A break from the pitch, and the final one

There has been some fall seasons where teams have been left scrambling to reschedule games due to smoke from summer fires in the area.

This isn’t that year.

But thanks to some scheduling quirks, some teams aren’t hitting the field quite as hard as previous years.

IN THE case of the North Idaho College men’s soccer team, they won’t play again until next Friday — Sept. 20 — when they visit Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore.

As it happens, it was scheduled that way.

“We’ve only got seven teams in the East Region,” NIC men’s soccer coach Ken Thompson said. “Spokane didn’t play (Wednesday) and everyone else did, so there’s a bit of a break for us.”

NIC’s women will host Yakima Valley today at Eisenwinter Field on the NIC campus at noon.

“Yakima doesn’t have men’s soccer,” Thompson said. “Then, when you travel to Blue Mountain and Treasure Valley (who NIC plays on Sept. 21), you play on back-to-back days. It gives us a little more time to be prepared, but then wind up a little out of it when it comes to rest and recovery.”

Since the season started with the Northwest Athletic Conference friendlies, NIC has played five matches in a span of three weeks.

“We’ve had nine days in a row of either traveling, playing or practicing,” Thompson said. “It’s something we’ve had to run with, but we’ll be practicing a little harder this week and will be a little more specific on stuff leading into practice next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We’ve got a lot of young freshmen that are still learning at this level, so we’re also trying to give some guys a little more information this week.”

Likewise, the Post Falls High boys have been a bit of a hiatus since a 5-0 nonleague win over Lakeland on Sept. 5. The Trojans return to action on Tuesday against Coeur d’Alene in the 5A Inland Empire League opener for both.

That match will also be Coeur d’Alene’s first since the first day of school on Sept. 3. From that point, both Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls will play three times a week until the final week of the season on Oct. 8.

Lake City beat Saint George’s of Spokane 2-0 in a nonleague match on Thursday. The teams play again today at Lake City High at 3 p.m.

Area girls teams in the 5A classification have been filling in some of those dates in between with Greater Spokane League schools. No such luck for the boys, as boys soccer is a spring sport across the border.

A LITTLE later tonight, barring something wacky happening, Felix Hernandez will make one of his final starts at home for the Seattle Mariners.

No tribute videos necessary, as each time he takes the mound — especially with the King’s Court — in Seattle, Felix is his own hype video.

But with rosters expanding at the start of September, Seattle could take a chance on seeing one of its latest prospects like Justin Dunn, or another of their youngsters take the mound during the final week of the season.

This season has been nothing short of a mess, with Felix missing a few months with a variety of injuries.

Expecting something special in what could be his final time on the mound might be a little much to ask.

Then again, for a guy that’s likely pitching to continue playing down the road, it’s also not out of the question.

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.