THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: For some local teams, just having a football schedule this fall was the biggest question

When high school athletic directors put together their schools’ football schedules, ideally they like to arrange two-year, home-and-home contracts with their nonleague opponents.

Even better if those agreements align with Idaho’s two-year classification cycle.

This being the second year of Idaho’s classification cycle, this is usually the “easier” year for ADs in football scheduling — wherever you played your nonleague game last year, you play at the other school’s field this year.

This year, four schools — Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Lakeland and Timberlake — couldn’t be sure they would even have a sports season in the 2023-24 school year until their levies passed in May, after they didn’t pass in March.

In the case of 5A Lake City, six of its nine football games were against teams in the 5A and 4A Inland Empire League.

The other nonleague games were against North Central, Emmett and Bishop Kelly.

“That’s the thing — at any point, we could have gotten dropped there,” Lake City athletic director Troy Anderson said. “They were well within their right to go ‘Well, we don’t know for sure, so we’re going to pick up someone else.’ But they didn’t. They hung on, and we didn’t hear from any of those teams about doing that.”

Lakeland AD Matt Neff, who had nonleague games against Preston, Pullman and West Valley, among others, said he didn’t hear from any of those schools either.

“I’m sure they were (concerned), but they never did reach out,” Neff said. “I would be thinking that if I had a West Valley or someone on my schedule, and if their levy didn’t pass I was going to have to go find a game. So there probably was some behind-the-scenes contingency planning going on. I would have.”

Here’s a look at the football schedules for the local 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A schools for this fall.

COEUR d’ALENE

Schedule

Aug. 18 — vs. Rigby (at Missoula). Aug. 25 — vs. Rocky Mountain.

Sept. 1 — at Sandpoint. Sept. 15 — vs. Lakeland. Sept. 21 — vs. Woodinville (at Bothell, Wash.). Sept. 29 – at Union (Vancouver, Wash.).

Oct. 6 — at Lake City. Oct. 13 — vs. Post Falls. Oct. 20 — vs. Lewiston.

Overview

Coeur d’Alene opens against Rigby for the second straight year at the University of Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium, this time on Aug. 18.

“We want to play at the University of Montana, because it’s such a cool environment, but … we’re at their mercy, whether it’s available or not,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “We’re lucky that it was still available.”

This is the second year of a two-year agreement with Rigby, and Amos said he hopes to continue playing that game in the future.

Coeur d’Alene plays host to Rocky Mountain of Meridian the following week, also the second year of a home-and-home.

After hosting Woodinville (Wash.) and Union (Vancouver, Wash.) last year, Coeur d’Alene travels to western Washington to play those teams this year on back-to-back weeks. The Vikings’ game with Woodinville is on a Thursday, as Woodinville shares Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell with Bothell, Inglemoor and North Creek.

Of course, after that, Coeur d’Alene’s “farthest” road trip in 5A IEL play is 2 miles, to Lake City. The Vikings host Post Falls and Lewiston in league.

LAKE CITY

Schedule

Aug. 25 — vs. Lakeland.

Sept. 1 — vs. North Central. Sept. 8 — vs. Emmett (at the Kibbie Dome, Moscow). Sept. 16 — at Bishop Kelly. Sept. 22 — vs. Moscow. Sept. 29 — vs. Sandpoint.

Oct. 6 — vs. Coeur d’Alene. Oct. 13 — vs. Lewiston. Oct. 19 — at Post Falls.

Overview

This is the second year of deals with Emmett and Bishop Kelly. The Timberwolves played host to BK on a Saturday last year — they’ll travel to BK for a Saturday game this year.

Lake City and Emmett are meeting at a “neutral site” for the second straight year. Last year, they played in Baker City, Ore.; this year’s matchup is at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

“We went quite a ways down to Baker City, and they’ll come quite a ways to play in the Dome,” Anderson said. “We were both on board that it would be a cool experience to play in the Kibbie Dome.”

Lake City played host to Raymond (Alberta) last year on a one-year deal. Raymond reached out about playing host to the Timberwolves this year. But Lake City was not interested in making the 365-mile jaunt into Canada — especially with having to travel to Moscow and then to Boise in the next two weeks.

