THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: LaFountaine, Twoteeth back coaching, for the right reasons

Mike LaFountaine hadn't really planned to get back into coaching when he took a teaching job this year at Timberlake High, where his wife, Shannon, is in her fifth year as a teacher at Timberlake Junior High.

Mike had coached boys basketball and girls basketball for nine years each at Kootenai High, then was athletic director at Kellogg High the past four years.

He came to Spirit Lake because his wife taught there.

But then the longtime cross country coach, Shawn Lawler, took a one-year leave of absence.

"They asked me to apply for cross country, and I had the time of my life," Mike LaFountaine said. "Great group of kids. If Shawn doesn't come back ..."

Then Mike Menti, the boys basketball coach at Timberlake the past three seasons, stepped down shortly before this season began. And ...

"I was hired (as basketball coach) two days after cross country was over," LaFountaine said, "and I've been going ever since. It has been all positive."

JAMES TWOTEETH took a talented group of boys basketball players at Lakeside High and coached them to a state title in 2020, and a third-place finish at state last season.

But most of that group graduated, and Twoteeth thought he was leaving with them.

"I really thought I was done," said Twoteeth, who played on Lakeside's only other state title team in basketball, in 1997. "I tried to make that decision, and some of the players (including several who were freshmen on last year's squad) wanted me to come back and finish with them."

Twoteeth is finding he has to coach this group a little bit differently.

"I have to go back to step one," he said. "From a coaching standpoint I'm going to have to teach and coach a little bit more — teach more fundamentals than I have had to."

WHILE MIKE LaFountaine was coaching basketball at Kootenai, Shannon was the longtime head track and field coach, where she guided the Warriors to five straight state 1A girls titles (2002-06).

When it was time to leave Harrison Flats, Shannon ended up at Timberlake, Mike at Kellogg, and their youngest daughter, Kennedy, played basketball at Post Falls High, where she is now an assistant coach.

"When I left Kootenai and went to Kellogg, I had a good time," said Mike, 52. "Now that I'm coaching again, it's a renewed excitement. They've lit the fire again."

The LaFountaines moved to Post Falls when they left their jobs at Kootenai High, with Shannon commuting to Spirit Lake, Mike back to the Silver Valley for the past four years.

Shannon coached junior high cross country at Timberlake this past fall with Matt Miller, who is Timberlake High's girls basketball coach. Mike coached the Tigers' high school team with Molly Miller, Matt's wife and his assistant coach in basketball.

"It's like family," Mike said of the culture of Timberlake. "And that's what Kootenai had; Kootenai had a small family. Timberlake has that family too — just a bigger family."

TWO COACHES.

Both thought their coaching days were behind them.

But administrators, in one case, and players in the other, thought enough of them to talk them back into coaching.

And both LaFountaine and Twoteeth, whose teams ironically squared off against each other the in the season opener on Tuesday, with Timberlake winning 50-40, are embracing their new challenge.

"Things happen for a reason," Mike LaFountaine said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.