THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, February 7, 2015

First, a new program was started.

Strike one.

Then, after trying to find a way to keep that established program going, they're being told they can't do that either.

Strike two.

Has the Prairie American Legion baseball program been thrown its third strike?

Stay tuned.

WITH THE formation of an Athol American Legion post, the post will sponsor the Northern Lakes Mountaineers, a program comprised of players from the Lakeland School District - which includes Lakeland and Timberlake high schools.

"We are very appreciative of that and can't wait to work with them," said Jason Bradbury, the Lakeland High baseball coach, who will serve as the co-general manager of the program, in an email. "We're planning on having three teams: AA, A and Short-A, which will be comprised of mostly freshmen and will play in the Spokane Legion League."

Due to the move, the Prairie squad - which was comprised of Post Falls and Lakeland athletes since its inception in 1978, then added Timberlake players in 1999 - was now down to one AA classification team.

"We tried to explain our situation to the state, and they understood what we were saying," Prairie Legion president Justin Elliott said. "But they decided that the more teams the better was the outcome. A lot of people started getting nervous when this was discussed in November, and kids can't wait until the last week in January to find out if we're going to have a team or not. We're fighting a losing battle. The reality with the state that they're ignorant to is that we're going to be competitive no matter what. We have to offer similar tournaments and a level of competition as the others, and we can't do that. Right or wrong, we're extremely hurt by this decision."

Prairie was forced to cancel its AA season, fearing it might not have enough players to compete with the likes of Lewis-Clark, Coeur d'Alene and Northern Lakes.

Prairie's board of directors voted Thursday to keep the AA program and drop the Single-A.

When the split happened and Prairie canceled the AA season a month ago, Prairie told the state board it would play a Single-A schedule instead.

But Derrick Ater, a board member of the Idaho American Legion baseball, notified Elliott on Friday that a move to remain at AA is unlikely, pending a state board vote.

Prairie is scheduled to host the District 1 'A' tournament this summer.

Prairie has advanced to the state AA tournament in each of the past three seasons, finishing last season with a 25-24 record. Ron Mackie resigned after one season to take over the West Valley (Spokane) program, where he's an assistant coach for the high school team.

"We had our best season in a long time," Elliott said. "We had 55 players and four teams (last year), but I realized that I can not compete with teams that are content with being mediocre. We have a group that wants to be competitive in the region, but it's become very difficult, even to have parents and kids lock in early. Ron couldn't wait for us to find out what we were going to do."

Of the four players from Post Falls who could have played on the AA team, two opted not to return this summer and the others are undecided.

BRADBURY ADDED a lack of playing time eventually led to the decision to split.

"The Timberlake players have pretty much been non-existent in Legion the last few years because, according to their high school coach Bill Rider, they don't feel like they get a fair shake over the kids from the two bigger schools," Bradbury said. "It's a big gap between Timberlake (3A), Lakeland (4A) and Post Falls (5A). Plus, the travel time and distance from Spirit Lake to Post Falls was something those kids and families got tired of doing."

From there, Bradbury called a meeting, and the rest is history.

"We wanted to talk with the community members and stakeholders so that we could decide what would be the best thing to do in moving forward for our boys and our community," Bradbury said. "We had 31 families that participated, some including past Legion members, current members and up-and-coming members of summertime baseball."

From there, they were tasked to vote on three different options: 1, Staying as-is with Prairie in Post Falls. 2, Separate from Prairie and become their own legion program or 3, Separate and create select/travel teams.

"All 31 unanimously voted to separate from Prairie and start our own program," Bradbury said. "We were all very much interested in staying a part of American Legion because we are so proud of what that program does for our kids and our veterans. We wanted to make sure we were still a part of that."

EVEN THOUGH North Idaho has adopted the Short-A season, they don't have enough teams to form a league. It worked out well for the area last year, with Prairie's short-A team - coached by Bradbury - finished third in the Washington state tournament.

Former Coeur d'Alene Legion players Pat Capone and Bruce Amende will be at the helm of the Northern Lakes AA squad. Tim Prockish will coach the single-A team, with his son James as an assistant. Former Lake City High coach Al Bevacqua is also on board as the co-general manager.

"They're all such good people, so knowledgeable," Bradbury said. "They've got great experience, and so excited to start this new program."

The Northern Lakes AA team is slated to start playing in the North Idaho League this summer, joining Lewis-Clark, Coeur d'Alene and, perhaps, Prairie. The AA team will play home games at Gorton Field in Rathdrum, with the single A games most likely at Cooper Field in Rathdrum.

"Adding another AA team in the area will not only be great for the local communities, but it will also be good for our league," Bradbury said. "There are currently only three teams in the league, so we would be adding a much-needed fourth."

Breaking up the players that have been together for the past few years was tough, Bradbury added.

"Leaving Prairie legion was a difficult decision for us, but a long time coming as well," Bradbury said. "We hated to leave our friends and teammates from the Post Falls area, but we felt it was necessary. Our schools' enrollment and number of baseball players turning out were just getting too big.

"We were starting to see that many kids from our area (Lakeland and Timberlake) were either getting cut from the Prairie program or not turning out altogether in fear of it," Bradbury said. "Both Al and I know what it takes to run a successful program and want to make sure that we do our part in making sure it happens. Al and I, as well as the other members of our executive board, will work together to make sure that our coaches are doing what we expect and that the program is ran very smoothly. Our goal is to have a board that oversees the program, but allows our coaches to do what they do best - coach."

Northern Lakes will hold its first meeting next Sunday at Twin Lakes Elementary at 6 p.m., where it will finalize plans for the upcoming season.

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.