THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, December 10, 2015

A normal roadtrip in the Mountain Christian League might involve a midweek jaunt to Edwall, Wash.

Or, on the weekend, an overnighter to Kalispell, Mont., for a nonleague pair.

Next week, the North Idaho Christian girls basketball team of Hayden heads way up north to Alaska, a distance of roughly 1,000 miles, for the Holland America Tournament in Sitka, Alaska.

The North Idaho Christian team attends an NBC (Northwest Basketball Camp) each year at Whitworth University in Spokane, and “I got to be friends with a coach from Sitka,” Bittner said. One thing led to another, and the Royals had to do a little fundraising, but the folks in Sitka gave North Idaho Christian $2,000 to help cover the cost of flying up there and back. The Royals players will stay with players from the host schools, the team will be given a van for transportation around town, and the motel rooms for coaches will be paid for.

Also, Bittner said the airlines charged half-price for the team to fly. The host families will feed the players, and tourney organizers will provide tourney T-shirts and sweatshirts.

While in Sitka and not playing hoops, the North Idaho Christian team is scheduled to go whale watching, as well as go on a historical tour.

“It should be good for the girls,” said Bittner, who noted the Royals have been invited to a holiday tournament in Juneau, Alaska, two years from now.

North Idaho Christian is also an associate member of the Idaho High School Activities Association in volleyball, boys basketball and girls basketball, which is why you see the Royals also appearing on the schedules of some North Star League teams.

However, there was still one part of the agreement in which the Royals were waiting for the hosts to come through.

“They’re supposed to send us 500 pounds of halibut,” Bittner said. “He (the Sitka coach) is a fisherman, and he said he’d give us halibut if we’d come. That was kind of a side deal.”

But as of late last week, the fish had not yet arrived in North Idaho.

AS YOU may have read somewhere, before Jeff Choate served as football coach and later also athletic director at Post Falls High, he played at St. Maries High and at Montana Western, then coached at the high school level at a couple of stops in southern Idaho.

His high school coach at St. Maries was Curt Carr — who now is assistant principal at Lakeland High.

“Jeff has a great heart — he never gave up — he absolutely loved the game,” Carr recalled last week, after Choate received his first head coaching job at the college level. “He is what we called game smart — I really remember one thing that an old man learned from a younger man — Jeff didn’t get the University of Idaho head coaching job and I was upset for him. But he told me that you can not look behind you — you have to concentrate on your future.”

LAST WEEK’s state high school football championship games included teams with ties to North Idaho.

Skyline of Sammamish, Wash., which lost to Gonzaga Prep for the 4A title, played Coeur d’Alene in 2012 and ’13. Prep is remembered for some storied battles with Coeur d’Alene in the 1980s, and most recently played Lake City in 2008.

Eastside Catholic of Bellevue, which beat Bellevue High in the 3A title game for the second straight year, is coached by Jeremy Thielbahr, who starred at Sandpoint High in the mid-1990s. Lake City played Eastside Catholic in 2013.

And Tumwater, which lost to Prosser in the 2A title game, played Lake City the past two years.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.