THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Milestones, and a promising career cut short

Sometimes these milestones sneak up on all of us.

Lake City boys basketball coach Jim Winger recorded his 400th career victory last Tuesday, when the Timberwolves won at Post Falls.

Since then, Lake City has won three more games, and Winger has an overall record of 403-222 (a .645 winning percentage) in 26 seasons as a high school boys basketball coach.

In his 24th season at Lake City (over two stints), he has a record of 370-204 (.645). He went 33-18 in two seasons at Coeur d'Alene, his alma mater, before starting the Lake City program in 1994.

Timberlake girls basketball coach Matt Miller posted his 300th career victory earlier this season with the Tigers’ 13th win of the year, a win over North Idaho Christian on Jan. 16.

Miller is 306-142 in his 19th season as a head coach. In his 18th season at Timberlake, Miller’s overall record is 294-129.

Lake City girls basketball coach James Anderson notched his 100th career victory earlier this season with the T-Wolves’ 13th win of the year, a home victory over Sandpoint on Jan. 5.

Anderson is now 105-38 in his sixth season as Lake City coach.

HIGH SCHOOL sports fans in the area remember Caden McLean as the former Post Falls High basketball standout who helped the Trojans reach the state 5A championship game in 2020, and graduated in 2021.

He signed originally with NAIA Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, before ending up grayshirting at North Idaho College in the 2021-22 season.

He was one of the top 3-point shooters around, a fun player to watch, a heady player who drew all sorts of gadget defenses as a senior.

You wondered how his college career would turn out, once he was no longer the focal point of defenses.

But he’s no longer playing.

Not that he didn’t want to.

Earlier this season, his father, Post Falls coach Mike McLean, explained what happened.

“Caden broke his back his junior year during our state championship game (against Borah), at the beginning of the second half,” Mike said. “He broke a vertebrae in his back, and it is one of those injuries that’s never going to heal, he played his entire senior year … with a broken back.

“He actually grayshirted at NIC, and learned a lot working with (coach) Corey (Symons) and that coaching staff and those players, but ultimately, the amount of pain and discomfort that his back was hurting him, Caden quit playing basketball. For him, the pain and discomfort wasn’t worth the love of basketball.”

AT THE time, in that state championship game, it seemed like an innocent-looking foul.

But it was far from that.

“He went up for a jump shot right in front of our bench, and he got fouled from behind, and another kid tried to block his shot, so a kid was on his hands and knees, right at Caden’s waist,” recalled Mike McLean, who was on the bench coaching at that tournament with the help of a knee scooter, the result of a gruesome injury to his foot and ankle a month earlier.

“And the kid that tried to block his shot fouled him, and hit Caden, and he got a weird kink — it happened right in front of my one foot and my one peg leg — and he laid there, and he was in a lot of pain immediately, and he just played through the rest of the game,” Mike said. “And it wasn’t until late spring, early summer when he wasn’t getting any better. There wasn’t track because of COVID, so he had some downtime, but when he started doing things in the summer, it hurt real bad. We took him in, then got a call saying he’s got a broken back, and to get into Shriners (hospital) and see some specialists.”

DURING HIS senior year, you might have seen some frustration from Caden. But it wasn’t necessarily from the box-and-ones, his dad/coach said.

“Every time he came off a screen, and every team bumped him and pushed him up front, nobody knew this, but that was actually the worst thing you could have done to him, because it hurt his back so bad,” Mike said. “During timeouts he couldn’t sit down, he’d stand up. Once he warmed up I couldn’t take him out, because once he sat down ... we really had to manage his pain.”

(In true fashion with the Post Falls boys program, that was never mentioned as an excuse at the time — as the Trojan team struggled, and eventually fell short of qualifying for state with a senior-laden group).

The idea of Caden grayshirting was to not burn up any eligibility — delay the “clock” starting for when he was healthy again.

Caden practiced with NIC last season — even lost a front tooth taking a charge from one of the Cardinals’ bigger players during practice.

But the pain in his back, after going through the regular wear and tear of playing competitive basketball, never went away.

He worked this past summer with an excavation company, and hopes to eventually become a firefighter.

“He is relatively painless,” Mike said.

Off the court, anyway.

And in the end, that’s all that really matters.

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.