THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: What prep teams are going through to play during a pandemic

St. Maries was the first area girls basketball team to play this season under the new COVID-19 guidelines in Idaho, which mean no fans can attend games — at least for now — while Idaho is back in Stage 2 of Gov. Brad Little's Idaho Rebounds plan during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lumberjacks played at Lapwai last Saturday. Only "essential" workers were allowed in the building. Any crowd noise came from the players themselves, or from the junior varsity players who played in the earlier game.

“It was definitely different,” St. Maries coach Gary Krumheuer said. “You could really hear yourself yelling, so you had to tone it down a little bit. But if that’s what we need to do to get the play this year, we’ll do it.”

Timberlake and Coeur d'Alene got to experience the "new normal" on Tuesday night at Coeur d'Alene High.

"It wasn’t as weird or different as I thought it was going to be," Timberlake coach Matt Miller said after his team lost by seven points to Coeur d'Alene. "Feels a little bit like a summer league game, I guess."

Post Falls also opened Tuesday night, with a three-point victory at Sandpoint.

“Actually, once the games start, fans are never an issue when they are there,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “Warmups and that stuff is a little different, and they’ll get used to that too. It’s odd and different, but that’s the reality right now. We’re going to have to adjust to that. It kind of felt like being at practice.”

FANS ARE still in luck, even if they're not allowed into gymnasiums for the time being to watch their local high school basketball and wrestling teams.

Most area schools have setups to stream their games online. And the ones that aren't are hoping to do so soon.

The catch is, in most cases, you'll have to pay to view.

At Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high schools, they hope to have Pixellot cameras installed in their gymnasiums later this month or in early December. When that happens, fans can watch their games at NFHSnetwork.com for a fee.

Until then, the schools hope to find another way to stream their home events.

Post Falls, Lakeland, Timberlake and St. Maries already have Pixellot cameras in their gyms, so their games can be seen online at the NFHS site for a fee.

Priest River said it has a camera on the way.

Lakeside also has a Pixellot camera in its gym in Plummer, with one bonus — fans can watch games from that gym online for free on the NFHS site.

"We decided to pay for the licensing fee to allow that," Lakeside athletic director Jerel Hight said. "I'm not sure how many other schools are offering it for free, but we wanted to do that so our fans could watch our kids at home without any barriers."

There is no Pixellot camera at The Courts at Real Life in Post Falls, but Genesis Prep is working at streaming its home games via YouTube.

Kootenai has pushed back the start of its basketball and wrestling seasons to January, with the hope the COVID situation improves and some fans can be in the stands. The Warriors do not have a Pixellot camera in its gym, but might consider streaming home games on its Facebook page.

SO FAR, Lakeside appears to be the only school streaming its games for free — at least on the NFHS Network.

Sandpoint streamed Tuesday's girls basketball game with Post Falls on its school Facebook page.

And some of the smaller schools have been ahead of the game with this.

Kellogg and Wallace both have YouTube channels, where they show their home games. And Kellogg, when allowed, plans to take its act on the road and show road games if possible.

Bonners Ferry home games can be seen on BoundaryCountyLive.com.

Right now, only essential workers are allowed in the gyms for games — game management folks, officials, etc.

And they would still like to be paid. Money from ticket sales is usually used to pay those costs, but obviously there is none of that money coming in now.

The NFHS Network is offering some of the subscription fees it collects from streaming back to the schools, to help them with expenses during this pandemic.

Some schools, like Post Falls, had already budgeted for officials at the start of the school year.

Local leagues voted to take these steps to not allow fans at their games for now. But league officials said if the governor moves Idaho back to Stage 3, they will re-evaluate fan attendance.

"It is what it is, and we get to play, and we have to think of that in a positive way; these girls get that opportunity," Coeur d'Alene coach Nicole Symons said. "I think it’s sad that at least parents can’t be in here … this is a big building. I think they (officials) can figure that out.

"But I’m just blessed that we get to play; there’s a lot of people that aren’t."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.