THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, Oct. 9, 2014

Henry Hamill was at the San Francisco 49ers training facility in Santa Clara about a decade ago, the longtime offensive line coach picking up what he could from assistant coaches for the 49ers, whose head coach at the time was his longtime friend, Dennis Erickson.

Three or four times during his visit, Hamill crossed paths with Bill Walsh, who coached the 49ers to three Super Bowl titles and at that time was a consultant to the team.

After the third or fourth time, Hamill said, Walsh finally spoke up.

"Who are you, anyway?" Walsh asked Hamill.

"I'm a high school coach from Coeur d'Alene," Hamill replied.

"I love Coeur d'Alene," Walsh said. "Let's go downstairs and have lunch, and tell me about your offense."

Hamill, now retired and getting ready to receive a lifetime achievement award at halftime of Friday's Post Falls-Lake City football game, joined the legendary coach for lunch.

THEY TALKED about Lake City High's offense for a while. Then Hamill asked Walsh why he used to "script" the 49ers first 15 or so plays in each game - in other words, use a pre-determined list of plays at the start of the game.

"He said, 'What we're trying to do is get people to show us how they are going to cover our formations,'" Hamill said. "'And then, after that, we at halftime make decisions on what formations and plays would be the most strategic.'"

What if you thought you had a play that would work really well against a certain team, Hamill asked Walsh.

"If they're not very good, hit 'em hard immediately and try to put them away," Walsh told Hamill.

"What if they're good?" Hamill asked.

"Put it in your pocket," Walsh replied. "Wait until after halftime, then hit 'em with it."

HAMILL remembered a year or so later, when Lake City played Highland of Pocatello in the 2006 state 5A championship game at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

Hamill noticed Highland widened its defensive tackles to the outside shoulder of Lake City's offensive guards, to give them a better chance to defend the perimeter against the Timberwolves' option attack.

"Everybody was saying 'run the ball,' but I knew the Highland coaches would adjust," Hamill recalled.

He waited until the second half, then Lake City unleashed a steady diet of Brandon Hanna pounding runs up the middle. The Rams linemen, a smallish group and many of them playing both ways, were unable to adjust, and the Timberwolves dominated the second half, pulling away for a 35-6 win.

"So we saved it, but not without me taking serious pressure from the players," Hamill said. "I was upstairs (in the coaches box) thinking old coach Walsh would have been proud of me."

Hamill said he wrote Walsh a note after the game, telling him what happened, and Walsh wrote back, saying "congratulations."

HAMILL, 66, will receive a Presidential Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Idaho State Coaches Association. Before working as offensive line coach at Coeur d'Alene High from 1986-93, then at Lake City from 1994-2007, Hamill was a head coach in Montana and Oregon, starting in 1972 in Thompson Falls.

"If you look at his overall career, the number of games he was a part of winning, all the trips to the playoffs, and state championships, it really is a pretty impressive resume," said Kelly Reed, who coached with Hamill at Lake City, is now past president of the Idaho State Coaches Association, and who nominated him for the award.

ASSISTANT COACHES often toil for hours and hours with little fanfare, while head coaches get credit for the wins and blame for the losses.

"And that's unfortunate, because it's a team effort (between all the coaches) from the get-go," said Hamill, who's oldest son, Pete, now an attorney in Maui, is flying back here to see his dad honored. Henry's other son, Alex, lives in Coeur d'Alene and sells medical supplies.

"When I was with (Lake City head coach Van) Troxel, one of the things he did well was give us (assistants) freedom to do things necessary to move the ball," Hamill said.

Lake City, Hamill said, was one of the first high school teams in the area to run option out of the shotgun formation, to give the quarterback more room to operate. The quarterback train started with Chad Troxel in 1997, then to Jake Freeman, to Matt Stern, to Dustin Sedgwick to Ben Widmyer to Garren Hammons.

In the early years, the option was run exclusively on the outside. Sedgwick, Hamill said, was the first quarterback to see space opening up inside.

"He said, 'I see this gap opening up in the middle of the line,'" Hamill recalled. "He would start outside, then cut it back and gash the defense for about 15, 20 yards.

"Seeing he graduated from (Princeton), he was smarter than most of the coaches," Hamill said. "We took it (the option) to another level; we learned how to seal it inside to open up that lane."

HAMILL RETIRED from teaching in 2010. Last week, he served as grand marshal for Lake City's homecoming parade. Friday night, he'll be honored for his three-plus decades of service as a football coach.

"I really think Henry was part of raising the level of football in Idaho," Reed said. "I think he's one of the best high school offensive line coaches in the Northwest. His contributions improved high school football."

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@CdAPressSports.