THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, February 6, 2016

To be the best, you’ve got to play the best, right?

With six programs that reached the state playoffs in their respective states on tap for the Coeur d’Alene High football program, it is safe to say that the Vikings accomplished that with its nonleague schedule for 2016.

AFTER SEARCHING for years for a reason to make a long road trip, Coeur d’Alene will open the 2016 season on Saturday, Aug. 27 at Folsom High in Folsom, Calif., a school located 23 miles from Sacramento.

“We have a very hard time finding games,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “Especially with that August date (zero week) because the other states don’t play that week.”

Washington and Oregon do not start playing regular season games until the next week, in early September.

A few phone calls and emails later, trying to find a school willing and able to play that early in the season, the Vikings found an opener with Folsom, a school in California’s highest classification, Division I, which finished 14-1 last season, losing 42-35 to Bellarmine Prep in the Calfornia state championship game.

“We’ve really been wanting to take a trip and wanted to go there and play them,” Amos said. “It’s been a lot of phone calls and emails and searching, but we were able to work out something with them.”

Coeur d’Alene plans to fly down the morning of the game, then return the following day.

“We probably could rent buses, but we’re not going to,” Amos said. “We’re not going to be down there for long, and it’s almost more expensive to rent buses for that long.” After home games against Greater Spokane League teams Central Valley (Sept. 2) and Mead (Sept. 9), the Vikings will visit Moses Lake on Sept. 16 before hosting Camas (Wash.) on Sept. 23. A nonleague game with Graham-Kapowsin of Graham, Wash., a team that played Post Falls in 2012 and ’13, is still in the works. The rest of the schedule, with league dates, will be finalized in the coming weeks.

“Camas is a very good football program,” Amos said. “They’ve lost three games in three years, but the good thing is they’re coming to us. Bottom line, they’re really good and we’re always looking for good games. We’re looking for those experiences that the players will remember when they’re older. Our kids get excited for the challenge and know they’re going to be a good team.”

Coeur d’Alene will play a home-and-home with Camas, and will travel back to Folsom for another game within the next two years.

“We’re going to go down there twice because they’re giving us some money to do it,” Amos said. “Some of our freshmen parents wanted to make that trip as well, so everyone that’s in our program now will have a chance to make that trip.”

One team that’s off the schedule is Highland of Pocatello. They aren’t scheduled to play for the first time since 2011.

“That’s another reason we had to upgrade the schedule in other areas,” Amos said. “They decided that trip was too long. They were done and ready to move on to something else and have some more options finding games closer to home.”

THE VIKINGS will return a handful of starters with varsity experience for the 2016 season.

“We played a lot of different kids this year,” Amos said. “We just feel like we’ve got a good nucleus of kids coming back. Our league is going to be tough and we’ve got to play tough games to get ready for league play.”

You’ll remember in 2013, when Amos scheduled tough — vs. Bothell at Husky Stadium in Seattle, at West Linn (Ore.), hosting Skyline High of Sammamish, Wash. — as well as a nonleague date with Highland. After a 1-3 start, Coeur d’Alene went on to win the state 5A title, beating Highland 31-28 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

“This is the same objective that we had back then,” Amos said. “It’s going to be our toughest schedule since that season. We were on the road three of the first four weeks, and playing tough teams, and went 1-3 and came back to win a championship. We’re not that concerned about the record in the preseason. We’re doing this in order to get ready for our league.”

In 5A Inland Empire League play, Coeur d’Alene will play two of three league games on the road, with trips to Lewiston and Post Falls sandwiched in between the annual clash with Lake City, this year at Viking Stadium.

“The funny thing is that we used to consider Lewiston a road trip,” said Amos, who begins his 20th season as coach at Coeur d’Alene in the fall. “We’re still working on one more (nonleague) game, but the schedule should be completed by next week.”

For years, the Coeur d’Alene program has gone out of its way to test itself.

The 2016 season, might be the toughest the Vikings have had in quite a while.

“The players better not blow off the offseason,” Amos said. “We better be ready to go from the start of the 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 @JEPressSports.