THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Local high school football schedules, with COVID-19 — and elk — in mind

This coming year’s high school sports schedules might as well be done in pencil, rather than pen.

In football in particular, everybody has their schedules in place, but no one is for sure if all — or any — of the games will be played this fall.

If the COVID-19 pandemic forces a shortened schedule, league games will get first priority.

And if local teams lose games against out-of-state teams because those teams are not allowed to play, the local teams could play their league brethren twice, with the first one not counting in the league standings.

Here’s a look at the schedules of the six area schools that play 11-man football. All matchups are the first year of home-and-home series between the two schools.

Coeur d’Alene: The Vikings open a week before everyone else, playing host to East Anchorage of Alaska on Aug. 21.

“We literally scoured and scoured, trying to find games, and we were just running into walls everywhere,” athletic director Mike Randles said.

Like the other schools, Coeur d’Alene checks high school activities association websites in Washington and Oregon when it needs games, as other schools also post their available dates for play on there as well.

The Vikings found East Anchorage on one of the Oregon sites — and the Alaska team tries to make one trip per season to the continental U.S.

Coeur d’Alene will travel to East Anchorage in 2021.

“It’ll be a challenge ... but we’re not raising funds to go to the Boise area those two years,” Randles said. “While we have some fundraising to do, it won’t be profoundly much more than what we’ve done during that two-year window.”

In fact, all five of Coeur d’Alene’s nonleague games are against out-of-state teams — Sept. 4 vs. Mt. Spokane at Whitworth, Sept. 11 vs. Gonzaga Prep, Sept. 18 vs. North Creek of Bothell, Wash., and Sept. 25 at Union High of Camas, Wash.

Because of the reshuffling of the Greater Spokane League this year, only the first two Fridays in September were available for nonleague games with 4A and 3A teams in the IEL.

Coeur d’Alene had hoped to continue playing Highland and Rigby, but Randles said the dates just didn’t match up this year. The Viks have just eight games scheduled this year.

After years with the same order, 5A Inland Empire League officials opted to change the order of the league games this year. Coeur d’Alene will open league Oct. 9 vs. Lake City, visit Post Falls on Oct. 16 and travel to Lewiston on Oct. 23. The order will remain the same next year, only the sites will switch.

Lake City: Athletic director Jim Winger said he was having a hard time finding a game for Week 1, as Washington schools don’t begin playing until the following week.

“Madison wanted to play, but wanted to play JV and varsity, and that is one expensive trip,” he said. “And the Boise schools, a lot wanted to do a one-year deal, and we’re not going to do a one-year deal.”

So Winger talked with Lakeland AD Mike Divilbiss, and moved their matchup to Week 1 on Aug. 28; they played in Week 4 last year.

Winger found a game at Moses Lake for Week 4 on Sept. 18, and the T-Wolves play their two GSL foes — vs. Lewis and Clark at Albi Stadium on Sept. 4, and vs. Ferris on Sept. 11.

Lake City will travel to Camas (Wash.) on Sept. 25 and host Sandpoint on Oct. 2.

“My worry is, and maybe I’m overthinking it, is four of our nine games are with Washington schools, and they’re having a little more issues with the virus,” Winger said.

In league play, Lake City visits Coeur d’Alene on Oct. 9, travels to Lewiston on Oct. 16, then hosts Post Falls on Oct. 23.

Post Falls: Sandpoint has become the traditional opener for Post Falls in recent years, and this year’s opener will be Aug. 28 in Sandpoint.

The Trojans will then play host to defending state 5A champion Rigby on Sept. 4, a game booked at the annual statewide football scheduling meeting last fall in Boise.

To balance out the schools’ schedules, Post Falls will travel to University of the GSL on Sept. 11.

“We went there last year, but they’re putting in new turf, so this is going to be the first game on their new turf,” AD Craig Christensen said.

Of course, then he added ...

“If we play them ... I don’t know how it’s going to go,” he said. “Every day it changes .. I was feeling confident about a week ago, and now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Two other GSL schools Post Falls often plays opted to go in a different direction. Christensen found a home game with Eastmont of Wenatchee for Sept. 18, and eventually found its ninth game when Pasco agreed to come to Post Falls on Oct. 2.

