Hoop notes as season gets rolling
Some more thoughts on local high school basketball that didn’t make it into The Press’ winter sports special section inserted into today’s newspaper, and/or topics that may be expounded on in the near future:
- Quietly — much like the way Marc Allert goes about his business on the sidelines as head coach of the Post Falls High girls basketball team — Allert achieved a coaching milestone recently.
Post Falls’ victory over Sandpoint in the season opener a couple weeks ago gave Allert 100 victories as head coach of the Trojans.
In his seventh season, the longtime Post Falls High boys assistant coach now has a 101-44 record coaching the Trojan girls.
In his second season with the Trojans, a standout team led by Dani Failor and Brooke Litalien won Post Falls’ first state title in girls hoops since the Aubree Johnson-led Trojans captured back-to-back state 4A championships in 2003 and ’03.
This year’s team has everybody back from last year’s third-place team at state, so you know what the expectations are this season.
- Timberlake’s girls had won 18 straight games before a Nov. 21 loss at Lewiston. The two-time defending state 3A champions won their last 16 games last season, and first two this year.
Much of the core of those two title teams are gone, but a few players remain, and a couple freshmen have already stepped up.
The Tigers’ win-loss record might not be as gaudy this year, nor its victory margin massive. This year’s team looks like a work in progress, compared to the known quantity of the last four years, were the Allison Kirby- and Keelie Lawler-led Tigers went 85-16 with two state titles and two runner-up finishes. Timberlake was also second at state in 2011 and ’12, giving the Tigers six appearances in the state title game in the last seven years.
But for any opponents hoping the run is over in Spirit Lake, they may be sadly mistaken come January and February.
- Tuesday night’s season opener vs. Troy marked the 300th basketball game Doug Napierala has coached in at Kootenai High.
Napierala is in his second season in his second stint as Warrior girls coach, 11th overall, sporting an overall record of 123-108. Then add in his 30-39 record in three-plus season as Kootenai boys basketball coach.
He’s also been Kootenai’s football coach the past 17 seasons, posting a record of 84-73. That’s 457 total games Napierala has coached at the 1A Division II school in Harrison Flats.
- Jason Elliott will get into this more in upcoming weeks.
But a peek at the Platinum bracket the Post Falls boys basketball team will play in at the Jerry Tarkanian Classic Dec. 20-23 in Las Vegas shows the Trojans — as will all 16 teams in their bracket — will play their first-round games at Orleans Arena. That’s the same building the Zags play in while (usually) romping to the West Coast Conference tourney championship each March.
Teams from all over the country are in the bracket, including Chino Hills (Calif.) High, where the three sons of LaVar Ball — you may have heard of him — played. That is, until LaVar pulled the youngest, LaMelo, out of school and said he was going to home-school him and train him for the next two years. LaMelo plans to attend UCLA, where Lonzo played last year and LiAngelo hopes to play as a freshman this year.
Alas, Chino Hills is on the other side of the bracket. Post Falls opens vs. Rancho Christian of Temecula, Calif.
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.