‘He just elevates everyone’ — Coeur d’Alene High senior Logan Orchard quietly does a little of everything as Vikings try to qualify for state for first time since 2012

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Coaches know.

Folks on the outside might judge a player’s worth solely on their scoring stats.

Coaches, however, can watch the game, or watch the tape, and know who the key players are — the ones who make the plays that help the team win.

That’s where Coeur d’Alene High senior point guard Logan Orchard fits in.

“From a team standpoint, I don’t know if there’s a better recipe for a team’s success than having your best player also being your most unselfish player,” fourth-year Coeur d’Alene boys basketball coach Jon Adams said. “Logan is singularly focused on winning. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Logan utter anything about his stats … or how many shots he did or didn’t get. It’s all about winning. It’s never about Logan; it’s always about the team. He leads us in steals, he leads us in blocks, he leads us in assists, he’s second in rebounding as a guard. I think he’s third in scoring.”

All nice stats. But the biggest stat is: With the 6-foot-3 Orchard as the starting point guard, the Vikings are 16-3, have already clinched the Inland Empire League title (with a 7-0 record) and the top seed to the 5A Region 1 tournament, and are poised to qualify for state for the first time since 2012.

“He’s not only one of our best offensive players, he’s probably our best defensive player, on and off the ball,” Adams said. “He’s super accountable … you can praise everything about Logan, from the type of basketball player to the type of kid he is off the floor. I always say the highest praise I can give a player is, aside from his personal attributes, is that he elevates everybody around him. He elevates the intensity of the play, the competitiveness. He is working with teammates that are struggling.”

“He just elevates everyone,” Adams added. “Even as a coach, he elevates me. And to have a kid with that ability, on top of his natural ability, is very special. Kids like Logan come around just once in a while.”

But don’t just take Adams’ word for it.

Opposing coaches in the Inland Empire League know, too.

“Orchard gets his team under control, he’s like a general out there,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “You can’t get him sped up. He’s helping his teammates get the ball in positions where they can score. He can score, but he is the best facilitator in the league. Logan’s the best player in the league. I can't remember him taking a bad shot, or making a bad decision. He’s extremely efficient, and he makes winning plays.”

Where does that come from?

Says Logan:

“My dad (Keith, who played at Ferris High in Spokane and Whitman University in Walla Walla) always taught me how to play the right way, and the right way is always making that extra pass, always making that extra play for a teammate, getting them a layup instead of yours. I always grew up that way, getting told the right pass is the right pass, and it should be made. Even if the, quote-unquote, worst player is on the floor, if that’s the right shot, they should still get it.”

Keith Orchard played for a Ferris team that took an undefeated record to state his senior year of 1987, before the Saxons lost in the first round and eventually finished fifth. Keith graduated from Whitman at No. 2 on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,621 points, and he remains in the top five.

“Logan is, by far, a better player than I ever was,” said Keith, the mental health coordinator for the Coeur d’Alene School District. “He’s a much better ballhandler. He’s a much better passer, and he’s a better defender. I can probably shoot the ball a little bit better.”

So where did Logan’s unselfishness come from?

“I don’t know,” Keith said. “I think he’s a great listener. All the coaches said for us to be successful, you have to be unselfish, and do what’s best for the team. It was not really a focus (from me). There were times I said, ‘Logan you need to be more selfish, more assertive.’ He doesn’t really focus on his stats. He really is one of those unique people that wants to win. That was not anything that we did for him.”

LOGAN ORCHARD is in his third season on the varsity at Coeur d’Alene High.

He could have been on varsity as a freshman, but coaches thought it best for him to be on the junior varsity, and get playing time.

“His sophomore year, we didn’t start him, and all the coaches were (wondering), ‘how many games into the season is it going to take before Logan starts?’” Adams said. “And it was like the third game — we can’t take him off the floor. He puts so much effort in at both ends of the floor. He takes more pride in being a defensive stopper than he does anything offensively.”

Coeur d’Alene finished 16-6 that season, falling one game short of state after losing to defending champion Meridian in a state play-in game.

Last season, Coeur d’Alene was again challenging for a state berth, to end that long drought. Midway during the season, Orchard suffered a broken thumb on his right (shooting) hand during P.E. class. 

He didn’t know it was broken at the time, so he played with the injury for some six weeks before he finally got it checked out.

