THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Fish leftovers, and other stuff

(Editor’s note: Has anyone ever eaten leftover fish the next day? Eating leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, warming up leftover prime rib from Christmas, re-heating pizza from the day before … that all seems normal. But fish?

Anyway … )

DAVID PRATT has coached in spirit basketball games before.

But last Friday was his first exposure to the Fight for the Fish spirit games between Coeur d’Alene and Lake City high schools.

Pratt formerly was girls basketball coach at Mt. Spokane, which played district rival Mead in Catmania, which alternated between each school’s gym — just like Fight for the Fish (some of the Spokane-area rivalry games are moved to the larger Spokane Arena).

Pratt is in his first season as girls coach at Lake City. His take on Fight for the Fish?

“This atmosphere is, by far, the loudest and probably the fullest atmosphere I’ve ever been in,” Pratt said after Lake City’s girls downed visiting Coeur d’Alene 54-45. “This one has more people, and they’re cheering non-stop. So it was great; what a great atmosphere for our kids.”

Because the Fight for the Fish games were canceled in 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19, some kids never got to play in a Fish game.

For a current four-year varsity player, such as Lake City’s Avery Waddington, at least she got to play in two of a possible four Fish games. For those on the outside who might remember a Fish game as 3 ½ hours of ear-ringing noise where the outcome of the games is secondary, well, Waddington pointed out that her Timberwolf team lost last year’s Fish game at Coeur d’Alene.

This year?

“It’s the best feeling in the world, let me tell you,” said Waddington, who has signed with Montana. “We look forward to it; it’s the best game of the season. This environment, it fuels energy, and when you get even a rebound, people go crazy … it feels good.”

AS FOR the actual Fish girls game itself …

Lake City came in the most experienced (with Waddington and senior guard Sophia Zufelt) and the most healthy, so the Timberwolves had the advantage there.

Coeur d’Alene lost some key pieces from last year’s state title team. But the Vikings returned some key pieces as well. And though two of their players were coming off injuries for this game, Coeur d’Alene still played Lake City tough.

Point guard Teagan Colvin, the UNLV signee, played with a wrap on her right wrist and hand after suffering a broken hand last month at the Tarkanian Classic. And her freshman sister, Brookeslee, has been slowed by an ankle injury this season.

The teams will meet again Monday at Coeur d’Alene, and could very well meet again in the regional title game, where each team has won on the other’s floor in recent years.

“You’ve just got to win the right ones,’ Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons said, “so we’re going to keep working for that, and figure it out. We just have to tighten some things up, and figure some stuff out, and we’ll be all right.”

Pratt noted that the Lake City win “separates us in the league standings,” as the T-Wolves are now 6-0 in the Inland Empire League after Tuesday’s win over Post Falls, and Coeur d’Alene is 3-2 after beating Lewiston on Tuesday.

Post Falls is 4-2 in league, with three league games left — two vs. Coeur d’Alene, one vs. Lake City. Coeur d’Alene and Lake City (boys and girls) are scheduled to meet again Monday at Coeur d’Alene.

Lake City has the upper hand for the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage for regionals, but as we noted above, that hasn’t always been an advantage.

“They’re really good, well-coached,” Pratt said of Coeur d’Alene, “and it will be battles every time.”

FOR THE boys, after three years of Lake City dominating, capped by last year’s perfect season, Coeur d’Alene has the most experience this season. The Vikings boast several scoring options in junior Carter Rupp, senior Logan Orchard and sophomore Caden Symons.

And Coeur d’Alene got a key “glue” piece back recently when senior Gunner Larson returned from an ankle injury. As witnessed in the Fish game, which the Vikings won 64-49, Larson is a lockdown defender who can also score.

Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said after the game the Vikings were “still waiting to get the full Gunner back. And tonight we saw the full Gunner. We’ve been waiting for that. You see how good he is, and how athletic he is.”

Lake City lost most of that dominant group from recent years. The T-Wolves return only two players who saw significant minutes the past two years, and both came off the bench — juniors Reese Strawn and Cason Miller (another returnee, sophomore Josh Watson, missed most of last year with an injury).

So Lake City is still a work in progress, a wild card in the race for state berths.

“We’re young, and we’re trying to figure out a way around, how do we speed up this process to compete against these physical teams?” said first-year T-Wolf boys coach James Anderson, who coached the Lake City boys the past six seasons. “I still think we have a very good team that has a little bit of a shot to be there in the end. So speeding up this process, and trying to equal out these more-experienced teams … obviously Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls bring back a ton of experience. We’ve got to figure out how we can niche into that with the players we’ve got, and see if we can compete with these guys.

“Reese and Cason are our two returners, but they’re doing totally different things,” Anderson added. “It’s a huge load on them — stuff they haven’t had to do at this level. So it’s a learning process for them, too … But we still like our team, and still like our chances.”

The boys are a little earlier in their league seasons. Coeur d’Alene is 3-0 after beating Lewiston on Tuesday, and Lake City dropped to 0-2 after losing Tuesday at Post Falls, which is 3-1 in league. Post Falls is scheduled to play at Coeur d’Alene on Friday.

WHEN WE chose Kootenai High junior basketball player Chris Moore as our Knudtsen Chevrolet Press Athlete of the Week this week, I asked Warriors coach Tom Tucker for a thought or two on Chris’ improvement over the past season.

Space in the ad to acknowledge the Athlete of the Week is limited, so I was unable to run Tucker’s entire comment on Chris in that spot.

I can here.

“Chris Moore, a kid who loves to play basketball, and is chasing his dream to play at Gonzaga,” Tucker said. “I have asked a lot out of Chris, pushing him into a leadership role at point guard — which in my opinion is the hardest most competitive position to play — and he is picking it up nicely and developing into a triple threat. Chris is currently holding a 4.4 GPA. He is not only talented on the basketball court but he is getting it done in the classroom as well. Chris is picking up the responsibilities of being a point guard, learning the flow of the game and how to involve more of his teammates. Honestly I could isolate Chris every game and I know he could score 80% of the time. He is that good off the dribble, and he is developing a more consistent outside shot. He will be extremely hard to defend. We are moving his range out to the NBA line to open up more driving lanes; man this is going to be exciting to watch. I see a few box-and-ones in his future, which will only make him into a great player. Truly, I am blessed to be able to watch Chris not only becoming an extremely tough, versatile player, but a very humble young man who has a plan.”

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.