THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Looking ahead, but with a lot of caution

With the Idaho High School Activities Association opting to move forward with plans to start the fall sports season on time — at least for now — you can’t help but look forward a few months to see what could be at stake on the field if and when things get rolling in a few weeks.

Sure, everything can change with this pandemic again, but for now ...

AFTER WINNING the past four state 3A girls soccer championships, Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy’s road to the state tournament will follow along with any other ordinary ‘home’ soccer match.

No, Charter doesn’t have a home field on its campus, but the school rents The Fields at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls for home matches, playing all those home dates there starting in 2019. Charter is scheduled to play there again this fall when the season gets started.

In its last three seasons, Charter has gone 56-1-1, with the lone loss coming in 2019. If the Panthers find themselves chasing another title this fall, it could be kind of nice for that program to have a few more local fans in attendance that might not ordinarily make the trip south.

Bishop Kelly was trying for a fourth straight title in 4A last year, but Sandpoint ended up winning the title in Caldwell last October.

The 5A tournaments are also scheduled for the area at Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lake City high schools.

Coeur d’Alene’s girls and boys captured the consolation championships in the 2019 tournament.

This year’s state cross country meet is scheduled for Oct. 31 at Eagle Island State Park.

Timberlake’s girls finished second in last year’s event in Pocatello, and return everyone from that squad this fall.

WHEN THE state released its guidelines to resuming high school sports, cross country was deemed low risk, and soccer was moderate.

As pointed out in the 52-page release, this could change week to week.

But, for the most part, it seems as if any sports are to be played as scheduled, it could be those two — cross country and soccer — that can be played with plenty of space to socially distance yourself from others.

With sports such as football and volleyball, there’s still a lot of unknown as to just how things are going to go.

Sure, it looks somewhat promising now with teams making scheduling plans on how to properly start the season on time with the first day of practice on Aug. 10, with games to follow — hopefully — a little over a week later.

Keep an open mind though, as area Legion baseball teams have had to start, stop, start, stop and now are nearing the finish line.

Yes, it will be a great thing if and when area programs are able to get back something resembling sports next month, granted it’s safe to do so again.

Distant, up close and personal, or just hearing the phone ringing off the hook on a Friday night again.

We just need something to look forward to again.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The 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.