THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, November 12, 2015

I often enjoy going back and researching the history of our local sports teams.

Last week I was plowing through some old newspapers, looking up some of St. Maries’ past playoff games in football.

Some of the names in those stories are still familiar — former Lumberjacks quarterbacks Mike Bayley, and Eric Russell. And some guy named Jay Sines, who is now the St. Maries girls basketball coach.

This year’s Lumberjacks played host to New Plymouth in a first-round playoff game, and I was trying to pin down the last time before that that St. Maries hosted a state playoff game.

Somebody said 30 years. They were close.

It actually was 1991, when St. Maries hosted Kuna, in that field down the hill from St. Maries City Park, where the Lumberjacks play baseball.

Curt Carr coached the St. Maries football team from 1985-97, compiling a 77-47 record and six state playoff appearances.

Two other times during his tenure, St. Maries had earned the right to host state playoff games, but had to play elsewhere.

In 1995, St. Maries played Emmett in the quarterfinals at Lake City High, and Emmett won 27-26.

“The St. Maries football field was so bad that the IHSAA would not allow us to play at our home site,” Carr recalled. “The field was easily the worst field in North Idaho — stands and clock included.

“I remember that the clock was not working and one my of heavy line coaches jumped down on the stands and the clock started to work. I yelled to the crowd, ‘Do not move — we got our score clock working.’

“It was tough to be able to win the league but could not have a real home playoff game.”

In 1985, St. Maries won the Intermountain League and the right to host Moscow in the quarterfinals, but was “strongly advised” to move the game to Moscow, Carr said. The Bears went on to win at the Kibbie Dome, 38-6.

“In 1991, Jack Buell and my father-in-law, Larry Linnemeyer, donated sod and dirt and machines to help try to fix the middle of the field,” Carr said. “I had some of the players help me try to crown the middle of the field.”

It worked, because St. Maries again won the IML in ‘91, and was able to play host to Kuna in the quarterfinals, a game the visiting Kavemen went on to win 22-7.

St. Maries returned to the playoffs in 1995, but “the field was a mud pit during the game, so that is the reason we had to play at Lake City,” Carr recalled.

A few years ago, St. Maries built a football field on its high school campus.

“I love St. Maries’ field now — I did enjoy talking with several of my ex-players, pointing out their sons that are on the St. Maries team.”

One year, Carr’s St. Maries team beat Lakeland, then coached by the legendary Terry Kiefer, in a Kansas tiebreaker for the league title.

After stepping down as St. Maries football coach, Carr eventually ended up at Lakeland High, where he is currently an assistant principal.

Kiefer stepped down as Hawks head coach more than a decade ago, but is still an assistant football coach at Lakeland under his son, Tim.

“Terry Kiefer still will give me crap about our field,” Carr said.

SPEAKING OF good stories ....

Doug Cox told a good one last week about a golf trip with his longtime friend, Henry Hamill, who passed away Oct. 11 at age 67.. The two had coached football in the area for decades, and coached together for a time at Coeur d’Alene High and at Lake City High.

Cox told another story recently, this time coaching against Hamill, when Hamill was an offensive line coach and Cox at the time was an assistant coach at Post Falls.

“After I was not hired back at Coeur d’Alene High when Greg Drake was hired as head coach, I went out and coached with Jerry Lee at Post Falls for three years,” Cox said. “The first year we played Coeur d’Alene High at Cd’A. The game ended in a tie. I was pretty excited. I was packing up my gear and Jerry said that we had to play the tie off.

“I (asked) Jerry why would we have to do that if we weren’t in the same division. He said that it was in the contract. I asked what the penalty was if we did not play it off. He thought it was 50 bucks. I told him that I would pay the penalty. He laughed.

“Then I told him that if we played it off, Henry would go two tight ends, full backfield and black top us. I looked over at Henry, across the field and he was laughing at me so I flipped him off and we started the overtime. They scored on the first or second play and we fumbled and lost the ball when it was our turn.

“For the next 20 years, Henry kept reminding me of that game,” Cox concluded.

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.