So Lake City hooked up with North Central on a home-and-home. This year’s game is at Lake City, because North Central doesn’t have a “home” field yet. Anderson is hopeful next year’s game can be played at the new downtown stadium, which is still under construction, near the Spokane Arena.

Lake City is playing host to Sandpoint for a second straight year. The Bulldogs requested a road game that week, Anderson said, because there was a scheduling issue at city-owned War Memorial Field that weekend.

Due to a projected shortage of officials for that weekend, Lake City will play at Post Falls on Thursday, Oct. 19 — the final week of the regular season.

POST FALLS

Schedule

Aug. 25 — at Sandpoint.

Sept. 1 — at Timberline (Boise). Sept. 8 — at Sunnyside (Wash.). Sept. 15 — vs. University. Sept. 22 — vs. Lakeland. Sept. 29 — vs. Mt. Spokane.

Oct. 6 — at Lewiston. Oct. 13 — at Coeur d’Alene. Oct. 19 — vs. Lake City.

Overview

After not playing last year for the first time in at least four decades, Post Falls and Sandpoint will meet in this year’s season opener in Sandpoint.

Last year, Sandpoint opened against Alta of Utah in the Rocky Mountain Rumble in Rexburg, and Post Falls played Skyline of Salt Lake City in a meet-you-halfway game at Middleton.

The Skyline game turned out to be a one-year deal, which worked out for Post Falls, which after playing Sandpoint will travel to Timberline of Boise and Sunnyside (Wash.) on back-to-back weeks, for the second year of home-and-home matchups.

“Worked out really good — saved us a ton of money,” Post Falls athletic director Craig Christensen said.

Post Falls played Mt. Spokane at Union Stadium in Mead last year; the Wildcats visit Post Falls this year. The University game is the second year of a home-and-home.

In true IEL sportsmanship, Christensen volunteered to move Post Falls’ season finale at home vs. Lake City up one day to a Thursday night — on a week where someone had to move, because there weren’t enough officials for all of the scheduled games that week in District 1.

“Last year, Lake City and Coeur d’Alene moved to a Saturday, to save me from moving from a Friday, because it was our homecoming game,” Christensen said. “This year … I figured I’d better make a move, because they helped us out before. I figured I didn’t move last year, so I better move this year, to help everybody out.”

Also, Post Falls schools are experimenting with a four-day school week this year.

“Having Fridays off, it’ll be interesting to try a Thursday night game when we don’t have school on Friday,” Christensen said.

LAKELAND

Schedule

Aug. 18 — vs. Preston (at Montana Tech, Butte). Aug. 25 — vs. Lake City.

Sept. 1 — vs. Pullman. Sept. 8 — vs. West Valley. Sept. 15 — at Coeur d’Alene. Sept. 22 — at Post Falls.

Oct. 6 — at Sandpoint. Oct. 13 — vs. Timberlake. Oct. 20 — vs.Moscow.

Overview

Lakeland and Preston re-upped for two more years, and will meet halfway and open for the third straight year Aug. 18 at Montana Tech in Butte — the same night Coeur d’Alene and Rigby open in Missoula.

Lakeland played Columbia of Nampa the last two years, winning 39-14 in Nampa and 35-10 at home last year.

When Columbia opted not to continue the series, Neff went searching and eventually found Pullman for a two-year home-and-home deal which will stretch into next year’s first year of a new classification cycle — but hey, sometimes you can’t be too picky.

“I just had it advertised on the IHSAA website for a couple of months,” Neff said. “There were email threads; I emailed pretty much every school in western Montana, eastern Washington, and eventually Pullman saw it somewhere and reached out, and I grabbed them right away. It was a relief to get them because it is hard to find football games.”

The West Valley game is also the second of a home-and-home.

Lakeland plays at Sandpoint and at home vs. Moscow in 4A IEL play, and also faces three 5A schools — Lake City, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

TIMBERLAKE

Schedule

Aug. 19 — at Grangeville. Aug. 25 — at South Fremont.

