THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A spring season memorable for the wrong reasons
MARK NELKE/Press A line of cars rolls past Trojan Stadium at Post Falls High School on April 10, as part of the statewide #BeTheLightID campaign to honor seniors — athletes and other students — who saw their spring activities canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. At the #BeTheLightID campaign which took place at most schools throughout the state, stadium lights were turned on at 8:20 p.m. for 20 minutes, during which time cars drove through the parking lot, many with their horns blaring. At Post Falls, cars started showing up a good 20 minutes before the lights came on, and several hundred …
In a scene replicated at many other high schools around the state and the country, cars line up at Post Falls High School to roll past Trojan Stadium for the #BeTheLight campaign to honor high school seniors missing out on spring activities in April.
MARK NELKE/Press
Sports venues all over North Idaho were empty most of the spring, including this track at Coeur d’Alene High.
MARK NELKE/Press
We’ve reached the time of year when sports writers like to look back and share their memories of the recently completed spring sports season.
Um ...
Let’s see ...
There was a few baseball and softball games in early March, and a couple of track and field meets.
But that was it.
MEMBERS OF the Timberlake High baseball team can someday tell their children and grandchildren about the time they went the whole season without giving up a run.
Of course, the Tigers don’t have to mention the part they played just one game, a 12-0 victory over St. Maries, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in mid-March.
Conversely, the Lumberjacks, normally a fairly potent offensive team, won’t be in a hurry to tell folks about the time they did not score a run all season.
Coeur d’Alene played two baseball games — two more than Lake City, Post Falls and Lakeland combined — winning one and losing one.
The North Idaho College softball team started the season earlier than the high school teams, playing 10 games in Florida beginning in late February. After returning home, the Cardinals swept a doubleheader at Post Falls High School, their home away from home until Memorial Field is finally ready again, and finished 4-8.
After tying for third place last year, in their first trip to state since 2016, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings were eager to make a run at the program’s first state title since 2012.
But alas, their season was sidelined before they could even play a game.
Ditto for Lake City, eager to play after its lone loss in 2019 ended its season at state.
Post Falls didn’t play either.
Lakeland got on the field once, and was swept by Lewiston. But at least the Hawks got on the field.
Timberlake beat St. Maries 6-4 in the season opener — which turned out to be the season finale for both teams as well.
Lake City and Post Falls squared off in a track dual to open the season on March 11. Three days later, Lake City, Coeur d’Alene and St. Maries sent some athletes to the Lewiston Invitational, which turned out to be the final track meet of the year — until last Saturday’s non-sanctioned event at Sandpoint.
None of the local teams got in any golf matches.
Ditto for tennis, after a March 14 tourney at Post Falls was canceled due to cold weather.
Looking back, maybe stepping out onto the tennis court on a miserable mid-March day would have been worth it, considering what was to follow.
THE MOST powerful moment of the spring sports season took place on April 10.
By that point, many folks had been cooped up in their homes for nearly a month, students kept from their schoolmates and teammates, parents working from home.
#BeTheLight was a nationwide event honoring seniors who were missing their final season of high school sports.
At 8:20 p.m. on that Friday night, stadium lights (mostly at football fields) at area high schools were turned on for 20 minutes, while cars paraded past their local stadium in a celebration which was moving in more ways than one.
After all that time in quarantine at home, was a needed night out for all.
And, at that point, at least, there was some slim hope the spring sports season would resume.
One week later, slim became none.
WHEN THE Idaho High School Activities Association finally pulled the plug on the spring sports season on April 17, I went looking for a photo of an empty track.
At Coeur d’Alene High, the gates around the football field and track were locked, but a small opening and a zoom lens was all I needed.
When I left, I noticed a couple of groups of cars in the parking lot — which seemed a little unusual on a Friday afternoon with no activities going on inside the school, and nothing allowed to take place outside on the surrounding sports fields.
Folks were sitting in the backs of their cars, facing each other, chatting with each other, as if there was a fire pit separating them.
But there wasn’t.
There was, however, at least 6 feet of social distancing between each vehicle.
That was about it for a spring sports season that essentially wasn’t.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.
