THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: A little push back to normal
As the gymnasiums have remained empty — for the most part — during the bulk of the winter sports season, coaches and athletes have had to be prepared for anything.
In some cases, those timeouts where a coach draws up a play at the end of the game, doesn’t require screaming over the student section and pep band.
In all honesty — I haven’t missed that as much — but know that without it, it really doesn’t have the feel of a nail-biter in the closing moments.
WITH SOME schools moving between in-person classes and online, for some athletes, those early season practices might have been the only time some athletes got a chance to see each other.
“More than just in wrestling, it’s been a hard year on everybody,” Post Falls coach Pete Reardon said. “With the COVID thing, and all sorts of craziness and the kids having all kinds of different schedules in school, it’s been a lot of different challenges. I think more than ever, being a family, sticking together, it has been more important than ever.”
Last weekend, Post Falls won its sixth River City Duals tournament title in the last seven years, beating Nampa 42-40 in the championship match. Maybe more impressive is that the Trojans opened the tournament with an 87-0 win over Orofino, 90-0 win over Timberlake and 81-0 over Sandpoint. Post Falls beat Coeur d’Alene 54-19 in the semifinals.
“It was impressive to see our younger kids step up and get some wins,” Post Falls senior Ryan Graves said. “We had some close matches, and it was good to see them pull through and get the win when we needed them to.”
With no spectators allowed into the tournament last weekend, teams had designated areas to sit in between matches in the bleachers. Teams occupied both the lower level of The Arena, as well as the top section, which is only used during big events. On Friday, the number of spectators increased to four each for wrestlers and fans limited to 40% capacity for dual matches. Fans are still unable to attend wrestling tournaments for now.
Graves added that despite the protocols, it’s been business as usual during practices for the Trojan wrestling team.
“I think our team has stayed consistent,” Graves said. “We’ve been going just as hard in practice than we have any other year. We’re just pushing each other to the max.”
SPEAKING OF pushing each other, the co-op between the Mullan and St. Regis school districts in football — which started with the 2018 season — is working out well for both schools.
The Tigers advanced to the state playoffs in the last two seasons, losing in the state 1A Division II semifinals in 2020.
On Tuesday, the Tigers of Idaho took on the Tigers of Montana in both boys and girls basketball.
St. Regis won both.
“We’ve played them a lot in middle school games in the past,” Mullan athletic director and football coach Stetson Spooner said. “We were finally able to hook up this year for some games.”
Caleb Ball, a sophomore at St. Regis who played quarterback on the Mullan-St. Regis football team, had 28 points in the game.
“St. Regis used its athleticism and pushed the tempo all game long, very typical of what you see in Montana basketball,” Mullan boys basketball coach Paul Elston said. “We had no answer for Caleb Ball. He took over the game early. While we like seeing and playing against our Tiger brethren, we certainly don’t like getting beat by them.”
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.