Sept. 1 — vs. Shadle Park. Sept. 8 — vs. McCall-Donnelly. Sept. 15 — at Moscow. Sept. 22 — vs. St. Maries. Sept. 29 — vs. Sugar-Salem.

Oct. 13 — at Lakeland. Oct. 20 — at Bonners Ferry.

Overview

After playing eight regular-season games the past couple of years, 3A Timberlake wanted to get to nine games, and scheduled a game Aug. 19, a Saturday, at Grangeville, usually one of the better teams in 2A, on a one-year deal.

Timberlake will then head to eastern Idaho to play South Fremont in St. Anthony. It will mark the fourth straight year the teams have met, and will be the Tigers’ second trip to eastern Idaho.

“Every year our goal is to put our kids on a bus and travel, because that’s what they have to do (in the playoffs),” Timberlake football coach Kelly Amos said. “Our hope is to continue to do that.”

Last year, when Timberlake played host to South Fremont, the Tigers’ “travel” game was to McCall-Donnelly — but when the Tigers arrived in McCall, the air quality index was over the allowable limit, so the game was canceled and Timberlake turned around and bused home.

“A long ways to get a hamburger,” Amos recalled.

Then Sugar-Salem, which has played in the last five state 3A title games and won four of them, needed a game, and was willing to travel. Timberlake will play host to the Diggers on Sept. 29 — after getting Lakeland to bump their game back two weeks, to Oct. 13, when the Hawks had an open date.

“The stars aligned for us,” Amos said.

Timberlake needed another game because Lethbridge (Alberta), which traveled to Timberlake last year, was reluctant to do so a second straight year because the game fell near Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Plus, playing Sugar can’t hurt Timberlake in the MaxPreps rankings, which are used to determine seeding to the football playoffs in most classifications.

“No doubt,” Amos said. “Definitely will help the rating and strength of schedule and all that … definitely a big factor. That’s been a struggle for us.

“In 2019, we were undefeated, and our margin of victory was pretty large, and we’re still not going to host a semifinal game, because we’re not ranked high enough. So yeah, it becomes a real factor, especially for us.”

Timberlake is scheduled to play host to Shadle Park on Sept. 1.

Last year’s game was at Shadle, on a scorching Friday afternoon because the Highlanders’ field has no lights, and Shadle had nowhere else to play the game.

This year, Shadle informed Timberlake that its school district will no longer pay for travel to games outside its district. So it’s possible that game could be played at Shadle — or somewhere in Spokane — again.

That would leave Timberlake with just three home games.

This year, Timberlake travels to Bonners Ferry on Oct. 20 to determine the Intermountain League’s lone automatic berth to the state playoffs. The loser could also qualify, based on a favorable MaxPreps ranking.

ST. MARIES

Schedule

Sept. 1 — at Riverside. Sept. 8 —vs. Freeman. Sept. 15 — vs. Kellogg. Sept. 22 — at Timberlake. Sept. 29 — vs. Bonners Ferry.

Oct. 6 — vs. Grangeville. Oct. 13 — at Priest River. Oct. 20 — at Orofino.

Overview

Compiling this year’s schedule was easy — same teams as last year, just flip the sites, starting with the opener Sept. 1 at Riverside of Chattaroy, Wash., and continuing at home the following week vs. Freeman.

“We were already playing Priest River and Kellogg, so all that did to our schedule was make them league games vs. nonleague games,” retiring St. Maries athletic director Todd Gilkey said. “And we’ve always played Bonners and Timberlake … ”

The Lumberjacks play their first football game one week later than most schools — and two weeks later than some.

“We just chose that as our bye week … gives us a little extra practice time,” said Gilkey, noting many of the players work summer jobs. “Maybe start a week later and give the kids a little extra summer, and the coaches … we get out of school June 9, and the first day of football practice is Aug. 6.”

St. Maries plays Kellogg, Grangeville, Priest River and Orofino in league. The Lumberjacks used to have a bye between the Grangeville and Orofino games in October, but no more.

“Our bye week was the opening week of hunting season. Around here, that’s a big deal,” Gilkey said. “Having that week off was a godsend. But because of adding Priest River, we slotted them in there.”

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.