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Looking to track down a national title

| April 18, 2018 1:00 AM

Lexie Heath has a really good excuse for missing her first track meet of the season.

It’s one that she’s been close to a couple of other times as well, but hasn’t quite achieved.

HEATH WILL be representing the Coeur d’Alene area Elks Lodge in the national hoop shoot on Saturday at Loyola of Chicago.

Unfortunately for Heath, she’ll be leaving on Thursday, the day of River City Middle School’s first meet of the season.

“Almost everyone in the school knows I’m not going to be there for the first meet,” said Heath, an eighth-grader at the Post Falls school who competes in the 100- and 200-meter dash. “Our coach, Mr. (Troy) Pottenger, has told the team a few different times that I’m not going to be around just joking around. I’m just excited to get to go to Chicago.”

Heath has won the state championship three times, but this is the first year she’s broken through at regionals to advance to nationals.

“The day of the shoot, I get a little nervous,” Heath said. “I was doing it to have fun, and just keep trying again. I’m really looking forward to going to Chicago because I’ve never been there before. It’s a new experience and I’m looking forward to it.”

“The Elks do a really great job of providing entertainment for the kids,” said Lisa Heath, Lexie’s mother, who will accompany her to Chicago. “Everything they’ve got planned sounds really great.”

In addition to Saturday’s competition, participants will have the chance to tour the city with their families.

“We’re going to take a trolley around the city and look at the different sites,” Lexie said. “I’ve never really been anywhere like Chicago before, but have been to Las Vegas. It should be a lot of fun.”

Lisa Heath added she gets a little nervous watching her daughter compete.

“She’s been doing it for a few years in a row, and it’s pretty nerve wracking,” Lisa said. “The entire gym is silent and the kids have to sit and watch.”

Lexie Heath plays AAU basketball for the Spokane Sandpipers, which competed in a tournament at The Warehouse in Spokane last weekend.

“She plays on a really good AAU team,” Lisa Heath said. “During the tournament, when she’d get fouled, the coach would tell her she’s a national finalist shooter, so she’s getting a lot of pressure to be a great free throw shooter, and she’d miss. Now she feels like she needs to be a great free throw shooter, and she’s only 13.”

HEATH JOINS the list of shooters from the area that have advanced to nationals from the area.

Kamryn Pickford and Deacon Kiesbuy advanced in to nationals in 2017, Zach Mackimmie in 2013 and Dylan Bengtson in 2011. Bryan Klingaman, who later starred at Lakeland High, won the 10-11 year old group in 1995.

“I’ve watched her for six years now, and she’s always been a good shooter,” area Hoop Shoot director Rick Alexander said. “She’s got a process and everything she does is the same. It’s like playing golf. If you’re consistent with how you’re putting, then you do everything the same. It’s almost second nature to her now, and she doesn’t have to think about it. Her process is well defined. She’s just good at what she does.”

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.