unlike when they were playing, all they can do now is watch and hope.

Heck, imagine living to be nearly 103 years old, and being a mother, then a grandmother, then a great-grandmother, then a great-great grandmother ...

I REMEMBER my mom coming to watch me play once in a basketball tournament - in the seventh or eighth grade - at Judge Memorial in Salt Lake City. She was volunteering in the concession booth, but stepped out for a few minutes to watch me play.

With her sitting in the front row of the bleachers, I drilled a long shot from the baseline - it would have been a 3-pointer, but there was no such thing for us at the time - right in front of her.

Then she had to go back to the concession booth.

"Always remember my mom (Theresa) coming to my Little League baseball games," recalled Lake City High senior Nathan Newby. "One game I was up to bat, I was probably about 9 or 10 years old, my mom was sitting right behind home plate. The pitcher wound up, and threw. The ball came at me and I turned and let it hit me in the back. My mom screamed and jumped up and ran right into the chain link fence. Everybody laughed and she realized what she did. It was funny and we laugh about it to this day."

YOU HOPE the kids understand and appreciate what their moms (or "moms) have meant to them over the years. If so, today would be a good day to let them know that.

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.