THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: For Lake City High sharpshooter Avery, it’s the park until Park U.

What’s a shooter going to do on a basketball court when you can’t shoot?

The answer, at least for now, is nothing.

But that still hasn’t stopped Lake City High’s Aubrey Avery from setting her future in motion.

IT IS not like Avery has turned into a total couch potato since the coronavirus pandemic has canceled classes at Lake City High until April 20, at least, but there’s not much to do these days.

“Since all the gyms are closed, I’ve been trying to play at the park,” Avery said. “I’ve never had a hoop in my driveway. So right now, it’s a lot of nothing.”

Avery tried playing other sports at a younger age — running cross country as a freshman —— but nothing stuck quite like basketball.

“I played a bunch of sports until my sophomore year, and then switched to playing AAU basketball,” said Avery, who played for Northwest Express out of Colfax, coached by Corey Baerlocher. “There’s a lot of different kids from Idaho and Washington on that team. It’s kind of crazy how many kids from around the northwest region are on that team.”

The 5-foot-7 Avery recently signed a letter of intent to play at Park University in Gilbert, Ariz., which began offering intercollegiate athletics in the 2019-20 school year. As of the 2020-21 season, the Buccaneers will be in the NAIA.

“It’s a newer university with a great business program, which is something that interests me,” Avery said. “I started talking to the coach, and he really sold me on it. He told me I’d be the primary shooter and made me feel like a great fit to their program.”

Park University announced Avery’s signing on March 21.

“I just committed last week, so there wasn’t a lot of flights available to go down there,” Avery said. “I haven’t seen the campus yet, but the coach has sent pictures of what it looks like. It’s a welcoming coaching staff.”

“I’m so pleased to bring in an elite shooter like Aubrey,” Park coach Jeff Fore said in a news release announcing Avery’s signing. “She has the ability to come in and have an immediate positive impact on our program.”

Avery also had interest from some schools back east ...

“I didn’t want to go that far,” Avery said. “I talked to Whitworth a little as well, but business was something I wanted to get into, so it worked out for me perfectly.”

Avery was a reserve as a sophomore and junior at Lake City, before becoming a starter as a senior.

“She’s always been a dedicated player to the program,” third-year Lake City coach James Anderson said. “She was probably ready to start as a junior, but with Dejah (Wilson) and Klaire (Mitchell) in front of her, it was hard to get on the court. With more opportunities, she began to thrive a little more.”

No matter the playing time on the court, Avery continued to work on her game.

“She’s such a gym rat that she’s always in the gym shooting,” Anderson said. “It’s good to see someone put in the work and accomplish something she wanted, which was going on to the next level.

FOUR GAMES into the season, Avery’s senior year was halted due to a broken left wrist that sidelined her from Dec. 6 to Jan. 8. Avery returned at Sandpoint, scoring 20 points and hitting six 3-pointers in a 60-42 win.

“I was really close to breaking the total record for 3-pointers (58) for a season,” said Avery, who finished with 45. “The games I missed were ones that I could have shot a lot more because those teams don’t really scout us as much.”

Avery tied the single-game record of 9 3s (set by Jasmyn Smith in 2011) on Jan. 25, finishing with 31 points against Lewis and Clark.

“I was aware of what the records were, but I’m trying to beat them each game I play,” Avery said. “It’s kind of hard not to shoot 3-pointers when teams tried to key in on Brooklyn (Rewers). They’d give me some space, so when I got the ball, I just shot it and keep shooting.”

Lake City went 5-4 in Avery’s absence. The final three games were losses to Eagle, Timberline and Caldwell — all state qualifiers in 2020 — by a combined 20 points in the Timber-Lion Tournament in Boise.

“I could have played after having my cast taken off,” Avery said. “But I didn’t want to delay that anymore than I already did.”

Being out helped her grow as a player as well.

“I think you see a lot of different things you normally don’t in a game,” Avery said. “From the bench, you can see the little things you don’t notice when you’re playing.”

“She was so supportive while she was on the bench,” Anderson said. “She’d be going nuts on the bench and the first one off of it during timeouts. That was a fun thing to see from someone that’s in a tough situation.”

Avery scored 10 points for the Timberwolves in the Fight for the Fish spirit game, a 61-47 win over Coeur d’Alene in her first league game back in the lineup.

“Besides state games, that’s probably the most important game,” Avery said. “You’ve got to know how to play with your teammates and use common sense. It’s tough, but one of the simplest games at the same time. We played really well together for not having our coach basically (because of the noise, it’s difficult for players to hear the coach from the bench). Coeur d’Alene did a good job of limiting me from shooting, so I had to do other things to keep scoring in the game.”

AVERY WAS selected to play in the Idaho Statewide All-Star Games at North Idaho College on March 13 before the games were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It would have been fun to play in that game with some of the kids I’ve played against for years,” Avery said. “Getting a chance to play against the kids from Boise, and do the 3-point competition, I was really looking forward to that as well.”

Lake City captured the state consolation title in 2019 by beating Meridian 47-35, for the program’s first trophy at state since 2016.

“It was kind of a big deal for us,” Avery said. “I didn’t play well offensively, but did a lot of good things defensively.”

Avery credits Anderson with helping her game grow in the last few years.

“He’s very skill based and dedicated to the program,” Avery said. “We had a lot of morning practices where he’d roll out the shooting machine and help us fix things if they weren’t working.”

“She’s a real pleasant kid to be around,” Anderson said. “She comes into practices happy and talks it up with her teammates. She’s a good example to point out that if you put in the work, you can get what you want. She played as a freshman on the freshman team. She just continued to put in the work and got exactly what she wanted, to go play in college.”

But first, there’s a few other things to take care of at Lake City, if and when the pandemic allows students to return.

“I’m worried about prom and graduation,” Avery said. “Especially getting announcements out. It takes a lot of time to plan, and hopefully everything works out. They’ve already told us our senior programs weren’t happening, but prom and graduation haven’t been canceled yet.”

Even if that happened, chances are she’s find her way anyway.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.