THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: An element of the early start

There’s dealing with the elements when it comes to high school golf in the spring.

Is it going to rain?

Does a team have a final test on that day?

How much time OUT of class is too much?

And, as the area coaches here are finding, it’s a little different as the 5A and 4A levels in Idaho are in the first of a two-year trial of playing in the fall.

SOMETHING ALMOST unheard of in previous years was a neutral site tournament on Wednesday as the seven Inland Empire League schools competed in tournaments in Liberty Lake. The boys played at Liberty Lake Golf Course, girls at MeadowWood.

Everything went about as expected.

But about that weather?

“We didn’t foresee the heat being as tough as the cold,” Lake City girls coach Corey Owen said. “It just adds another element to things.”

As for the players ...

“Some of them were struggling at the end,” said Owen of the tournament, which was played with temperatures reaching in the high 90s. “You could tell some of them were getting worn out by the end of it.”

Area schools have a few more weeks of the heat, then as school starts, temperatures often go down as the fall approaches.

“It’s just something we’re going to have to deal with in the fall,” Owen said. “Once we get to September, things should be easier as far as when we can play and times on the course,” Owen said.

One benefit is that, without an offseason in some cases, the golf has been better.

“I’ve been really impressed with Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint so far,” Owen said. “They’ve got really good teams, and they’re playing really good golf right now.”

A downside is that turnout isn’t quite what it has been in the spring, with some teams only getting four or five girls out for the program.

“We’re definitely feeling it a little bit,” Owen said. “I’ve been talking to our local course (Coeur d'Alene Golf Club) to work with them in the spring and get some of the middle schools kids out and get excited about playing. With volleyball and soccer in the fall, it’s going to draw them away as well. So we’ll have to get creative going forward.”

CALL IT an effort to improve the schedule, or just getting games to help a school’s MaxPreps rankings for state tournaments, the Coeur d'Alene Charter and Timberlake boys and girls soccer teams will play host to McCall-Donnelly next week.

The Vandals will face Timberlake on Tuesday, then conclude the week against Coeur d’Alene Charter on Wednesday at The Fields in Post Falls.

“I think the talks started with just the boys teams and then extended to both last spring,” Coeur d’Alene Charter girls coach Stacy Smith said. “I think playing them, at least early on, gives us a measure of where we’re at and where we need to grow.”

For the Coeur d’Alene Charter boys, it serves as a rematch of an opening round game at state last year, won by the Vandals 1-0, with the match going 5-4 on penalty kicks.

“It’s going to be a big test for us,” Coeur d’Alene boys coach Craig Daigle said. “Last year, it was a really good, strong game and it will be nice to get another crack at them and see some different competition. It should be a good test and yard marker for us.”

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.