Scanlon on the current T-Wolves, and the past in volleyball

When not enjoying the life of retirement, Kent Scanlon has watched a few Lake City High volleyball matches over the last couple of seasons.

And the former Timberwolf coach is impressed with what the current team is doing.

“They looked like they played well together, and they looked like they enjoyed playing well together,” said Scanlon, who started the Lake City program in 1994, and coached the Timberwolves for 11 seasons.

“I thought they just played well all over. They obviously have some standouts at some positions. Three or four really spot-on servers that serve tough balls that are hard to handle. And they put up a decent block. They’ve got a lot of good elements going on, and with a little luck, they probably won’t lose the rest of the year.”

Lake City, second at state last year, will be one of the favorites again this year when the Timberwolves take their 29-1 record to the state 5A tournament Friday and Saturday at Ridgevue High in Nampa.

THE VOLLEYBALL landscape was certainly different in 1985, when Scanlon was hired as head coach at Coeur d’Alene High. Prior to that, he was co-coach for 11 seasons at Gahr High in Cerritos, Calif., where one of his setters was Tara Cross, who would go on to become the first four-time volleyball Olympian for the U.S.

When Scanlon arrived at Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint and St. Maries were the top high school volleyball programs in North Idaho at that time. Coeur d’Alene was the biggest school in the area at the time.

“I think there were some expectations,” Scanlon said of Coeur d’Alene. “They were OK, but they had not taken a step to the next level ... running different-tempo sets ... that I had been introduced to.

“It was a learning curve for both of us.”

Scanlon remembers sitting down with the athletic director at Coeur d’Alene when he was hired

“So, Kent, what do you see happening with this program?”

“I said, if everything works right, I think we can have a state championship in three years.”

Well, hopefully Scanlon purchased a Mega Millions or a Powerball ticket this week.

Because in his third season, Coeur d’Alene won a state title.

“I was just confident that I knew enough about fundamentals, and making them a little more cohesive,” Scanlon said. “I thought if I could implement confidence in what they did, and how they did it, and they could trust each other, I thought we could be very successful.

But then his teams took the floor against St. Maries and Sandpoint, and he knew he had his work cut out for him.

“What do you want to know about ‘Rambo Night?’” he recalled of his first trip to St. Maries, when the Lumberjacks still played at the junior high.

“I didn’t want my girls to be wide-eyed, but I certainly was.”

Same with playing Sandpoint in the old Bulldog Gym.

“It was their space,” he said, “and they were so confident in what they did. and that’s the thing. Not only did I want my girls to want to win, but they had to have the confidence that they could win.”

In 1987, Coeur d’Alene finally beat Sandpoint.

“And boy, that was a big step,” Scanlon said.

At Coeur d’Alene, Scanlon took the Vikings to state six times in nine seasons, bringing home three trophies.

Two years after that state title, Scanlon had another powerful squad, led by Carly Killen (now Carly Curtis, the Coeur d’Alene High coach) and Teri Runge.

“I thought, we’ve got a pretty good shot,” he said. “And it was the year they were only taking one team (to state from Region 1) and in the semifinals of the regional tournament, Teri Runge goes down with a sprained ankle, and that was it.

“I thought we had a state championship-caliber team that year.”

WHEN LAKE City opened in 1994, Scanlon jumped at the chance to start a new program — something he had never done before.

In his third season, Lake City made it to the state play-in match before losing. The Timberwolves then went to state seven times in the next eight years, including Scanlon’s final six seasons before he resigned in 2004 with an overall record of 499-250 in 31 seasons of coaching.

There have been five coaches at Lake City in the past 14 seasons. The Timberwolves are making their eighth trip to state since Scanlon stepped down, and third straight.

Other than volleyball players training year-round, and the net posts no longer rolled out while cemented to tires, the key to the game hasn’t changed much — if a team can’t pass, not much else matters.

“I will say they have a dynamic outside hitter (Ashley Kaufman), and of course they have a tremendously athletic setter (Klaire Mitchell) — your battle is half won with that,” Scanlon said. “Their passing is fine, sometimes it was really good. But to have a setter that can get to almost every ball, it’s a luxury for the coach. But they passed, they served, and I think the best thing that they did was they served.

“The terminology these days is being ‘in system’ or ‘out of system’ and they were always taking the teams that I saw out of system, just because of the tough serves, it was hard for them to generate an offense.

“To me, serving is the first line of defense, so they played good defense, and they ran a quick and tight offense, so it was hard to adjust to.”

Curtis played two seasons for Scanlon at Coeur d’Alene High, after her family moved to the area from Illinois.

“He was good about keeping you up, keeping you confident,” Curtis recalled of Scanlon as a coach. “I always felt like he was good about teaching. He helped me improve my back-row play and made me a smarter hitter.

“I felt like he always had your back.”

Whether it was Scanlon’s influence or not, Curtis said they have a pretty similar demeanor as coaches.

“I just try to be positive and share my knowledge,” Curtis said. “And that’s what he did.”

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.