A chance for the spotlight on the mats

Chances are, if you call yourself a high school wrestling fan in this part of the state, you’ve been in the gym at the annual Tri-State wrestling tournament at North Idaho College.

Or at Post Falls High for the River City Duals.

Or at Coeur d’Alene High for the North Idaho Rumble.

You won’t see quite the high level of competition at the Chad E. Ross Invitational in St. Maries a little later this season, but maybe someday.

FOR THE first time since 2012, St. Maries will host an invitational at the school, starting with a duals tournament on Jan. 5, followed by the bracket tournament on Jan. 6.

Of course, when bringing a tournament back, some snags tend to come up.

The field is still being set, but Challis, a team St. Maries coach Dennis Humphrey said he’d like to have seen, won’t make the trip.

“We had them coming, and then everything kind of fell through,” Humphrey said. “Their coach said they were coming, then resigned and the new coach committed to another tournament that weekend.”

Having them at the tournament could be the difference between a wrestler from St. Maries or Challis earning a wild card berth to state. Both are 2A schools. Challis took third at state last year.

“We’ll still see some of those southern schools at the Clearwater Classic (Jan. 19-20 at Lewiston High),” Humphrey said. “We’ll get a chance to see Ririe and a few other schools that could end up being a difference maker. We’ve got Challis coming to the tournament here next year.”

As for this year, St. Maries will have most of the teams from the 3A Intermountain League and 2A Central Idaho League.

“It should be a lot of fun,” said Humphrey, in his sixth year as Lumberjacks head coach. “We’re really looking forward to it.”

THIS TOURNAMENT has gone through some changes, even in the short time I’ve been a sports writer.

Way back when, during my time in Shoshone County as a then-intern with the Shoshone News-Press, my biggest memory of the tournament was an unfortunate accident when school bus driver George Wild died after having a medical incident and driving off the road while transporting the Kellogg High wrestling team to the St. Maries tournament.

That incident could have been a lot worse had it not been for the quick thinking of the Kellogg coach and a wrestler on the team, who were able to keep the damage from being a lot worse.

After a few years, they moved the tournament to the first weekend on the schedule, and Kellogg took over the date on that early January weekend for a memorial tournament honoring Wild.

Kellogg still holds that tournament, now the second weekend on the schedule (Dec. 8-9), albeit a little different with some of the bigger schools opting for other tournaments that weekend.

If nothing else, it’s a good thing St. Maries is at least trying to build its own tournament back up again.

And at least give some kids another chance at their own spotlight moment.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.