THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, October 23, 2015

We in the sports media are fortunate to be granted press passes. We don’t have to pay the five bucks or so to see each game.

But if we had to pay every time, chances are we’d get our money’s worth, with all the tough competition teams from this area provides, from the small and large schools.

ONE EXAMPLE was a few minutes before the 3A District 1 boys soccer championship on Oct. 15 at Post Falls, won 3-1 by Bonners Ferry over St. Maries. Lumberjacks coach Chris Renaldo was seen kicking a ball or two, or a couple dozen, at his goalkeeper, Luca Vom Hagen, who is an exchange student from Bliesmengen-Bolchen, Germany, located near Munich. True, you might see a fellow player or assistant coach doing that to their goalkeeper, but THE head coach? That’s not something I’ve seen that often during my 14 years of sports writing in soccer-mad places such as California, Arizona and here in the Inland Northwest.

Wearing blue jeans, sunglasses, a blue baseball cap and yes, a sweet white beard, Renaldo does not look like your average head coach. Since 1996, he has owned Renaldo Land Surveying and has coached the Lumberjacks since they were formed back in 2002. According to his company website, he also coaches club soccer and takes the team to a tournament in Europe every other summer. Although I have been to France once with my parents, I am pretty sure I speak for quite a few people when I say, even in jest, take me with you, coach!

What was neat to see, despite the defeat, was the fact St. Maries made a great attempt at trying to win the game, in which the Badgers took a 2-1 lead by the 12th minute. Despite having a grand total of zero seniors — Bonners had five — nine freshmen, some who started or played significant minutes, and six juniors, the Lumberjacks hung in there much of the game, despite giving up at least two or three inches and at first glance, at least 10 to 20 pounds. St. Maries was outshot 21-7, but nearly every shot was fairly decent in the quality of its shots. You had to admire the speed, communication and teamwork both teams showed, but an underdog mentality was certainly there for YOUR Lumberjacks.

ANOTHER OBSERVATION that brought me back to my high school days of cheering on MY school was this past Wednesday night, during Timberlake’s sweep of Kellogg in the 3A District 1 volleyball championship match. There were a handful of mostly male students dressing up in crazy gear, such as swim trunks, flippers, swimming goggles. You know, stuff everyone normally wears to a high school volleyball match.

I remember some of my high school classmates at Esperanza High in Anaheim, Calif. wearing their football helmets, pajamas or slipper socks, to kind of psyche out the opposing team. Normally, our team’s talent (or lack thereof) would be the true psyche-out to those hated Los Alamitos Griffins, etc. I remember riding the wave that was our eventual California Interscholastic Federation champions in boys volleyball. I’d bring homemade signs that would read silly statements such as “Wolverines, it’s what’s for dinner” AT a high school with that mascot name. For some odd reason, everywhere I went with such trash-talking signs that I created, a student (sometimes two) would go over to me, rip the offending sign out of my hands, go back over to their stands, tear it into several pieces, stomp on the remains and get even more pumped up. I’m not so sure young students around here get that zany (which is a good thing, trust me), but they come up with some pretty creative cheers like “You got Macy’d!” which Lake City’s volleyball crowd did after Macy DuCoeur would throw down some heavy hits for kills.

Back to Timberlake, where some did showcase some creative signs that read, ‘Glori, Glori Halleujah”, referring to Gloria Cheevers, whose coach said she played the match of her life. Another read “#10 is the highlight reel”, referring to outside hitter Jacquelyn Mallet and her healthy-sized hits for kills. Take it from another former amateur sign maker, those were pretty good ones, Tigers.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25