THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Colvin, Waddington, Bowie, DeGraw announce their college choices

Summer for high school athletes in North Idaho used to be part hanging out with friends, part chillin’ at home, part training for the upcoming season.

Maybe it still is to a degree.

But nowadays, for juniors entering their senior year, summer is also for announcing your commitment to play in college.

The most recent announcement was from Coeur d’Alene High basketball point guard Teagan Colvin, who said Monday she has committed to UNLV.

On Sunday, Lake City High guard Avery Waddington said she plans to play basketball at the University of Montana.

Last week, Post Falls High tight end Asher Bowie revealed he was headed to Eastern Washington to play football.

And last weekend, Coeur d’Alene High edge rusher Camden DeGraw accepted an offer to play football at Washington State.

All made their announcements via social media — the way it’s done these days — some with quite the splash.

Long gone, it appears, are the days when only friends and family were the ones to immediately hear about a commitment — the rest of us would find out much later.

COLVIN, WHO led Coeur d’Alene to its first state title since 2014 — and 10th in school history — had some 30 scholarship offers from schools all over the country.

Among those in the west were Washington State, Eastern Washington, BYU, Utah and UC Santa Barbara, in addition to UNLV.

Nationally, AP top 25 schools Iowa State, Michigan and Colorado offered.

“Ready for the bright lights,” the 5-foot-7 Colvin tweeted when she announced her commitment.

She is 81st in the most recent ESPNW high school girls basketball rankings.

Her dad, Chris, an assistant girls basketball coach at Coeur d’Alene High, posted a 2-minute, 17-second video of Teagan and family and others in Vegas, to accompany her announcement.

This coming year, Teagan will get to play with her sister, Brookeslee Colvin, who will be a freshman at Coeur d’Alene this fall. The 5-8 Brookeslee already has at least one scholarship offer — pretty good for someone who has yet to reach high school.

WADDINGTON WENT through a period this spring where she seemingly picked up a scholarship offer every day.

The 6-3 inside/outside threat had at least a dozen scholarship offers, mostly in the west, from schools including Santa Clara, Portland, Sacramento State, Hawaii, Seattle U, Fresno State, Idaho, Colorado State and Grand Canyon.

“Thank you @CoachHolsinger & the rest of the staff for giving me the opportunity to play at such a great program,” Waddington tweeted. “Excited to be a part of the Lady Griz fam!”

One thing’s for sure — with Waddington and several other talented returnees at Lake City, and the Colvin sisters and the rest of the bunch back with the defending state champions, those Lake City-Coeur d’Alene games should be doozies again this coming season.

BOWIE, A 6-5, 225-pound tight end/defensive end, helped Post Falls win its first outright league title in football since 1995.

Bowie is a rarity in that Eastern seldom gives scholarships to kids from North Idaho, in part because of out-of-state tuition. Most Eagles on the football roster hail from western Washington, with a few from California.

But Coeur d’Alene kicker Seth Harrison was an Eagle most recently, a Sandpoint kid played there a decade or so ago, and the Sigler brothers from Coeur d’Alene High played there back in the day.

So that tells you what the Eags think of Bowie.

He must be an EKG — Eagle Kind of Guy.

“Excited to be a part of @EWUFootball Family! Let’s build the nest!!” Bowie tweeted as he announced his commitment.

DEGRAW IS a 6-6, 235-pound edge rusher who boasts a three-star ranking and is Idaho’s second-ranked recruit in the class of 2024, per 247sports.com.

(Burley stud receiver Gatlin Bair, whose offers include one from Alabama, is ranked No. 1).

DeGraw also had offers from Boise State, Eastern Washington, Weber State and Portland State.

“I am extremely excited to announce my commitment to Washington State University,” DeGraw tweeted. “I would like to thank everyone who has helped me and believed in me along this journey. Go Cougs!”

And if there were more of these announcements that we missed, we apologize. Blame it on exceeding our daily limit on Twitter.

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.