THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Pickett reflects on his heart scare, and a long-ago game at Lake City

Cody Pickett made region-wide news two months ago when he went to the doctor for what he thought was a routine checkup and instead was told he needed open-heart surgery.

Two months later, after his Eagle High boys basketball team had been eliminated from the state 5A boys basketball tournament by Lake City, the Mustangs’ head coach stood in a hallway outside the team’s locker room at Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, and was asked to reflect on the days and weeks that followed after doctors discovered 70% blockage in one of his arteries.

“I’m blessed. I’m very, very blessed,” Pickett told The Press. “I went from a guy that, a couple of months ago, was just going to get a routine checkup to, ‘Hey, maybe we have a problem’ to, ‘My gosh, I’m going to have to have open heart surgery.’ I’m so thankful I was able to go see Dr. Lombardi at the University of Washington and get that stent put in.”

He soon returned to coaching the Mustangs — the only Idaho team to beat state champ Owyhee of Meridian this season.

Other than some adjustments to his lifestyle — diet, blood thinners, medication, statins at night (“the new norm,” as he calls it), all is well.

“Yeah, I’m blessed just to be able to coach right now,” he said. “I’m now recovered from open-heart surgery, so I’m in a great place. The worst part about this whole weekend is I’ve got 10 seniors that I’m going to miss like crazy. I’ll wish them well; they’re a great group.”

Even after his season was over, Cody Pickett was still coaching — something few would have imagined two months ago.

PICKETT FORMERLY coached the Eagle High girls, so he’s used to how state tournaments are set up in Idaho.

He was asked what he thought of the Idaho High School Activities Association, on a two-year trial basis starting with this year’s state tournaments, using MaxPreps rankings to seed the eight teams that qualify for state, rather than the formula of matching up district champions vs. district runners-up or lower that the IHSAA has done for years in bracketing state tournaments.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I would still like to see a committee put a final say on it. MaxPreps is fine … but hey, we got to the state tournament, that’s the goal every year, try to be the state champs. That didn’t happen, we came up short last night. … MaxPreps, I’m sure they’ll fine-tune some things. … I think the teams that went outside the state of Idaho, their rankings were a little bit higher, and teams that didn’t, didn’t have as high a rankings … ultimately there’s four teams left, and we’ll see who wins the state championship.”

PICKETT, YOU may recall, is the son of rodeo legend Dee Pickett. Cody Pickett was a star quarterback at Caldwell High, then went on to play for the Washington Huskies, then played a couple of seasons for the San Francisco 49ers.

More locally, Lake City fans might remember the night in November 1998 Pickett and Caldwell came north for a state 4A quarterfinal football game against the Timberwolves. Lake City easily defeated the Cougars 36-6, then — in a bit of delayed irony — lost at Eagle in the state semifinals.

Against Lake City, Pickett completed 18 of 35 passes for 168 yards, one touchdown and one interception, including one throw off his back foot that must have traveled 50-60 yards in the air. The ball was caught, but a holding penalty negated the gain.

Pickett laughed when he was asked what he remembered from that game.

“I’m trying the best I can to forget all of it,” he said with a smile. “I remember it was really cold, and they were really good, and unfortunately we did not win the game. And it was a long trip up there. A lot of things did not go our way.”

Asked about that long pass … “I might have been running from those big, strong guys that they had … I was just trying to run for my life,” Pickett said.

Twenty four years later, Cody Pickett is happy just to still be running.

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.