THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016
<p>LOREN BENOIT/Press</p><p>Post Falls High honored its late football coach Jeff Hinz with a new scoreboard last Friday night, when the Trojans played host to his alma mater, Coeur d'Alene.</p>
When the Post Falls High community lost football coach and teacher Jeff Hinz to cancer in July, that same community rallied to find a way to remember him each and every Friday night.
Thanks to donations and fundraising, Post Falls got a chance to light its new scoreboard last Friday as a tribute to him.
And the lights shined about as bright as he’d liked them on the sidelines for the previous 11 years as Trojans head coach.
THE SCOREBOARD had been a process that got kickstarted through a GoFundMe account and concluded just in time for the Trojans’ final home game of the season against the Coeur d’Alene Vikings.
“It was a good night,” Post Falls interim coach Blaine Bennett said. “Everything worked out really well. It was a great tribute to coach Hinz and what he’s done for the community. And what a great tribute to remember him and his legacy.”
Of course, there was a few bugs, but it didn’t really matter. The first couple of minutes, the scoreboard was blank, not displaying the score, clock or yardage.
In the time it took to get those things working, Matthew Mills had caught a 45-yard touchdown pass for Post Falls, followed immediately by a touchdown run by Colson Yankoff of Coeur d’Alene to tie the game.
Again, the project was completed so quickly that the high school staff was still learning how to run the new board.
“We finally got all the electricity hooked up by 4 today,” Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen said. “We should be in good shape now.”
After the initial hiccup, no others issues occurred during the game.
“You know, we didn’t even really notice it then,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “We had some parents that were saying the scoreboard wasn’t working, and I was thinking, I know, we haven’t scored any points yet, so it really doesn’t matter.”
HINZ COACHED football, as well as taught social studies at Post Falls High for 22 years.
“We’ve got a lot of coaches that were really close to coach Hinz,” Amos said. “He was a good friend of mine and a number of our coaches. It was an honor to be part of that and that we got to take part of that presentation. It was well-deserving and it was a really special deal.”
The game itself was pretty important, with Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene playing to clinch a berth in the state 5A playoffs. The Vikings — Hinz’s alma mater as a graduate in 1989 — beat the Trojans 48-27 to clinch a home game with Borah High of Boise this Friday night.
“It was a really neat atmosphere tonight,” Bennett said. “The crowd was really into the game and it was a great night for high school football.”
Post Falls (6-3) was unable to lock down a wild card berth to state, with Kuna (4-5) getting that berth instead, based on a better win percentage vs. “big” schools (4-3 vs. 3-3 for Post Falls).
“These kids never quit,” Bennett said. “And it’s because of the senior leadership. We’ve got an excellent staff of coaches and the seniors did a great job of coming out through all the adversity and the transition. What a great season that this group had.”
As well as great way to remember the guy that helped get them there.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.