A story with a new chapter

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

If there was a day that ended in “y” over the last dozen or so years, there’s a good chance Carter Friesz was playing some sport.

Football in the fall.

Basketball in the winter.

Baseball in the spring.

Maybe a little more baseball in the summer, with perhaps some football and/or basketball mixed in.

Or just competing with and against his older brothers — Hunter, 23, and Jake, 21 — in just about anything.

“There were plenty of games that ended with real fights,” Carter recalled. “And the next day, we’ll play again.”

One year growing up, many years ago, Carter decided he didn’t want to play basketball — and almost immediately regretted it, especially after watching his older brothers play.

He has been busy around the clock with sports ever since, recently completing a notable three-sport career at Coeur d’Alene High — where he played varsity two years in football and basketball, and four years in baseball.

He was quite good at all three sports, but was always playing catchup once a season started, because he wasn’t working on that particular sport during the offseason, while many of his teammates were.

That’s because he didn’t have an offseason. Football season often overlapped with basketball season, and basketball with baseball.

His father, John, whom you may have heard of, called it a “problem in a good way.”

Carter said he wouldn’t have done it any other way.

“I’m happy I did ’em all,” Carter said. “It definitely sucks that I can’t play em all (in college).”

He wants to play one sport in college — football — and at a position he’s played very little for at least two years.

More on that part later.

CARTER PLAYED quarterback on the Coeur d’Alene High freshman team, and on the JV team as a sophomore.

As a junior, he and Brady Thompson saw some time at QB early in the season when Colson Yankoff, then a senior, and his backup, Kale Edwards, then a junior, were sidelined with injury.

Yankoff returned to action a few games into the 2017 season, and is now at UCLA. Edwards became the starting quarterback last fall and also put up big numbers. He’s signed to play at Montana, albeit on defense.

That left Friesz to make his impact at receiver.

“To his credit, he really helped us on both sides of the ball, especially as a receiver this year, and was a big part of why we were successful as a team,” Coeur d’Alene High football coach Shawn Amos said.

In fact, one of the Vikings’ biggest plays of the season last fall was made by Friesz.

In quarterfinal game at home vs. Borah, with the Vikings trailing 34-30 and facing third and 19 from their own 36, Edwards threw deep down the middle for Garrett Hagel. On a rainy night with a slick football, the pass bounded off him and Friesz, who was nearby running a similar route, dove and caught the ball at the Borah 12.

Coeur d’Alene scored three plays later and went on to win 37-34.

“I was close enough,” Friesz recalled of the play. “There was a couple times earlier in the season where it bounced off and I wasn’t there. It was a big play ... maybe I could get a block, or something.”

Or a season-saving catch.

IN BASEBALL, Friesz caught for the “C” team as a freshman, then came up later in the season as a backup outfielder on the varsity.

He played some outfield, first base and shortstop as a sophomore, and was primarily a catcher the last two seasons.

On senior day in April, he played every position but pitcher.

When he was younger, he twice advanced to the team finals of Pitch, Hit and Run at Safeco Field in Seattle — the baseball equivalent of Punt, Pass and Kick.

“Not only does he like playing multiple positions, but he has the ability to play all over the place,” Coeur d’Alene High baseball coach Nick Mahin said. “I couldn’t say enough nice things about Carter. As I’ve told him multiple times, he has the ability to play D-I baseball.”

Ah, but his passion is for football.

“Carter’s entire catching career, I maybe called seven or eight pitches the whole time,” Mahin said. “Most of the time I was going to tell him what I wanted, he was already thinking that way anyway.

“I probably could have used him on the bump, but he was more valuable to us behind the plate.”

Again, whatever was best for the team.

“With his ability behind the plate, the sky could have been the limit (in college), Mahin said. “Everybody wants a catcher like Carter. If they hit, that’s a bonus. And he can hit.”

CARTER’S BROTHERS played some sports at Coeur d’Alene — Hunter graduating in 2014, Jake in 2016.

John Friesz, like Carter, was a three-sport athlete at Coeur d’Alene. He was the Vikings’ starting quarterback as a senior in 1984, then went on to have a standout career at the University of Idaho — capped by winning the Walter Payton Award in 1989 as the top football player in what was then called NCAA Division I-AA.

John was a sixth round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1990, and went on to play 10 seasons in the NFL — including four with the Seattle Seahawks (1995-98). His final pro season ended shortly before Carter was born.

In 2006, John was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

His No. 17 is retired by both Coeur d’Alene High and the University of Idaho.

Pretty impressive stuff — except, perhaps around the Friesz household in Hayden Lake.

“I was worried that they may feel pressure, and I don’t think they ever have,” John said of his sons. “They know, and we joke about it all the time, that dad ain’t that big a deal.”

CARTER REMEMBERS tagging along with dad (and older brothers) to Idaho Vandal games, as well as Seahawks games when John would head over as an “alum.”

So he’s been around professional athletes — close enough, for example, to see how big Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton (listed at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds) really is.

“Meeting a lot of professional people ... it teaches you not to get too excited over things,” Carter said.

“I think he’s always done a really good job of not getting rattled,” John said. “I was sort of that way. I didn’t get hung up on a big win or a big loss — just worry about the next one. Through my travels, if I’ve been able to pass anything along, it’s all of those mental parts of the competition.”

Carter, a lifelong Vandal fan, went to an Idaho football camp as a junior, and recalled that he “threw pretty good that day.”

Before a Viking baseball game this spring, Carter got a call from Idaho head football coach Paul Petrino, inviting him to join the Vandals as a preferred walk-on at quarterback.

“I was excited, because it’s been like a childhood dream,” Carter said.

Rather than continue with baseball this summer, Carter is training to be a quarterback, and is excited to see what happens when he can focus on just one sport, year-round. He’ll throw to anyone interested in running routes, then join the Vandals for fall camp.

When Amos deciding on a starting quarterback, the other candidates had to find another way onto the field. The Vikings tried a rotating quarterback system a few seasons ago, and while the team was successful, “it wasn’t a good dynamic,” Amos said.

“Carter could have played quarterback at a lot of other places, I’ll say that,” Amos said.

Had Idaho not called, Carter said he might have tried the junior college route — whatever it took.

“I feel if I can just get on a field and show what I’m capable of doing ... ” Carter said.

MAYBE SON is a little bit like father.

“I wasn’t highly sought after, same as him. Our story is very, very similar,” John said.

“I had two scholarship offers. One was to the University of New Mexico, which at the time had the longest losing streak in Division I football. The other was Idaho, which made it a very easy decision.

“I came in at the bottom of the depth chart, just like Carter will. We’ve got a lot of the same story, and I think that is encouraging to him. You don’t have to be a five-star recruit to be successful.”