Longtime basketball coach Stockwell steps down at Lakeland High

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Dave Stockwell never took himself too seriously — as a player or as a coach.

He recalled his one season, in the early 1970s, as a seldom-used player on the North Idaho College men's basketball team.

"I was so far down the bench, when they called my name, it was halftime by the time I got to the scorer’s table," Stockwell said.

Years later, when he was in the Air Force, he had to take a class on how to diffuse people that are angry with you.

"The biggest way to diffuse an argument? You just agree with everything they tell you," Stockwell said. "If you don’t come back at them, they’ve got no place to go."

That lesson, he said, served him well in dealings with parents over some 35 years as a coach.

And when he encountered disappointment in his coaching career, he just shrugged it off — because it usually worked out for the best.

Stockwell turned in his letter of resignation as Lakeland High boys basketball coach last week.

Now 67, he wanted to coach the Hawks one more season, but the Lakeland brass trying to institute a new philosophy for its head coaches — wanting them to be more active in the programs at the younger levels.

So rather than fight it, Stockwell stepped down.

"I told Mike (Divilbiss, the Lakeland athletic director), if I was 10 years younger, only going to be 58 and not 68, I’d have no problem — I’d done it for years," Stockwell said. "I wanted to coach one more year, and they thought it best that it would be the perfect time to make the change now.

"I was a little surprised, but with what they want to do, and where they want to go, they have to make it a sweeping mandate."

Stockwell went 118-112 in 10 seasons as Lakeland's coach, guiding the Hawks to the state 4A tournament three times. With one of the best teams in school history this past season, Lakeland won the 4A Inland Empire and Region 1 titles, and was poised to challenge for its first state title before the squad was beset by injuries and the loss of two starters for disciplinary reasons.

"We’ve got to get more connected with our youth," said Divilbiss, in his third year as Lakeland's AD. "We’ve got to reach down and improve our programs and our connections and our relationships with fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, which takes a tremendous amount of time. That’s just something we didn’t feel like we could wait on any longer — with all our programs.

"We love Dave to death; he did a great job. There’s no ill feelings."

Prior to Stockwell's arrival, Lakeland had not gone to state since 2004 — when it was still a 3A school.

"I told him, when he turned in his letter of resignation," said Lakeland principal Trent Derrick, whom Stockwell replaced as basketball coach, "'One of the biggest things that you did was, you moved the mindset of our program from a 3A to a 4A; I thought that was really significant."

Stockwell coached at each of the four biggest high schools in Kootenai County.

Stockwell started his coaching career in 1986, coaching the freshman girls "B" team at Coeur d'Alene. He was later a head girls basketball coach at Lake City for three seasons, going 61-14 with three trips to state, including a runner-up finishe in 1997.

He was Post Falls' boys basketball coach for seven seasons, going 90-85 with three trips to the state 4A tournament, including a consolation title in 2005.

In the mid-1980s, Stockwell was playing city league basketball in Coeur d'Alene. One of the other players was Dave Fealko, head coach of the powerful Viking girls basketball program.

Stockwell eventually became a varsity assistant at Coeur d'Alene as the Vikings won three more state titles. He followed Fealko to Lake City in 1994 as an assistant, and Fealko resigned after the Timberwolves won the state title in 1995.

Stockwell took over as head coach.

“He was just energetic, eager," Fealko recalled. "He gave me the guard viewpoint, which helped me because I was an inside player. He was just always positive. And I've got to tell you, it took me a couple years to release the reins, but once you realize people are there to help you, it makes it a heckuva lot easier to coach. We complemented each other pretty well."

Stockwell left Lake City when his daughter, Callie, started playing at Post Falls High, because he didn't want to coach against his daughter.

He coached as a "graduate assistant" for the Gonzaga women's team under Kellee Barney.

But the gig only lasted one season.

"But everything works out for the best," Stockwell said. "If they hadn’t have sent me home from that job, I wouldn’t have been able to coach my son, Scott, through high school."

In 2000, he was named Post Falls boys basketball coach, where he was able to coach his son.

Divilbiss said Stockwell used to come down and watch practice when Divilbiss was coaching the Lewis-Clark State women, then later the Idaho women.

It was Stockwell who alerted Divilbiss when the Lakeland AD job came open in 2018.

"Dave’s impacted my life in a big way," Divilbiss said. “He stuck to what he believed (as a coach), and he gave kids a lot of freedom to play.”

Stockwell, who attended Immaculate Heart of Mary in Coeur d'Alene, has run a painting contracting business since 1986, since he took over the company when his father retired. He played football and basketball for one year at what is now called Montana State-Northern, in Havre.

Divilbiss said he hopes to have a replacement hired by the end of the school year.