He could have kept playing, but doctors said the risk was, the thumb might not heal properly, which could affect the rest of his playing career.

So Logan opted for season-ending surgery.

The Vikings finished 15-8, losing in the game that would have put them back in another state play-in game. 

ORCHARD WAS born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, except for his third- and fourth-grade years, when the family lived in Hawaii as part of Keith’s work.

“I have a video of him, fourth grade in Hawaii, shooting baskets at the local park, all by himself, in the rain, doing his dribble drills, shooting 3-pointers, in the rain,” Keith recalled.

In the rain?

“It was warm,” Keith said. “He wanted to practice, always.”

Of course, dad was out there in the rain, with his son.

“I might have had an umbrella,” he said.

Logan played soccer growing up, and played football through the ninth grade, where he was the quarterback on Coeur d’Alene’s freshman team, before deciding to focus solely on basketball.

Problem was, his love of the game — high school ball, AAU ball, summer tournaments and fall ball with the high school team, as well as numerous pickup games — led to stress fractures in his right foot during the fall of his sophomore and junior years.

In the fall of his junior year, while he was healing from his second stress fracture, he was on a “minutes count” during the end-of-season tournament.

On this day, Coeur d’Alene could have played two games that day. The Vikings were playing Lake City in the semifinals, and if they won, would have played in the title game later that day.

Keith decided Logan could play four quarters’ worth of time between the two games.

As it turned out, Coeur d’Alene was losing to Lake City by some 20 points, so the Vikings wouldn’t have been playing in a second game that day.

Keith wanted Logan to sub himself out, since the game was decided, so he wouldn’t cause more damage to his foot.

But Logan wanted to keep playing, so he called his dad down to the court, where they “negotiated” while Logan was on the floor, and play was stopped while someone shot free throws.

“Since we were only going to play this one game, I was like, ‘I can play this whole game, and it would be four quarters,’” Logan recalled.

“I just said fine, OK,” Keith said.

“That’s Logan; he loves to play, he loves to compete,” Adams said. “He’ll negotiate during a game to get one or two extra minutes of play. He loves it so much.”

This past offseason, Logan sat out a couple of high school tournaments, and cut down on the pickup games. 

This fall, there was no three-peat of a stress fracture in his foot.

DURING THE recruiting process, when Logan put together a highlight tape to send to college coaches, his first clip — of course! — was of him defending someone at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas who came in averaging close to 30 points a game.

Logan and his teammates held the high-scoring opponent in check.

“It put a smile on my face,” Adams said when he saw the tape.

Logan said he was told by Corey Symons, North Idaho College men’s basketball coach and father of sophomore Caden Symons, Logan’s teammate, that “you can only play at the level you can defend. So if you can’t guard somebody who’s going D-I, you can’t do it.”

“I think defense is an effort thing, and anybody can play it, no matter how big or small you are,” Logan said. “It’s what wins us games, sometimes it takes more effort on the defensive end than the offensive end. …whatever it takes to win is what I’ll try to do.”

Logan has signed with NAIA Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Ore. He also had an offer from NCAA Division III Whitworth University in Spokane, and was also talking with several other area schools.

EOU coach Chris Kemp was an assistant under Corey Symons at NIC for a season, and has known of Orchard for years.

Logan said he hopes to play professionally overseas after college, then eventually become a financial advisor, or work somewhere in the business world.

“He’s going to be a coach someday, whether he knows it or not, because that’s how he thinks,” Adams said. “it’s probably just a matter of time before I’m coaching against him.”

It’s not uncommon for Logan to call Adams — even during the offseason — with a suggestion.

Or at practice, Logan might grab his coach’s grease board and draw up a variation to a play.

Adams doesn’t mind.

“Usually, he’s spot on,” Adams said. “There’s a number of plays we run because Logan suggested them. I hope he keeps calling me (after high school) … I don’t want it to end.”

When COVID hit in 2020 and sports came to a halt, near the end of Logan’s eighth grade year, Logan found a training program online, and Keith built one of those jumping boxes you see at the gym.

Logan increased his vertical jump 4 inches in eight weeks.

“What his mom (Beckey) and I are most proud of, is the type of leader and teammate that he is,” Keith said. “He’s an unselfish player, but he’s also an unselfish, kind person. He gets along with people; he’s easy to get along with. He’s calm and cool under pressure … he makes good decisions on the court, but he also makes good decisions in life.”