THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, August 28, 2015

How have the recent fires and ensuing smoke been treating you, sports fans?

Is it a bit tough to breathe at times, suffocating heat getting to anyone besides me, tough to see those beautiful views of the local mountains around North Idaho?

Well, as tough as it's probably been for many of you, imagine what it's like for young high school athletes who often have to be outdoors for roughly two hours almost every day. Granted, there are plenty of people around the community who work, exercise and run errands, among other things, outdoors or at least spend part of their time outdoors.

BUT NOT everyone - including those who exercise - have to sprint full-speed or at least run quite often on the football and soccer fields, and cross country practice courses. Plus of course, there are indoor sports like swimming and volleyball, but don't think those athletes aren't dealing with the current lack of air quality at times.

Just look at two of tonight's football games, which were moved to the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. You have Lake City playing Rocky Mountain at 3 p.m., which was originally going to be played at Lake City, plus Coeur d'Alene plays Skyline of Idaho Falls at 5:30 and of course, at first that game was going to be played at Viking Stadium.

IN A family full of firefighters, Lakeland boys soccer player Daniel McDevitt has wanted to join that brotherhood.

His uncle, Captain Mark Kiefer, has worked for several years as a firefighter for the Spokane Valley Fire Department.

As a nice side note, Mark is the cousin of Hawks football coach Tim Kiefer. Plus his cousins, Cam and Kirk Kiefer and Micah Edwards, are also firefighters in the Spokane area. Plus McDevitt's mother, Jeri, works as a second-grade teacher at Twin Lakes Elementary in Rathdrum, so she is responsible for those little lungs amidst the smoke.

"I think they got into it because of family influences and just that they genuinely like helping others and the excitement of the job," said Daniel McDevitt, a senior. "I have thought of being a firefighter in the past and these fires have just shown me how powerful and unstoppable fires can sometimes be and that fires can have a much wider effect on things than I previously thought."

Due to the unsafe levels of harmful air quality outside, several soccer teams have had to hold some of their practices indoors. Some of his teammates are suffering a bit more than others.

"Our team has been practicing in the gym," McDevitt said. "That has been a little frustrating and there are a few kids on the team, one with asthma, that have been having trouble breathing during our workouts. No one has had to sit out because of it, just some heavier breathing than usual and a need for more water breaks."

AN INTERESTING perspective is that of a first-year athletic director, from the eyes of Bryan Duncan, an assistant principal the past five years at Coeur d'Alene High.

"It's been a crazy day," Duncan said of a Monday in which the Vikings had to move their football game. "It worked out for this week. I went straight to the coach and he's got a lot of ties to the U of I, he played there. We had a facility agreement, they helped us make sure the locker rooms were ready to go. If I didn't have a good athletic secretary (Norma Alley), I would've been toast."

While organizing everything, Duncan went back to the same playbook ADs have gone to for several decades, especially say, from November through February.

"We treated it a lot like a snow day," Duncan said. "I contacted all my head coaches and when all this happened, the district developed a protocol, using the Air Quality Index from the DEQ and basically what it states is a rating of 150 or higher, which has to do the quality of the air we breathe, is a no-go for outdoor activity. The highest I've seen it since all this came out was a 190 in our region. Down south, in Lewiston, down in the valley, they were way over that. We were in the hazardous level, they were in the unhealthy (level). I have friends down there, they said you couldn't get across the street. We're at 111 right now (Tuesday), so our teams are practicing outdoors."

Of course, quite a few athletes out there have asthma, including at Cd'A and they are going through a few challenging times while practicing and playing.

"Absolutely," Duncan said. "There are several kids. I've talked with some kids indirectly who are bringing their inhalers and not participating in any of the heavier physical activity."

Within the upcoming days and weeks, Duncan sees a few challenges before the smoke clears.

"It's going to be a challenge," Duncan said. "I hear the forecast we (did not) have a lot of rain there. I read an extensive report on the Internet that we have 58 fires in the Panhandle and many of them are unmanned and that could continue without any rain. Unfortunately, we have one of the hotspots in the whole nation and Washington and Idaho are two of them."

On the opposite spectrum, Lake City athletic director Jim Winger has been at his job for several years.

"Usually this is a nice time of year of year and everybody's practicing," Winger said. "It reminds me of a really bad spring. We've never dealt with canceling practices and games in the fall. I've been doing this quite a while and now I'm an air quality specialist, looking at the air readings. You never what the hand is that's dealt to you, but it's been a real interesting fall."

NORTH IDAHO College newcomer Tristan Crowl, a freshman defender who moved here three weeks ago and played at Mountain View High in Meridian, arrived in Coeur d'Alene just before all the fires hit. Like several Cardinals, he came here in part because of being right next to beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene. Unlike some Cardinals of the past, he was introduced to this area by staring at smoky scenes galore.

Crowl's older brother, Zach Crowl, is a firefighter who spent time working in Alaska and is now fighting fires in eastern Washington and near Sandpoint. Zach played for Skyline High in Idaho Falls.

"Their job consists of fanning it out," Tristan Crowl said. "They're doing cleanup, making sure brush or trees or anything is not still on fire. One time, he caught a tree that was on fire, cut it and stomped it out."

Tristan said of course, the smoke is affecting NIC. Two days after he left the Treasure Valley, some fires started in that area as well.

NIC is scheduled to begin its season this weekend in Eugene, Ore., with games Saturday vs. Edmonds Community College and Sunday against Clark College.

On Tuesday, the Cardinals are scheduled host Whitworth University in an exhibition.

"One day during practice, half of us went into the weight room and half of us went outside," Crowl said. "Then we switched. We didn't run, we just did skill drills. Walking out there, people around campus complained. We all want to practice and get ready for the start of the season. We're waiting it to die down."

NIC Athletic Director Al Williams said he's never seen anything quite like what's been going on. He played for the men's basketball team in the 1978-79 season and has been NIC's AD since 2003.

"I've never seen it hit this close, never in our backyard, never this long," Williams said. "This is new to us. We had Mount St. Helens, with ash on your car. (This week) we reduced our timeouts, walk to drills, they didn't inhale or overexert themselves."

THE POST Falls High girls soccer team has had a tough time getting its season started. It has had to cancel two games - its season opener on Saturday at Lakeland and another game Wednesday at home against Moscow. As of Thursday, the Trojans have also had to cancel five outdoor practices out of 15 overall thus far, practicing indoors when possible..

"It's been very frustrating," Trojans team captain and senior midfielder Sadie Schmeling said. "Because our team works hard, we wanted to try out a new formation, we get a chance to play and we're told 'No.' We were told the night before we weren't going to be able to play against Lakeland. We practiced in the gym, it made it hard, it wasn't the same as on grass."

Schmeling, a four-year varsity player, said the smoke is pretty heavy in Post Falls.

"There are some days when we can't see the mountains," Schmeling said. "When our teammates can't do simple tasks in practice, like run for 30 yards, we know it's bad. We were like, 'Why are we so tired?' And we said, 'Oh, it's because of all the smoke.'"

Well, the weather forecast this weekend is for rain. Soon enough, hopefully for everyone involved who are playing or coaching and of course, watching the games, the players will soon be asking themselves, 'Why is the air so fresh?' And perhaps the answer will return to becoming 'Oh, because it's North Idaho.'

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25