A legend steps down

When it came down to it — and thinking about it a few days — Dale Poffenroth just started life and benched basketball.

At least, for now.

Poffenroth, 67, resigned as coach on Friday after 12 seasons and four state 5A championships at Coeur d’Alene. Poffenroth won 234 games at Coeur d’Alene, winning state titles in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Coeur d’Alene was second at state in 2006, 2007 and 2011. He guided the Vikings to state trophies in each of his first 10 seasons as coach.

The passing of Donna Dotts and Ginni Lenz — mothers of his former players at Coeur d’Alene — due to cancer in recent years, and the sudden passing of his longtime statistician Al Ranken at Central Valley a few months ago helped influence his decision.

“This year was a rough year, but wasn’t as far as coaching goes,” Poffenroth said. “When we lost Al, his body just shut down and he didn’t feel good one week. He was here one day and gone the next.”

Losing Donna and Ginni hit a little closer to home.

“They were two of the first team moms I had when I came to Coeur d’Alene in 2004,” Poffenroth said. “I was kind of like, ‘they’re a lot younger than I am and now they’re gone.’”

An accident when his wife, Debbie, slipped and fell in the parking lot following a game this season, breaking a bone in her shoulder, pushed him toward leaving, even before the end of the season.

“We walked out of a dark gym into a dark parking lot and she tripped over a parking stanchion,” Poffenroth said. “She’d been on the couch because she couldn’t move that arm. She spent six weeks on the couch, didn’t go outside or anything. And I’m kissing her goodbye, going to games, when I should have been at home. I needed to be here giving her life and helping her. I just started to wonder how much longer this is going to be going on, and it didn’t quite add up.”

Poffenroth began thinking about leaving on Tuesday. By Friday, his mind was made up.

“Just seeing my wife sitting there in pain, I owe her at his point in this time,” Poffenroth said. “I almost stepped down when it happened. I’ve been kicking it around for quite a bit and seen what happened. It just seemed like I needed a change. Those major events led to this. If you’d asked me last summer about leaving, it would have been a completely different change of events.”

Poffenroth, who taught history at Coeur d’Alene High, retired from teaching in 2012.

“When I quit teaching, I thought it was going to be a hard thing to do,” Poffenroth said. “We’d think, ‘how did we get the things done, and how did we have the time.’ I just needed a change and maybe after this summer is over, and I’ve got some withdrawal pains, maybe I’ll change my mind about coaching. But right now, I need to do something different.”

Over his 29-year high school coaching career, Poffenroth went 608-169 overall, including 234-66 at Coeur d’Alene. Before coming to Coeur d’Alene, Poffenroth also won three state titles at Central Valley and his teams placed second at state twice.

“I’ve accomplished a lot,” Poffenroth said. “I got a chance to see a lot of my kids go on to do big things at the college level.”

“If they judge coaching talent by home many rings you’ve got, and you look at his state titles, he’s one of the greatest coaches in the Northwest,” said Ron Adams, longtime director of the Spokane Stars AAU program and former assistant coach with Poffenroth at Central Valley. “He just knows how to win. And when you’ve won seven state titles, what else can you say about someone. I’ve know him for years and he’s a great coach. With the talent he had, to continue to find a way to win, and it’s pretty tough to go against somebody like that. He’s not only a successful basketball coach, but a good friend of mine.”

On Thursday night, while a guest of the Gonzaga women’s basketball team, Poffenroth got to watch former player and current University of San Diego sophomore Sydney Williams make a game-saving block in the final moments of a win over the Zags at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane.

“It’s nice to get to watch her and have four of the best players in the Frontier Conference right now (Caelyn Orlandi, Brittany Tackett at Lewis-Clark State, Erin Legel at Great Falls and Sara Chalich of Carroll) and see them doing great.”

The help of those “team moms” like Dotts and Lenz was something that Poffenroth added helped him a great deal.

“I really didn’t realize how much I’d miss Diane Parker,” Poffenroth said. “When those kids came in, I didn’t realize how much they did — team dinners, decorating the locker room — and other things. I didn’t realize how much time she put into it and time she took off my shoulders, and I didn’t have her the last couple of years.”

Poffenroth stopped short of calling his resignation a retirement.

“He’s a legend,” first-year Coeur d’Alene athletic director Bryan Duncan said. “He’s a great coach and it’s going to be hard to fill his shoes. I respect him as a coach and respect his decision. He’s turned out a lot of great players and teams. It’s big shoes to fill, but we’ll do our best to fill them and keep the program moving in the right direction.”

Coeur d’Alene will lose one player — Emily Callahan — to graduation after an 8-15 season.

“I did make sure that all the returning kids were placed on an AAU team and are going to be playing AAU,” Poffenroth said. “I made a spring and summer schedule, and it’s all set and ready to go if that’s something they want to do.”