Snowy start, but still a good time

Day one at the state girls basketball tournament wasn’t without its upsets, twists and turns on Thursday afternoon.

But enough about the back roads of Nampa and surrounding areas.

SOME COACHES often have to think on the fly at the tournament, but who knew that they were also pretty well versed on proper maintenance on keeping teams on the road to the tournament?

Post Falls coach Marc Allert, with the team traveling through a snowstorm in Oregon, was pictured helping put snow chains on the team’s charter bus on Wednesday afternoon as the team made its way from North Idaho.

Arriving nearly two hours later than expected, the team missed out on a scheduled practice. So they improvised, and used the team’s hotel conference room for a brief walk-through before Thursday’s game with Capital.

“I think it helped us,” said Post Falls senior Melody Kempton, who posted 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in the team’s 58-55 win against Capital High of Boise. “We got a chance to warm up and do our best. It’s just a mental game right now, and hopefully we’re prepared now.”

St. Maries meanwhile, took a different route — entirely — from others teams from the north, traveling on U.S. 95 to Boise.

“We had a little snow at first for three hours,” said St. Maries coach Jay Sines, whose team left Wednesday afternoon. “After that, it was pretty good. It took us an hour off the bat to go 20 miles, and it was pretty nasty, but other than that it was good.”

For those keeping score at home, Genesis Prep left on Tuesday, when conditions were a lot better. Timberlake also left Wednesday, but its pep band took off from Spirit Lake on Thursday morning, arriving 10 minutes before the start of the team’s opening-round game against Buhl.

WHEN THE alarm goes off at 3:50 a.m. for the flight to Boise, it can take a bit of a pick-me-up to maintain the energy for a sports writer to bounce to four different gyms in one long day.

Pep bands playing loud, sure, that worked.

Crazy games, yeah, Post Falls-Capital had more turns than a roller coaster at Silverwood Theme Park.

Getting a good, hearty breakfast, well, that goes without saying.

Following Thursday’s late game between St. Maries and Cole Valley Christian in the 2A tournament at Kuna High, as fans began to file out, the familiar tones of Neil Diamond started belting out in the gym.

Yes, that Neil Diamond.

“Where it began, I can’t begin to knowing.”

It started at Skyview High as Timberlake took on Buhl.

Then it was Genesis Prep, and then Post Falls.

And wrapped up — at least this night — with St. Maries taking on Cole Valley.

Through the tired moments, it was still a good time.

So good.

So good.

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.