THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: North Idaho ADs: Just as long as the kids get to keep playing ...

In the end, the Idaho High School Activities Association decided conducting its winter state championships in the usual venues, in front of fewer fans, was better than moving to other sites, in some cases allowing for more fans, but in other cases fewer fans — and possibly seeing some teams opt out of competing at state.

The IHSAA issued a memo Friday explaining why the state's governing body for high school sports is keeping its winter state events at its current sites, even though attendance will be capped at less than the 40 percent of gym capacity currently allowed by Gov. Brad Little.

The IHSAA does not own these facilities, so it's at the mercy of the schools and the city of Nampa, which owns the Ford Idaho Center.

The Idaho Center told the IHSAA it would cap attendance at 27 percent of capacity for basketball — or 1,800 fans per game, 900 per school. There will be no bleacher seating closest to the floor.

For wrestling, because of the large number of entrants, only two fans per wrestler will be allowed.

At the high school sites for the other divisions, attendance will be capped at 300 (150 per team) for each game — and 200 at the smaller Nampa High, site of the 1A Division II girls tourney.

"If the IHSAA agrees to move to 40% capacity, we will lose our basketball and wrestling sites," the IHSAA said in a memo. "If we move venues to other areas of the state, we have schools who would not attend due to the lack of COVID restrictions in place."

"We have had concerns from schools on both sides of this issue from all over the state of Idaho since March of last year," said Mike Federico, assistant director of the IHSAA.

State girls basketball begins Feb. 17, with state wrestling Feb. 26 and 27, and state boys basketball starting March 3.

ADMINISTRATORS IN North Idaho say they can empathize.

"Not speaking for the state, but there are different parts of the state approaching things differently," said Jim Winger, athletic director and boys basketball coach at Lake City. "Boise is not even hosting state in their tournaments in their schools. Boise has been very slow on the comeback (from COVID), and started very late compared to the rest of the state. Meridian did as well.

"The east is a little more full throttle, and the North is maybe somewhere in between. And I think the state is probably trying to juggling act, and trying to get everything to work. I could only imagine how difficult that would be … I’m sure they’re probably just trying to find something that works for everybody."

Boise School District schools Capital (2A) and Borah (4A) opted out of hosting state boys basketball, and those tourneys were moved to sites elsewhere in the Treasure Valley.

The boys and girls 1A Division I and 1A Division II tourneys were moved up a day, with the title games on Friday. That will allow the championship games in the other four classifications to be spread out through the day on Saturday, with more time between games to empty and clean the arena.

"For me, I’m just happy to be able to compete, and for the kids to be able to compete," Post Falls High athletic director Craig Christensen said. "That’s the main focus — for those kids to have a chance to play in a state tournament.

"It’s part of the atmosphere too, to be able to go to Boise and play in the Idaho Center — I get that part of it too."

"This has been a tough year for everybody," Lakeland High athletic director Mike Divilbiss said. "Some people have worked very, very hard, including the IHSAA, different school boards, school districts, ADs, principals, to make these good experiences for our kids, keep playing the seasons, keeping kids in school as much as we can.

"In our own situation, as a school, we’re really proud of the fact we’ve kept our kids in school all year. And our rate (of COVID cases) isn’t really any higher than anybody else’s.

I just think you have to recognize what’s important now. What’s important now is, having a season, keeping kids in school, and having a state tournament. Having that perspective is really important. And that memo is all very trivial, when you keep those other things in mind.

"I think a lot of people are really excited that we’ve been able to have a season. It wasn’t that long ago that people were going, ‘Really? We’re going to wrestle? How long’s that going to last?’ Well, here we are."

EVEN THE reduced limits on attendance should work for North Idaho teams. The only exception is wrestling, where only two fans per wrestler will be allowed. But at least that's better than a few weeks ago, when the plan was for just one fan per wrestler allowed, a total then upped to 1 1/2 fans per wrestlers — leaving folks to wonder how they were going to get a half-parent into the arena.

"We’re at a point where, we’re not only grateful to be playing, but because we started out with no fans, parents are just grateful to be able to watch their kids play, even if it’s limited to two parents," said Mike Randles, Coeur d'Alene High athletic director, and a former wrestling coach.

The state wrestling tourneys will now be one-day events instead of two — the 5As and 4As on a Friday (Feb. 26), the 3As and 2As the next day.

Randles said Coeur d'Alene offered to host the 5A tourney, and other North Idaho schools were interested in hosting the other tourneys, if the IHSAA wanted an alternative to the Idaho Center this year. But in the end, it made more sense to keep it there.

"It’s not just about the fan count, but it’s about the logistics of running all those mats, and all those kids," Randles said.

Christensen noted that, partly because of the pandemic, most games are on the internet as well. He said his daughter recently played in a club volleyball jamboree at a facility in Moscow. No fans were allowed inside, but the event was being live-streamed, so he sat out in the parking lot and watched some four hours of volleyball on his computer.

So if that's the tradeoff ...

"Those kids grew up dreaming of playing on that big stage (Idaho Center), we don’t want to take that away from them," Christensen said. "I hate to take that away to make sure the fans get more opportunities to watch them play.

"I just want to keep the focus on the kids, and what’s important to them. That’s something they’ll remember the rest of their lives, walking into the Idaho Center and playing in a big arena.

"I’m a parent, too. Is it more important for you to have son or daughter play in the Idaho Center, or is it more important for them to play in a high school somewhere so I can get in to watch?"

Divilbiss, who coached women's basketball at Idaho, Lewis-Clark State and elsewhere, had a different take on being able to say you played in a big arena.

"Playing at Kimberly High School for a state volleyball championship (as Lakeland did in October), and winning a title there, I didn’t care what four walls we were inside," he said. "I don’t think our kids did either. It certainly didn’t detract from our kids’ experience.

"If I’m playing for an NCAA tournament win, I don’t care if we’re playing in a parking lot. Let’s go."

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