THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: A Wild start for prep mat squads

For a time, the George Wild Invitational was considered a tuneup for the state tournament for many area high school wrestling teams.

With its prime dates falling on the final weekend in January, often times, it was the last true tournament before the regional/district tournaments.

THANKS TO some rescheduling, this year’s first real test for area high school teams will come at the George Wild tournament on Dec. 18-19.

For most schools, it will serve as the season opener after events in Montana and Washington were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The tourney was bumped up to the same date as the Tri-State Invitational at North Idaho College, which was canceled in early September.

With tournaments limited to — as of Friday — the Rollie Lane Invitational in Nampa (Jan. 8-9), River City Duals in Post Falls (Jan. 14-15), Van Tuinstra Duals (Jan. 23) at Timberlake High and the North Idaho Rumble (Jan. 29-30) at Coeur d'Alene High, teams might struggle to find enough tournament settings.

“With losing the Sierra Nevada Classic (in Reno), Tri-State and Inland Empire (at Central Valley High), it’s huge to have that available,” Lakeland coach Rob Edelblute said. “We want to take advantage of every opportunity to get the kids on the mat.”

When Lakeland and Coeur d’Alene competed regularly at the George Wild, they had solid results. In 2006, Lakeland finished third, with Kyle McCrite, Brandon Palaniuk, Zack Horsley, Chris Katus and Scott Underdahl all advancing to the championship finals.

Adam Hall of Bonners Ferry also won a championship that day. These days, Hall is the associate head coach at N.C. State, while Palaniuk has made a name for himself on the Bassmaster Elite fishing tour.

Jesse Nielsen, a Coeur d’Alene High product who went on to wrestle at North Idaho College, won a NJCAA Championship at 174 pounds in 2011. In 2007, Nielsen finished third at 152 pounds, beating Jacob Norris, who later transferred to Coeur d’Alene High.

In recent years, Coeur d’Alene and Lakeland did not compete at the George Wild due to a scheduling conflict with the Inland Empire Classic at CV on those dates in early December.

After losing its spot on the wrestling calendar one year due to fears Kellogg was going to cut its wrestling program, the George Wild tourney resurfaced in early December, attracting smaller schools in the area as most of the bigger schools attended the CV tourney.

As of Friday, no Idaho schools have scheduled matches against teams from Washington as that state waits for the go-ahead to begin competition.

Washington schools won’t begin practices until Dec. 28 at the earliest.

Hopefully by then, some of the Idaho schools are well into the start of what could be chaotic season to say the least.

IF THE silence on the free agent front when it comes to the Seattle Mariners doesn’t worry you, you’re not alone.

In the past two years, many of those big ticket free agents — Eric Hosmer and Manny Machado — didn’t sign their deals with new teams until the week leading up to spring training.

Getting outfielder Mitch Haninger, who missed the 2020 season with an injury, back will be just like landing a free agent.

Besides, Seattle isn’t necessarily in the market to add guys like George Springer, Trevor Bauer or anyone else that could speed up the rebuilding process in 2021.

Be encouraged that the process is working with outfielder Kyle Lewis receiving the American League Rookie of the Year earlier this week. If he can continue to play at that level, with some of the other players on their way from the minors, Seattle might not necessarily finish last in the AL West next fall.

A few other pieces could be nice, but as long as they’re playing again, who really cares?

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.