Waiting for the smoke to clear

The time right before the start of the fall sports season is a magical one, especially as of late in the area.

And it usually has nothing to do with the kids on the field.

At least not yet.

THANKS TO wildfires in the surrounding areas, whether that be Washington, Canada or Montana, the air quality has put the brakes on whatever preparation time has been needed for area programs so far.

In case you’ve missed it, the air quality must be lower than 150 parts per million for teams to practice or play games outdoors.

It wasn’t even close earlier this week.

“Monday and Tuesday were the first times the smoke really impacted us,” said Coeur d’Alene High football coach Shawn Amos, whose team began practices on Aug. 6. “Yesterday (Monday) was the first day we were inside.”

So as they were facing a third day inside the gym, Amos and Coeur d’Alene got a little help.

“We’d looked at Kellogg ­(where Amos coached previously) and contacted them about the conditions over there,” Amos said. “They were close, but still good, so we bused them on over.”

Kellogg’s practice field, in case you didn’t know, is located behind the high school up Jacobs Gulch.

“Their practice field is amazing,” Amos said of Kellogg’s facility. “It was kind of nice to get out and for them to do that for us.”

In similar fashion, Lake City traveled to the Silver Valley and practiced at Sather Field in Silverton, the home of the Wallace football team, on Wednesday.

St. Maries lucked out, and hasn’t had to miss any time outside — yet.

“We’ve been close,” St. Maries coach Craig Tefft said. “It’s been as high as 152, but it goes under enough so we can go running before practice starts.”

THINGS GET a little tougher for those cross country teams, which got started on Aug. 10.

“It’s been rough,” Timberlake cross country coach Shawn Lawler said. “It’s right over (at 152) in Spirit Lake (on Wednesday), but is good enough in Sandpoint. We’re kind of in the middle between the two, so we had to make a decision.”

That decision was to practice, albeit with conditions not that great.

“Our athletic director (Jim Simpson) left it up to us and we told anyone that didn’t feel comfortable to stay back,” Lawler said. “It wasn’t mandatory and we didn’t go too far, but we tried to do what we could.”

Coeur d’Alene kicked off the soccer season against Hillcrest at home on Friday, and a few more teams are scheduled to get going today in the area.

And who knows, maybe a little more time indoors compared to outside could be a good things for area programs.

This whole winning thing has been really contagious throughout the summer in this part of the state.

The Sting Timbers girls 00/01 soccer team finishing second in a national tournament kind of started it.

Members of the Coeur d’Alene Single-A Lumbermen baseball team finishing third at the state tournament in Lewiston continued it.

And don’t forget, this area still has a group of Northwest champions battling in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

It’s possible some good can come from all this in the fall.

Once the smoke clears, that is.

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 @JECdAPress.