THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, April 23, 2015
* John Billetz may have retired as executive director of the Idaho High School Activities Association, but his association with the IHSAA continues.
Billetz, the former Post Falls High principal, is one of four people who will be inducted into the IHSAA Hall of Fame in August.
Billetz retired last summer after eight years as head of the IHSAA - the governing body for high school athletics in Idaho.
Before that, he was principal at Post Falls High for 11 years.
Prior to that, he was football and boys track coach at Gooding High, football coach, assistant principal, then principal at Burley High, and football coach and athletic director at Minico High of Rupert before being hired at Post Falls.
* The hubbub over the release of the NFL schedule the other night was proof that, once again, anything to do with the NFL is news.
Anything.
People tune in to watch college kids run up and down a sideline stripe real fast, and see how high they can jump and reach some flippy thingies on a pole?
And because people will tune in to watch the NFL on any day or night, we get another full season of Thursday night games.
Has anybody gotten used to the fact that these are real games? The players don't like to play them, the quality suffers because the teams just played four days earlier, yet they still count in the standings.
The London games seem more of a punishment for some teams - especially those giving up a home game. The good news - all three London games will kick off at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time, giving us a bonus early game before the usual 10 a.m./1 p.m. doubleheader.
The fact this is exciting just furthers the proof that we'll tune in anytime, anywhere to watch the NFL - even if the game is played in another continent, on a bad field.
* It doesn't have the promotion of "Cougar Week" in Spokane (as opposed to "Cougar Week" in Spokane and Kootenai County), leading up to Saturday's Washington State spring football Crimson and Gray game at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.
But Idaho has its Silver and Gold game scheduled Friday at 6 p.m. at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, culminating the Vandals' spring practices.
Of local interest is redshirt junior Deon Watson of Coeur d'Alene High, who has moved to tight end after two seasons at wide receiver; and Gunnar Amos, a freshman from Coeur d'Alene High vying for possible playing time at quarterback - unless he redshirts instead.
Other locals on the spring roster - Colton Butcher, a redshirt freshman safety from Lakeland High; and Jordan Pastras, a junior wide receiver from Post Falls High.
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.