THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, Oct. 7, 2016

An outside linebacker for Lake City High who chases running backs and receivers up and down the ol’ gridiron has the most appropriate name.

Chase Moyer.

A 6-foot-4, 225-pound senior, the 17-year-old has the speed of a center fielder and a track star. Those who have known him know this, because he literally was one, having played baseball since he was 9. He quit after his sophomore season, in which he was a left-handed hitter who batted either third or cleanup for the Timberwolves junior varsity. He’s used that size, speed and power and transferred it just fine to the football field, thank you very much.

“I had speed running the bases,” Moyer said. “It’s good, I can chase guys to the other side of the field.”

Did I mention this is only his second season playing football? That he was a first team all-5A Inland Empire League selection last season as a defensive end and that this is his first season at outside linebacker, tracking and chasing down opponents? That he’s led Lake City in tackles four out of six games this season and has been a team captain for four weeks?

Not too bad for the young man who was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene.

“He’s our best defensive player, by far,” said first-year Lake City coach Bryce Erickson. “He’s a humble, appreciative kid ... everything you’d want in a young man. He’s the type of kid you’d like to have your daughter date and that’s saying something, because my wife and I have a newborn daughter. He’s a quiet, leader by example, treats (Lake City) kids here the same, no matter who they are. You don’t see that a lot at any level (of some teenageers or adults). He’s special, he makes my job easier.”

Former Lake City football coach Van Troxel talked with Moyer since his freshman year and was one of the people who helped convince him to play football.

“I was in 10th grade when I decided I wanted to play football (the next season),” Moyer said. “I was six feet tall at age 15. My dad (Shane Moyer) didn’t want me to play hurt. He got hurt (knee injury) when he was in high school. He played football at Coeur d’Alene High, so he didn’t want me to go through the same thing.”

Moyer’s mother, Christine Oxenrider, said Moyer has shown some interest in either civil or aeronautical engineering.

“He met someone who got him interested in it, since he was in fourth grade,” Oxenrider said. “He’s been really good at every sport he’s tried.”

AT FIRST, back in summer practices and even right before this season began, Moyer didn’t have the full confidence of making the switch from D-end to linebacker. That confidence didn’t come until Lake City’s opener, a 48-7 loss at home on Aug. 26 to Madison of Rexburg, in which he led the T-Wolves in tackles. He was on a roll from there, as he had two sacks in a 51-6 rout at home over Lewis and Clark of Spokane. He followed that up the next week with one sack at Central Valley, in a 43-0 defeat. He’s also had three interceptions in a 4-3 defense, including one last week against Sandpoint, for a Lake City team that has a 3-3 record going into tonight’s league opener at home against Post Falls.

“We lost our old defensive coordinator,” Moyer said. “Our new guy (defensive coordinator Mike Bartlett) put in a new defense. He thought I’d be a good fit at outside linebacker. I thought at first I was better at playing defensive end, I wasn’t too confident in playing linebacker. But by the end of the first week, I was pretty confident.”

Moyer did not want to play baseball because he was just “wasn’t feeling it any more” after his junior year.

Moyer said he does not know yet where he wants to attend and/or play college football, but he’s drawn interest from Central Washington, Whitworth, Carroll College in Montana, along with Western Montana, Central Montana thus far.

“He can cover slot receivers, he can cover running backs coming out of the backfield,” Erickson said. He can run blitz; his biggest strength is his versatility, he can put pressure on the quarterback. He can pretty much do anything, he’s a very dynamic player. He has football intelligence, he watches a lot of game tape, just studying his (upcoming) opponents. How he carries himself in the classroom is how he carries himself studying film.”

Moyer also competes in track, where as a junior this past spring he ran the 100 and 200 meters. His personal best time was an 11.61-second, fifth-place run in a meet at Sandpoint, and in the Region 1 championships he was fifth (11.76). His personal-best time in the 200 came at the Lake City Invitational with a third-place time of 23.43 seconds.

SINCE BRYCE Erickson was a longtime college assistant coach, including three seasons at Idaho, he knows a thing or two about trying to help Moyer get to the next level when he graduates from Lake City.

“If I was at Idaho, I’d be all over him,” said Erickson, son of former college and NFL coach Dennis Erickson. “He’s definitely a Big Sky type of kid. Once they see his demeanor and meet with him, that’ll help with his recruitment. He’s good at blitzing, we like to get him one-on-one against the opposing blockers. Nine times out of 10, he’ll beat his man and pressure the QB. He covers so much ground, his grange at the outside is great. I’ll do everything in my power to get him there (college). He reminds me a lot of Idaho linebacker Kaden Elliss.”

So to say the least, Erickson has enjoyed his time with Chase.

“He says ‘Yes sir,’ ‘yes coach,’” Erickson said. “When I’ve recruited kids, sometimes what you can’t measure is his toughness. He hasn’t been 100 percent healthy all year, he’s played through bumps and bruises. He’s been by far our most consistent defensive player.”

So it’s been Chase chasing down those offensive players, one sprinting tackle at a time.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25