THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, April 11, 2015

It wasn't that out of the ordinary in the small town of Grand View, Idaho - a small town located just north of Boise - to have an athlete compete in three sports during a school year.

But Mindy (Rice) Madsen took that to the next level at the University of Idaho.

AS A graduate of Rimrock High in Bruneau, Madsen lettered in volleyball, basketball and track, qualifying for the Junior Olympics in the summer before her freshman year of high school, finishing second in the high jump out of 33 participants.

"Coming from a small school like that, everybody played every sport," said Madsen, 38, in a phone interview on Friday. "There wasn't much else to do but play sports, so you just went for it."

At Idaho, she was an all-Big Sky Conference second-team selection in volleyball as a junior, then was named conference MVP, conference tournament MVP, was fifth in the nation in kills per game and named the Idaho Woman Athlete of the Year and Inland Empire Female Athlete of the Year as a senior in 1994.

As a junior, Rice helped Idaho to a 31-3 finish, 13-1 in conference. Idaho went unbeaten at home that year.

After her junior year in volleyball, Madsen, walked on to the Vandals women's basketball team, and was tabbed an all-conference selection - the first time in Big Sky history that a female athlete had been honored in two sports.

In her senior year at Rimrock in 1991, Rice set state 1A Division 1 girls basketball records for points in a game (45) and highest scoring average (33.3 points per game). Both records still stand.

"It was pretty hard to balance everything, especially when I did both sports," Madsen said. "It was awfully time consuming. But I was thankful for the opportunity to do it and I got a chance to play with some great people and got to learn a lot of different things."

MADSEN WILL be inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame along with Van Troxel, Orlando Lightfoot and the late Robert "Marz" Marzulli tonight during the North Idaho Sports Banquet at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn.

"I've been excited about this for a couple of months now," Madsen said. "It's always great to get back to northern Idaho. I'm really looking forward to it. It has been a few years since I've played, but it's a great honor."

She was also inducted into Idaho Vandal Athletic Hall of Fame as a charter member in 2007, then included with the 1994 volleyball team that was inducted in 2011.

"I'm kind of speechless right now," Madsen said. "It's just something that you aspire to be. But when it does, it's a special thing."

After graduating from Idaho, Madsen coached volleyball at Emmett High for nine seasons, before resigning in 2004 to become a stay-at-home mom to her three children - Dane, Dallan and Brooklyn.

"To be super honest, I probably won't get back into coaching at the high school level," said Madsen, who these days coaches seventh-grade girls basketball in Emmett. "To get a chance to work with those that are just learning the game, I feel like it's a great place for me to be."

Tonight, she'll get another chance to be recognized for her accomplishments.

"It will be great to be with some other athletes and celebrate athletics," Madsen said. "I'm really excited for this."

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.