Go Knights! North Idaho is cheering for you

Don your armor, North Idahoans.

You’re going into battle.

No, not against the coronavirus. Not for Bernie or Donald. The battlefield awaiting our combined forces is down south: the Idaho state high school boys basketball tournament.

While Lake City and Post Falls high schools are both in the tourney, a team that our region should pull together and rally around is little Lakeside Junior/Senior High School from Plummer on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. Lakeside has only 105 students, but a handful of them play basketball. Oh, can they play.

The Knights are undefeated at 21-0. Last week, they dispatched perennial powerhouse Genesis Prep in a district championship game to determine who would go to state. It wasn’t even close; Lakeside won 63-42.

“This is their year, man,” said Genesis Prep’s outstanding coach, Marsell Colbert.

For rivals, the respect flowed both ways. In the handshake line after the game, Colbert and the Lakeside kids hugged instead.

“Hats off to them, man, and I wish them the best,” Colbert said. “I told all of them to bring a trophy back up North.”

The Knights have their own superb coach, James Twoteeth. He’s built a dynamic squad that placed four of its starters on the All-League Team. One of those stars is his son, senior Talon Twoteeth.

The roster is filled out by the following: Emmitt White (senior), Devin Whaley-Arroyo (senior), Jasper Abuan (junior), Darren “Day Day” Higgins (junior), Jayson “JJ” Hall (junior), Kenyon Spotted Horse (junior), Christopher Matt (junior), Vander Brown (freshman), Christian Fulton (junior), Patrick Brown (sophomore), Leo Tonasket (freshman), and Corey Rivera (freshman).

Jess Arthur is assistant coach.

Longtime Press sports editor Mark Nelke was asked to describe the Knights in three words. He considered and rejected a bunch of nouns and adjectives. Finally, he settled on this: “Fun to watch.”

Good thing, because Nelke will be watching every minute of the Knights’ state tournament games this week, reporting faithfully back to North Idaho.

So what are you waiting for? If you don’t happen to have a coat of armor hanging around in the hall closet, toss on some black, red and white. This week, we’re all Honorary Knights.