THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The tragedy in Moscow, and its impact on athletes

Jason Eck was in a somber mood as the Idaho football coach addressed the media on Monday.

The Vandals are playing for a possible postseason berth this Saturday at Idaho State, but his thoughts — as well as the thoughts of many in his program — were with four University of Idaho students who were killed in an off-campus home in Moscow on Sunday morning.

“It’s been a tough week,” said Eck, Idaho’s first-year coach. “Our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to everyone affected by this on campus, especially the family and friends of Madison, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan. I know this is something that will affect the whole student body at Idaho and the whole community. We also have some members of this football program who were friends with these students, or had gone to high school with them and were friends there.

“It’s a tough day, and throughout college football our thoughts and prayers go out to the University of Virginia with the tragedy they had with three of their student-athletes being killed as well,” Eck continued. “It’s been a tough few days, and it’s given some perspective to life, that there’s some things that are a lot more important than football, and obviously your disappointment at losing a football game is definitely put into perspective when compared to something much more important and serious as the life of a young person, so we’ll be operating with heavy hearts this week.”

SADLY, THE Vandal football program has had to deal with this type of tragedy before.

In 2004, when Eck was an assistant in Moscow, Idaho cornerback Eric McMillan was murdered.

“That was very hard, very tough, dealing with a member of your football program being killed,” Eck recalled.

As for how he and his coaching staff will deal with the Vandal players this week …

“I think we have to be sympathetic to the cause, understand that maybe guys’ focus is not going to be as sharp, because they have a lot of other things going through their minds,” Eck said. “I was able to reach out (Monday), and talk on the phone — guys didn’t have classes because the university canceled classes — I was able to talk to the guys that were closest to the young ladies.”

Offering support, letting players know it’s OK to talk about it, either with coaches or with counselors.

“We’re going to be understanding of things going on that are more important than football, and try to work our football things around it.” Eck said.

He noted the team has a “non football meeting” every Monday, and he said earlier Monday “that will be the main topic of discussion — dealing with the loss of people. Any loss is sad, but it’s even more sad when it’s such a young person, with a full life ahead of them.”

WHATEVER HAPPENED to Bobby Jenks, you may ask?

Jenks, who formerly pitched for the Post Falls-based Prairie Cardinals American Legion baseball team, and later played on a World Series champion with the Chicago White Sox In 2005, was recently named Manager of the Year in the Pioneer League.

Jenks is the manager of the Grand Junction (Colo.) Rockies, who won the league title this season. Grand Junction went 62-33 in the regular season, and beat the Missoula Paddleheads (69-29) in the championship series.

Jenks was pitching coach for Grand Junction in 2021, then was promoted to manager this season.

The Pioneer League is an independent baseball league with teams in Boise, Idaho Falls and Kalispell, among the 10 teams in the league. Its teams are not directly affiliated with Major League Baseball; the Pioneer is known as an MLB Partner League.

My memory of Jenks — other than watching on TV as he closed out the White Sox’s sweep of the Houston Astros in the 2005 Series — was watching him throw well over 100 pitches for Prairie in a Legion district tournament game on a 100-degree day in Lewiston.

And he looked like he could throw another hundred.

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.