Saturday, December 21, 2024
34.0°F

A.D.s, and the air up there - Part 2

| September 7, 2017 1:00 AM

Like other area high schools, Lake City High was a busier place than usual Tuesday after school.

And it could be that way for a few more days.

With the air quality WAY too poor for outdoor practices and games to be held, Lake City’s football team spend much of its practice time in film work.

The Timberwolf boys soccer team worked out in the gym. The girls soccer team did some conditioning and meeting in the hallways.

“We were lucky the volleyball team was in Sandpoint,” Lake City athletic director Jim Winger said. “If things don’t change, it’ll be like winter (in the gym), with practices going on from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock or later.”

LAKE CITY and Coeur d’Alene have home football games scheduled for Friday — vs. Central Valley and Mead, respectively — and Post Falls is scheduled to play at University High in Spokane Valley.

Two years ago, with air quality levels slightly over 150 — the cutoff point for being able to play or practice outdoors — all three local teams moved their home football games to the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

This year, with Tuesday’s air quality level in the 230s — after being even worse than that on Monday — the teams are hoping it clears up enough by Friday to play.

“We’re hoping it will be OK,” Winger said. “It’s such a negative financially to go to the Kibbie Dome. We lost quite a bit of money, actually, so we’re just hoping it clears up and we can play.”

It’s University’s home game, but as a courtesy, Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen called his contact in Moscow to see if the Kibbie Dome was available on Friday — or whenever.

“They told me I’m the third in line,” he said.

Coeur d’Alene has talked with Kibbie Dome officials about playing there, but nothing had been set, athletic director Mike Lindquist said.

On Tuesday, a pair of doubleheaders were scheduled for Thursday and Friday, respectively, with Timberlake slated to play Moscow on Thursday, and St. Maries set to take on Deer Park on Friday. Both local teams were scheduled to play at home. On Wednesday, the Timberlake game was moved back to Spirit Lake, to be played at its originally scheduled time of Friday at 7 p.m.

Saturday is likely out because the Vandals have a home game vs. UNLV scheduled for 4 p.m. Playing Sunday would need IHSAA approval, but Christensen said he’d rather not do that because some players couldn’t play for religious reasons.

“We don’t want to lose a football game (due to poor air quality),” said Christensen, whose Trojans are off to a 2-0 start. “We’ve got some momentum going.”

On Tuesday, the varsity volleyball team practiced in the auxiliary gym built a year ago. The football team practiced in the gym, and the girls soccer team practiced afterward.

“Our JV and freshman volleyball teams were at Mead, so that freed up one gym,” Christensen said. “Thank god we’ve got that second gym.”

Coeur d’Alene High was busy as well on Tuesday.

The soccer teams watched film and held meetings Tuesday, after their games were postponed due to the poor air quality. On Wednesday, the girls were scheduled to practice at Venture High, and the boys were slated for an evening practice at Coeur d’Alene High. The volleyball team condensed their practices to one gym and ran cross-court nets, allowing the football team to use the main gym as well as the field house. The cross country teams were allowed to literally run the hallways of Coeur d’Alene High after school, after the hallways had cleared of students.

“Basically each day is a moving target,” Lindquist said, “and we continue to do everything we can to allow our student-athletes the opportunity to train and prepare for competition.”

FROM HIS office window at Lake City, Winger can see Canfield Mountain.

Well, usually.

“Usually you can see Canfield and guess what the (air quality) level is,” Winger said Tuesday. “Today, Canfield Mountain was not visible at any time.”

He recalled a football game more than a decade ago, when Lake City played Flathead just up the road from Kalispell in Whitefish, Mont. “You could barely see across the field,” he recalled.

“There was no airnow.gov then,” he added, referring to the website school adminstrators use to check the air quality.

“It’s frustrating; you almost have to have a weather degree,” Christensen said of adding air quality-monitoring duties to the usual duties of an A.D.

Winger has lived in the area for all but a couple of his 52 years, and can’t remember the air quality being as poor as it has been in recent years.

“Two of the last three years it’s been almost as crazy as spring,” Winger said of having to reschedule games.

Even worse than in 2015, when the games were moved do to wildfire smoke.

“This year’s worse,” Winger said. “You can’t change it, you hope and you wish you could flash a magic wand and change it, but you’re at the mercy of mother nature.”

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.