The annual Battle of the Prairie with Lakeland is Sept. 25 in Rathdrum.

In 5A IEL play, Post Falls is home vs. Lewiston on Oct. 9 and home vs. Coeur d’Alene on Oct. 16, then visits Lake City on Oct. 23.

Lakeland: The reshuffling of the GSL made it tougher for the Hawks to find games vs. Eastern Washington schools. The lone matchup with a Spokane-area school is at West Valley in Week 3, Sept. 11.

After its opener at Lake City on Aug. 28, Lakeland plays host to Columbia of Nampa on Sept. 4.

“We felt it was important for us to play somebody down in the Boise area,” Divilbiss said. “Before COVID hit, we were having each program take one overnight trip.”

Last year, Lakeland played well in a loss to eventual state runner-up Blackfoot in the season opener at Holt Arena.

“We felt the trip to Pocatello to play Blackfoot last year was a positive,” he said. “If we want to play at a state level, we have to play some of those teams.”

Lakeland, a 4A school, will play host to St. Maries, one of the better 2A programs, on Sept. 18. The teams used to be rivals in the 1990s in the Intermountain League, but haven’t played much since, as Lakeland has moved up in classification and St. Maries has moved down.

“Losing those GSL teams really puts you in a bind,” he said. “You either go to Boise, or you play up, or you play down.”

Lakeland plays two of the four 5A IEL schools, hosting Post Falls on Sept. 25. The Hawks visit district rival Timberlake on Oct. 2.

In 4A IEL play, Lakeland travels to Moscow on Oct. 9 and hosts Sandpoint on Oct. 23. Lakeland’s bye in the three-team league is the middle week, but the Hawks hooked up with Asotin (Wash.), which will visit Oct. 16.

Timberlake: Since the 3As have gone to RPI to seed their playoffs, the Tigers have kept that in mind when scheduling nonleague games.

The result: South Fremont, an eastern Idaho school, will visit Spirit Lake for the opener on Aug. 28.

“I think RPIs only work if you have some kind of head-to-head matchup,” retiring Timberlake AD Jim Simpson said. “We wanted to try to get games with 3A teams in District 3, or 3As in eastern Idaho.”

Connell (Wash.) is the other newcomer to Timberlake’s schedule, on the road Sept. 18.

The other three nonleague games are the usual suspects — at Moscow on Sept. 11, at St. Maries on Sept. 25 and vs. Lakeland on Oct. 2.

In Intermountain League play, Timberlake visits Kellogg on Oct. 9, hosts Bonners Ferry on Oct. 16 and travels to Priest River on Oct. 23.

The Tigers had a full schedule until COVID hit, and Lethbridge (Alberta) Collegiate Institute, which was scheduled to travel to Timberlake on Sept. 4, had to pull out when its league decided teams could not travel internationally this year.

Simpson said he hopes the two teams can play next year.

“Before we lost Lethbridge, I was about as proud of that schedule as anything I’ve ever done,” Simpson said.

St. Maries: The reshuffling of the GSL also had Lumberjacks AD Todd Gilkey working the phones, trying to put together a football schedule.

A couple teams St. Maries normally plays opted to go a different route this season. Gilkey was able to schedule a game at Freeman, a team the ’Jacks haven’t played for a few years, on Sept. 11. St. Maries will play Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls, Wash., for possibly the first time in football, Sept. 4 on the road.

St. Maries opens Aug. 28 at home vs. Kellogg.

Gilkey said his coaches have talked with Lakeland’s coaches for several years about a game, and the dates worked out this year. They’ll play Sept. 18 in Rathdrum.

St. Maries’ other two nonleague games are against traditional foes, both at home this year — Timberlake on Sept. 25 and Bonners Ferry on Oct. 2.

In Central Idaho League play, St. Maries visits Grangeville on Oct. 9 and is home vs. Orofino on Oct. 23.

The Lumberjacks have a bye on Oct. 16, which is OK with them.

“By that time we’ve played seven straight weeks; my coaches don’t mind having a bye,” Gilkey said. “And, it’s right around the time hunting season begins. And so, with our kids it works out well that we don’t have a game on that opening week of elk season, because we’ve got kids that are going to go elk hunting. It actually works out pretty well.”

That’s another season folks in North Idaho hope goes as planned this fall.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.