THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The state of fans at high school events

Friday night at Lake City High looked a little different the other night.

More than just a few stray cars in the parking lot.

More than just a few stray fans in the gym.

It looked almost back to normal — or at least closer to back to normal.

Several hundred fans congregated inside the Lake City gym to watch the Timberwolves play Lakeland High in boys and girls basketball games.

Thanks to Idaho Gov. Brad Little relaxing limitations on crowd sizes at events to 40 percent of the gym's capacity (or four fans per player for the smaller school, whichever is greater), it looked like a normal crowd at a North Idaho basketball game for the first time since last February.

"It was cool; even though the crowd wasn’t really loud or anything like that," said Jim Winger, Lake City's boys basketball coach and athletic director. "I think probably they forgot what they were supposed to do.

"But just the fact that there were people there, and it felt a little bit about the way it’s been forever and ever and ever ... "

BASKETBALL SEASON (and wrestling season) started out the same way -- no fans.

So in the early games, only those playing in the junior varsity game were in the stands for varsity games.

Then, a total of 10 fans were allowed -- one per home varsity player, up to 10 players. If you were No. 11, oh well.

Then, it was up to two fans per player.

So to go from several dozen fans in a gym to several hundred seems like a big jump.

But I'm guessing no one's clamoring for the governor to reduce the crowd size.

"It was about the right amount of people; people pretty much cooperated," Winger said.

For the first time, there were actual student sections at the games. There were perhaps 100 Lake City students in "The Den" for the boys game; at games earlier this season, "The Den" was mostly empty save for a few stray fans, or sometimes the bleachers weren't even pulled out in "The Den."

The students were packed in tight, just like pre-pandemic. Many in the crowd wore masks, and social distancing was about as you would expect at a "normal" high school basketball game.

The bleachers upstairs were pulled out, to help spread out the crowd.

"I’m just really happy for the kids; they’ve worked hard and they’re playing some good basketball, and some people get to watch them," Winger said. "It was a little different walking out on the court, and I was glad we were able to do it."

FANS HAD to exit the gym (and re-enter, if they chose) after each game.

Admmission was not charged, in part because the news of the increased crowd size came about so quickly, schools would have been scrambling to line up workers, and also in part to reward fans with a "freebie" for not being able to attend games earlier this season.

"It was amazing; this is what it’s all about," Lake City girls coach James Anderson said after his team's victory over Lakeland. "This is the big advantage of high school basketball — playing in front of your peers. It’s the one thing AAU doesn’t have. To play with the music, the crowd, your schoolmates, your classmates. It’s the beautiful thing about high school basketball. I’m just so excited to have it back."

(Thank goodness schools have been able to stream their games. Obviously it's not the same as being there, but at least people can watch.)

Fans will be charged again to attend games starting this week, officials said.

So now, crowds at basketball games are similar to those at football games, where attendance was limited to 50 percent of stadium capacity, but usually looked like a normal-sized crowd.

Other than the Boise schools, who started their winter sports season late due to COVID-19 concerns, most other schools are adapting the "40 percent" rule -- which is good news for fans hoping to attend the upcoming state tournaments, which will mostly be in the Nampa/Meridian area.

WHILE BOYS teams have several more weeks remaining in their regular season, the regular season for girls teams is winding down.

Senior day for Lake City's girls was Saturday. Other schools have already had senior night (or day); others will soon follow.

That's a contrast to the fall sports season, where many teams had senior night as early in the season as they could, for fear COVID could step in at any time, and they wouldn't have a senior night later.

"We have senior day tomorrow, then we’re out of home games," Anderson said Friday night, "so I couldn’t be more relieved that this happened right before we were out of home games, so they had at least one or two chances to play in front of their peers."

While some states are finding ways to keep their kids from playing, Idaho is finding ways to let its kids play.

Make of that what you will.

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.