THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Bad now, but could be good going forward

In sports, sometimes you’ve got to take the bad with the good.

We’ll find out if the Idaho High School Activities Association’s latest move was just that.

Either bad or good.

STARTING THIS fall, schools in the 5A and 4A classification will hold their golf seasons starting in August, with state tournaments Oct. 6-7 in eastern Idaho. 3A and 2A schools will still compete in the spring. 1A schools compete at the 2A level in golf.

Sure, the good thing about that is area athletes can get a full summer on the course in before hitting the course just a few months after this spring season ends.

“Honestly, it’s probably a good thing,” said Lake City boys golf coach Troy Anderson, in his seventh season. “But something that could make it a headache is that we’ll lose a lot of fall sports kids.”

Some soccer players make up the Lake City roster this spring.

“We’ll have some players that just can’t do it,” Anderson said. “But as far as weather goes, it’s going to be sweet starting in August.”

And as far as tryouts and where the players will be skill wise?

“It’s going to be a breeze compared to now,” Anderson said. “Right now, it’s really hard to evaluate kids in the spring when you can’t get outside, or on the course. We’re evaluating kids now, and you just can’t do that in the gym or on the simulator.”

Schools in the Greater Spokane League play their golf season during the spring.

“It’s going to be tough losing the Spokane schools and those tournaments,” Anderson said.

Likewise, Corey Owen, who begins his seventh season as girls golf coach at Lake City, also coaches wrestling.

“For us, it’s a mixed bag,” Owen said. “For some of our girls, golf is their main sport, but they’re also going to lose the ability to play their fall sport. We’ve got one that wants to play next year, but she also plays volleyball, so we just won’t know. I think until we’ve done it one year, we’re just not going to know.”

“It’s going to be a situation where people are going to have to make choices, and hopefully they choose golf,” Anderson said.

WALKING AROUND an area store a day after the disappointing loss by the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, you can get a lot of theories on why the team didn’t quite reach the goal of the national title game in New Orleans.

The officiating.

Playing in a conference that doesn’t challenge them.

You name it, someone has their own idea of what happened.

It’s not like Gonzaga was blown out, the Bulldogs lost 74-68 in a game that, for the most part, they were in the entire way.

But, you just can’t shoot 5 of 21 from the 3-point line and hope to win a game like that.

There’s a reason why they call it March Madness. Sometimes, the best team doesn’t always win.

And maybe the best one didn’t win on Thursday, but Arkansas did exactly what it needed to advance.

The good and bad.

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 [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.