THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Eastern Idaho’s gain will become North Idaho’s loss in volleyball

The “carrot” that North Idaho receives for the Boise area always hosting state basketball — and state wrestling rotating between Nampa and Pocatello — is that state volleyball and state softball tournaments are played in the North every two years.

It’s been that way for some three decades in volleyball, and nearly that long in softball.

But with the 6,000-seat Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls opening in 2022, that means there will be slightly less state volleyball in the North for years to come.

The good folks in eastern Idaho have been pushing to land some state tournaments — including basketball, which has been entrenched in the Treasure Valley since the mid-1990s.

The Mountain America Center has gotten into the rotation for state volleyball, beginning this fall. 

IF ALL goes according to plan, the Idaho Falls facility will host two of the six state volleyball tournaments each year for the next four years, starting with the new 6A (formerly 5A) and 5A (formerly 4A) tournaments this fall, from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

In 2025, where the state sites are listed as “tentative,” the MAC would host the new 4A (old 3A) and 3A (old 2A) tournaments. 

In 2026, where the state sites are listed as “suggested,” the MAC would host the 2A (formerly 1A Division I) and 1A (formerly 1A Division II) tournament.

In 2027, where the state sites are also listed as “suggested,” the Mountain America Center gets the 6A and 5A tourneys again.

“Suggested,” or “tentative,” you get the drift. For many years the big-school state volleyball tournaments have been held in the North — most recently, the 5As, 4As and 3As at Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Post Falls high schools, and the 2As at Lakeland. The two 1A tourneys are in Lewiston.

The North hosted state volleyball this past fall.

The North will still get its fix of state volleyball, just not as often.

This fall, Lake City will host the state 4A (formerly 3A) tournament. And the 3A (formerly 2A) tournament is scheduled for Memorial Gym at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

(The state 2A tournament is at Jerome High; the 1As will be at Canyon Ridge in Twin Falls).

Instead of all six tournaments being in the same region, now they’ll be split up around the state a bit each year. 

District I is “tentatively” scheduled to host the 2A and 1A tourneys in 2025, which would be a first, I believe.

The next time the big schools will come up this way is in 2026 — a wait of three years, instead of two — when the top four divisions are “suggested” to be played in either District I or II.

“In the future, our board has asked that we look at all options in hosting tournaments,” said Mike Federico, assistant director of the Idaho High School Activities Association. “If … new arenas are available and willing to host, we would take them into consideration.”

Softball in the North appears to be spared, for the time being. The two big-school tournaments are up here this year, and are scheduled to return in 2026 and ‘28.

On the one hand, sometimes a little change of scenery for state tournaments is kind of refreshing. If other schools are interested in hosting and have the facilities and enough motels, maybe give them a shot.

North Idaho and eastern Idaho would love to get state basketball again. The North hosted some girls tournaments years ago, and eastern Idaho had some boys and girls tournaments in the 1990s and before.

The North hasn’t hosted state wrestling since 1995, at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

The North would love to get a piece of state baseball as well. That event has mostly been in the Boise area, but now that the tournament will be run by the state instead of by the state coaches association, perhaps that’s a possibility.

But in this case with state volleyball, good for Idaho Falls … not so good for North Idaho.

SPEAKING OF state basketball, the 3A boys tournament has been held at Meridian High for some three decades. But after the most recent tourney there in March, Meridian asked to be taken out of the state rotation.

True, Meridian High is an older building, but the brick-laden facility has a certain charm. Besides, by all accounts, the 3A schools liked playing there, and the school is somewhat centrally located among the other sites for the boys tourneys.

But, like with volleyball, things change.

Ty Jones, who is retiring as executive director of the IHSAA at the end of the school years, said among the schools being considered to replace Meridian as site of the 3A boys tourney are Ridgevue, Eagle and Owyhee, which are all in the same general area.

As a newspaper which tries to cover all six classifications of state basketball with one writer (and one photographer), our preference is to be in gyms which are as close to the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa as possible, for time and travel reasons.

(That is an advantage for the Mountain America Center — two tournaments in one building!)

Zipping from, say, a state 4A girls basketball game at Timberline High in east Boise out to a 3A game at Middleton is asking for trouble (usually you only miss a little bit of the next game, but once I missed an entire game after getting stuck in traffic on I-84 during rush hour), as is traveling from Caldwell or Vallivue high schools to Capital High in Boise during the boys tournament.

By and large, folks at all those schools do a great job of hosting, and are more than helpful to us; it’s not their fault their gym is not centrally located.

And, as we always say, it’s about the kids anyway. We’ll just drive faster (just kidding!).

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.