THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Before he became a Zags’ star, Anton Watson shined in another sport

Had things gone a little bit differently on Saturday — OK, a LOT differently — Coeur d’Alene native Anton Watson would have been playing in the Final Four this weekend as a key member of the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

But had Anton stayed with another sport he was pretty good at as well back in the day …

“I really think, and it’s too late now, but I really think, if he would have stayed with baseball, he would have been drafted,” said Paul Manzardo, who coached Watson on Little League all-star teams. “And I told (the baseball coach) over there at Gonzaga Prep, ‘Try to get him to play; he’s good. Even if he just wants to pitch.’ But no, if he would have stayed with baseball, he would have been drafted in baseball.”

How so?

“He was just a really good athlete, and he had the right mindset; he’s real relaxed, real calm, real focused. He’s really good in pressure situations,” Manzardo said. “He would have been a pitcher, without a doubt.”

Anton (and Paul’s oldest son, Kyle, who is in minor-league camp after getting playing time with the Tampa Bay Rays in spring training) were on the 2013 Coeur d’Alene Little League all-star team, coached by Paul, that played in the Northwest Regional in San Bernardino, Calif.

“He (Anton) was one of the better pitchers in San Bernardino when we were there,” Paul recalled.

Manzardo, of course, has coached at nearly every level of baseball in the area, from North Idaho College to Lake City High School to American Legion baseball to Little League baseball and younger.

In Little League, Paul coached that age group in all-stars for several years, culminating with that 12U team that was one step from advancing to Williamsport.

Anton and Kyle were on those teams.

ANOTHER WHO could have been on those teams was Trystan Vrieling.

He lived in Coeur d’Alene for a time, playing baseball until his family moved to the Tri-Cities when Trystan was 8 or so.

He went to Kamiakin High, then to Gonzaga, and last summer the right-handed pitcher was selected in the third round of the MLB draft by the New York Yankees.

“I coached that kid early in life; he was on my first three Little League teams,” Paul Manzardo said, referring to T-ball, coach-pitch, etc. “He would have been on the 9U Little League all-star team with Kyle and Anton, but they moved that year. That would have given us another dominant pitcher in Little League. If they would have stayed, he would have been on that San Bernardino team we went to in 2013.

“It would have been crazy to add him to that roster (in San Bernardino); we already had pretty good pitching with Brandon Gay and Bridger Rinaldi and Zach Sensel … it was a pretty decent little group,” Manzardo said. “Those were fun times.”

Not that you can spot a future major league prospect at age 8, but …

“Certain kids have better attention — a more focus kind of thing,” Paul recalled. “And at that level, you don’t keep track of score or anything, but those kids … I hate to say this, but the kids that were really focused, they always knew what the score was. They always knew what was going on.”

OF COURSE, growing up, Anton Watson was also a stud basketball player on the local AAU circuit, on teams coached by his older brother, Deon, before eventually heading into Spokane, starring at Gonzaga Prep, and now doing his thing with the Zags.

Because of the COVID-19 year, where his freshman season was canceled just before the NCAA tournament, Anton has another year of college eligibility, but has yet to announce whether he will use it or not.

MEANWHILE, THERE was another player with (somewhat) local ties that could have been playing in the Final Four this weekend.

The Women’s Final Four, that is.

But Louisville, led by star guard Hailey Van Lith, lost to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a regional final Sunday in Seattle.

You may remember Kobe Bryant taking a liking to Van Lith when she trained with Kobe and his daughter, Gigi, and he dropped in unannounced to one of her games when she was a senior at Cashmere (Wash.) High.

The local tie?

In December 2017, Van Lith and Cashmere took on Timberlake at a tournament at West Valley. The left-handed Van Lith scored 32 points as Cashmere won 56-52.

“We played well, but Van Lith was incredible,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said after the game.

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.