THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, May 12, 2016

Four years ago, when Maria Kostina took over as girls golf coach at Post Falls High, she passed out a questionnaire to her players.

Among the questions — what do you shoot, on average, for 18 holes?

The response?

“They said, ‘shoot on average? We shoot to a 50-yard sign on a driving range,” Kostina said. “And they’d call (sand traps) sand pits … ‘I’m in the sand pit, coach.’”

So for the first practice, Trojan coaches took the girls out to the golf course and explained the basics — this is a tee box, this is a green, this is a golf hole, this is short grass, this is long grass …

“It was just like when you sign up for basketball — they were learning to dribble,” she said. “That’s what we were like four years ago.”

Four years later, the Post Falls girls — senior Makayla Franks, juniors Savanna Routh and Maddi Anderton, sophomore Sydney Schumacker and freshman Renee Mosby — teamed to win the 5A Region 1 golf tournament Monday at the Links.

It’s the fifth time in school history the Post Falls girls have won a regional title — but just the first since 2006. The Trojan girls also won in 2001, ‘03 and ‘04.

“It’s hard to get girls actually liking golf,” said the Russian-born Kostina, who played golf at Washington State. “The trick here is if they are enjoying it and having fun, then they’re going to want to play and practice.”

The Post Falls girls won three tournaments this year during the regular season — prior to that, they hadn’t won a tournament since Kostina took over as coach. And this year, she’s hearing some of the girls plan to eschew other summer activities and play junior golf.

“Nobody’s ever played in summer tournaments,” Kostina said of the current crop of Trojan girls. “And this year they’re planning on it, and that says a lot.”

POST FALLS’ boys got a taste of state last year, finishing fifth at Avondale and missing a trophy by one spot.

Three players were expected to return from that team. But two of them — senior Drew Harris and junior Chase Bomar — told Kostina that, despite being academically eligible to play, they had decided not to play this season, to focus on improving their grades.

The Trojans played their first three tournaments without them. Over spring break, Harris and Bomar called Kostina, who is also in her third season as the boys golf coach, said their grades had improved, and they wanted back on the team.

They survived a four-day qualifier after spring break, and have kept their grades up as well.

They joined senior Joseph Glenn, who was 11th last year at state, and medalist at Monday’s regional tournament, as well as two varsity newcomers, sophomores Cameron Flores and Tanner Byers, to win a regional title on Monday. That was the fifth tournament the Trojan boys have won this season.

It was only the second regional title for Post Falls’ boys — the Trojans also won in 2005.

Flores suffered a high ankle sprain just prior to the season. There was talk he wouldn’t be able to play golf this season, but a school trainer said he could if he wore an ankle brace.

Flores tried it, but wanted to discard the brace because he couldn’t feel his foot.

“I said if you can’t wear it, you can’t play,” Kostina said.

“So he went out and hit thousands of balls (wearing) his ankle brace, learned how to do it, and ever since then, he’s been unstoppable.”

Sort of like the Trojan boys and girls golf teams, who are gearing up for the state tournament Monday and Tuesday at BanBury Golf Course in Eagle.

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.