THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, August 27, 2015
The good news is Lake City and Coeur d'Alene have locked up a healthy place to play their season-opening high school football games on Friday.
The bad news is, the games are 80 miles away, and at odd times, a bit of an inconvenience for parents and fans - not to mention the financial hit both schools will take for moving their games indoors, to avoid the possibility of poor air quality outdoors on Friday night.
"That's the whole dilemma," Lake City High athletic director Jim Winger said Tuesday night, after he made the decision to move the Timberwolves' game with Rocky Mountain of Meridian to the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, with kickoff Friday at 3 p.m. "I wanted to hold out as long as possible, but today my phone was like a fireworks show."
Winger had to arrange for workers - ticket takers, an announcer, the chain gang, etc. - to work the game at the Dome. Plus fans and the other team need to know when - and where - to show up.
"So it's not something where you can say, well, let's just wait 'til Thursday night and we'll make a decision," Winger said. "Without a doubt, you want to play at home ... the difference financially, which we rely a great deal on football gates, is huge. We probably will make some money, but it's a huge difference."
Coeur d'Alene moved its home game vs. Skyline of Idaho Falls to the Kibbie Dome on Friday, playing right after the Lake City game at 5:30 p.m.
WINGER SAID Friday's home game, in late August, against a team from hundreds of miles away, before school is in session, would likely turn a profit of $2,000 or $3,000.
"I don't know what we'll make at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday," he said.
The air quality in the Coeur d'Alene area was not expected to be very good through the rest of the week. There have been good days and not-so-good days this week.
Winger could have rolled the dice on a bearable day Friday, but if it wasn't, he would have risked having to call Rocky and tell them to stay home, and both teams would have lost a football game.
The Kibbie Dome provides the rest of the game management - EMTs, concessions, etc. Winger praised the staff at the Kibbie Dome, which is only charging Lake City $600 for using the Dome on Friday. There are multiple games scheduled for the Dome on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
"That's a really good deal; they've been absolutely awesome," Winger said. "That eases the (financial) load a lot. I don't know what the regular charge is, but they said considering the circumstance and the emergency, that's all they would charge."
UNIVERSITY OF Washington football coach Chris Petersen spoke recently about the toughness that players that wrestled in high school bring to his football program.
Petersen was asked about another player on his roster who wrestled in high school, and he ended up mentioning another Husky player, Matt James, who wrestled at Coeur d'Alene High, won a state title in 2014, and also had placings of third and fifth at state.
"Love wrestlers," Petersen said. "One of the toughest guys on our team right now is probably one of the most mild-mannered guys, that you wouldn't know, is Matt James from Coeur d'Alene High School. I mean, this guy's as tough as they come, and he's a wrestler. And that's his background. And that's been my experience over the years, when you get those wrestlers, that's one thing you're not going to have to worry about is the toughness factor."
James is a redshirt freshman battling for playing time on the offensive line for the Huskies, who open Friday, Sept. 4 at Boise State.
At the end of his redshirt season in 2014, James won the Huskies' "Ultimate Greenhorn" Award for his work in the weight room.
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.