First Fridays, and a great baseball run

There’s a lot of things that are special about the first Friday of the high school football season.

For one — especially in this state — they get a little bit more of the spotlight since those kids from across the state line in Washington don’t start until next week.

And there’s been a few opening games that jump out a little more than others.

A VERY long time ago, when I was first starting out in this business, my day started at 3:30 in the afternoon as I watched the Mullan Tigers take on then-Post Falls Christian in an 8-man football game.

Up until that point, I wasn’t familiar with the strategy of the game — and I’m still not — but after watching the first half of the game, I realized that trying to chart each play, including scoring plays was going to be a lot more difficult than I’d imagined.

Then again, it was football at 3:30 in the afternoon, something that is well worth getting out of the office once in a while to see.

All these years later, I’ve learned a lot more about the 8-man game, and even more about those teams from Kootenai, Lakeside and Clark Fork than I could ever forget.

Kootenai has had some great players in recent years, fueling some deep playoff runs and even a runner-up finish in 2008.

To me, it’s a great thing to see those teams in the North Star League playing each other again in league play for a berth to the state playoffs in football.

Not that those games against White Pine League powers Kendrick and Deary weren’t great, but there’s something special about getting back to your rivalries on a consistent basis.

They’ll have an opportunity to start doing that starting next week when Kootenai hosts Clark Fork.

Where the teams go from there, we’ll be waiting to find out.

THREE WEEKS ago, on a practice field at Canfield Middle School, I chatted with a few of those players from the Coeur d’Alene Little League Majors team and manager Sean Cherry.

This was long before the 11-run inning against Washington in its opening game of Northwest Regional against West Seattle in San Bernardino, Calif.

Even longer than when they won the regional title and advanced to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.

Watching them as they practiced that day, they seemed just like any other team that had dreams of playing deep into the summer.

Sure, players thought about Williamsport, and advancing, but that wasn’t the ultimate goal.

They just wanted to keep having fun with their friends.

Well, they did that and while they were at it, they captured the attention of a lot of folks in the Northwest, not just from this part of the state.

Cherry added that chances were this was going to be his swan song in coaching, instead just wanting to sit back and watch this team grow.

Win or lose, this group should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished this year.

I know there’s a lot of people that feel the same way in this city.

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.