THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, February 20, 2014

In 2004, when Cailyn Dohrman was 5 years old and Lillian Rhea was 4, they definitely remember the hard work it took for players like Corrina Hendrickx, the older sister of current teammate Talia Hendrickx, to reach the state 1A girls basketball tournament.

That was the last time the Knights made it to state, before this year's crop led by post players Dohrman, a 5-foot-9 junior and the daughter of coach Chris Dohrman, and Rhea, a 5-8 sophomore. Coach Dohrman took over as girls coach this season, after coaching the boys last year.

"I remember they worked hard for what they wanted," Cailyn said.

FOR LILLIAN and the team, there was a decent amount of burden to reach the state tournament this season. But Lakeside pulled it off, beating Mullan last Thursday 35-22 at Kootenai High in Harrison Flats, in the championship game of the 1A Division II District 1 tournament.

"I guess it was a feeling of relief," said Rhea, who is the Knights' statistical leader with 13 points and eight rebounds per game. "I guess everyone was expecting us to beat them."

Lakeside's next step on Thursday was pretty hefty. The Knights played four-time defending state champion Dietrich, and lost 64-44 in the quarterfinals of the state 1A Division II tournament at Nampa High. Lakeside plays Castleford today at 5:15 p.m. PST in a consolation round game.

What has helped Lakeside a bit is the fact it did not have to play in a state play-in game because it was in Division II, like it did the past 10 years when it was in Division I. Before this school year, Lakeside's enrollment fell to below 100 students in grades 9-12.

"What it's done is it's given us a chance to go to state," Chris Dohrman said. "The last eight years, we won districts seven times. But we'd never had an opportunity to get to state. We'd have to play a play-in game against a Division 2 school that'd end up finishing either first, second or third in state. It was extremely difficult to get there the last 10 years."

Last year at St. Maries, in a state 1A Division I play-in game, the Knights had a third-quarter lead on Genesee, 33-29, before losing 50-44. In that game, Cailyn had one of her better games, scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds.

"I wanted to win that game so bad and go to state, for all our seniors," Cailyn said.

Rhea came off the bench and gained valuable experience.

"I was really excited and I learned a lot from that season," Rhea said. "I had older girls encourage us."

ALTHOUGH THERE have been quite a few Lakeside teams that were talented and were one game away from reaching the state tournament, Cailyn, who averages seven points and six rebounds per game, has noticed a difference.

"I think the difference between this team and teams of the past is our team stayed together for a long time, since third grade," Cailyn said. "Our team stuck together. We're real close."

Six of the team's 10 members have played together that long - besides Rhea, Hendrickx and Dohrman, there are junior Jordyn Nomee and sophomores Sarah Daman and Tea' Lambert. Another one, senior Jasmine Zahir, came into the mix a couple years later.

"The other night we had a girls night out," Cailyn said. "We went to Laser Quest in Spokane, it's where we shot laser tag. We do other sports, some of us like volleyball, some of us do track."

Lakeside runs multiple offenses and a mix of man or zone defenses, depending on the opponent the Knights are playing. And of course, Rhea and Dohrman are key to their success.

"They bring quite a bit of experience," Dohrman said. "We try to bring the ball inside, we have the post players."

Cailyn and Chris have both enjoyed the father-daughter dynamic as well.

"I'm not going to lie, I make him pull his hair out sometimes," Cailyn said. "I love him as a coach and as a dad. He's always been great, he's coached me since the beginning."

"It's been a lot of fun," Chris said. "I wouldn't give it up for the world. It's something that I've enjoyed a lot."

BOTH GIRLS are highly active in their school. Dohrman is the president of the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Youth Council and she is the vice president of the school's Associated Student Body.

Rhea is in the National Honors Society and is a member of the Business Professonals of America, which competes with other schools in areas such as interviewing for a job, creating a spreadsheet, working on skills needed for small businesses and speeches. Her team will be in a competition this April in Boise. She's also in FCCLA, which stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.

Dohrman has had opportunities to travel around the country, more so than at least some adults in general. The organization raises money through several things like a spring youth basketball tournament, although a trip this past summer was free to students. It was part of the United National Indian Tribal Youth, or UNITY.

"I was part of seven kids from Lakeside who went to D.C. last year," Cailyn said. "It was a great opportunity. I went in 2012 to Phoenix and I remember walking in the hotels that had all these Native Americans from around the country, it was amazing. That's like your second family. Last year we went to Portland, the year before that we went to Los Angeles."

And even though Lakeside has a daunting task in front of it to bring home a trophy from state, the Knights have already come a long way and accomplished so much.

"I think what we wanted to prove is that we deserve to go," Cailyn said. "We can play with these other districts."

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com