THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, October 29, 2015
There have been a few snickers — as opposed to Snickers, which will be handed to a lot of trick-or-treaters on Saturday — since our Lakeland Hawks qualified for the state 4A football playoffs last Friday.
With a 1-8 record. With an 0-8 record coming into the game, with many of those losses of the one-sided variety — seven of them by 23 points or more.
And, the Hawks even get to host a first-round (play-in?) game this weekend, when Middleton (4-5) visits on Friday.
Oh, the outrage!
Please.
Outrage is going through the drive-thru at the fast-food joint, then discovering later you didn’t get all the food you paid for.
Outrage is walking several miles on the Centennial Trail, finally reaching a restroom … and finding out it is locked.
Outrage is people crowding around the food sample tables at Costco, and eating all the samples before you can get to them.
Outrage is …
Ah, you get the drift.
MY THOUGHT: Who cares?
Lakeland knew the rules. Win one of your two league games, and most likely you’re in the playoffs. Win both, and you get a first-round bye.
After each loss, Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer basically said the same thing — we’re just trying to get a little better each week. Last week, they were good enough to upend Moscow — which, if the Bears had won, would have gotten in at 2-7, and ended a seven-game losing streak that began after a win over 2A Grangeville in the season opener.
Besides, consider this year a makeup call for the years where two teams from the 4A Inland Empire League were considered good enough to make the playoffs, but there was only room for one in the eight-team field.
The 4A (and 5A) playoffs were expanded to 12 teams last year to lessen the chance of keeping a good team out. And it certainly helped Sandpoint, which got in at 5-4 despite losing to Lakeland for the league title last season. Sandpoint even won its first-round playoff game, 56-7 over Century before losing 42-27 in the quarterfinals to Blackfoot, which advanced to the state title game before losing to Bishop Kelly.
And there were years Lakeland was a worthy playoff team, record wise, but couldn’t beat Sandpoint.
In the expanded playoffs, there are 12 teams in 5A, 4A and 1A Division II, 15 teams in 3A, 16 teams in 2A and 1A Division I. A quick perusal of the six playoff brackets shows 16 teams with losing records. Two teams (one each in 1A Division I and 1A Division II) have chosen to forfeit due to a shortage of players.
In football, Idaho is the No Team Left Behind state.
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.