THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: The road to and from the Cd'A courts

With nowhere to go, at least in the Seattle area, Cobi Campbell came to North Idaho College in 2021 seeking a place to play basketball.

After a standout junior year at Puyallup High south of Seattle, Campbell left the program for the Issaquah-based Elite Prep, where he played alongside his younger brother, Cooper, against NIC.

“During the 2020 COVID year, everything got shut down in the Seattle area,” Campbell said. “We jumped onto this Elite Prep team and just traveled around playing basketball and came here.”

In a game vs. NIC on Dec. 4, 2021, Campbell had 21 points for Elite Prep in a 76-66 win over the Cardinals at Rolly Williams Court. Jalen Skalskiy, a redshirt sophomore at NIC this year, had 16 points and nine rebounds in the game as a freshman.

A FEW years later, with Cobi at NIC, the rest of the family moved to Arizona, where his brother Cooper plays for Phoenix Prep as a senior.

“He’s been playing in the Overtime League and having a good year,” Cobi Campbell said.

The Campbell brothers will be reunited next year at Troy University in Alabama, where both have signed to play for the Sun Belt Conference school.

“Troy started recruiting my brother over the summer,” Cobi Campbell said. “I’d had some recruitment from the previous year and over the summer. I had a couple of offers and they offered my brother and he ended up committing there.”

Cobi Campbell, a 6-foot-2 point guard, also had an official visit to Michigan.

“When Cooper (a 6-3 guard) committed on his visit, I looked into it a little more,” Cobi Campbell said. “The more I looked into it, the more it became an easy decision. If it’s a good enough spot for him, then it’s a good enough spot for me.”

With its overtime win over Southern Nevada in Las Vegas on Thursday, NIC improved to 15-6, 3-2 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference heading into today’s conference game at Community Christian of Redlands, Calif.

Cobi Campbell, a left-hander, is averaging 13.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in 19 starts for NIC this season. He is the Cardinals' top 3-point shooter with 33 3s and is shooting 36.3% from deep.

“Our goal is Hutch and trying to get there this year,” said Campbell, who had 13 points and three assists in last Saturday’s 87-62 win over Utah State-Eastern at Rolly Williams Court. “We’re making strides as a team, but we’re just trying to keep our heads down and keep working. We can’t overlook anyone right now. But the more we’re playing, the stronger we’re getting as a group.”

A QUICK glance at the latest state MaxPreps girls basketball rankings in 5A has last year’s state champion Coeur d’Alene fourth and Lake City, which is 19-1, ranked first as the regular season comes to a close.

Impressive considering that Coeur d’Alene replaced three of five starters from last year’s championship game and the Vikings' point guard, UNLV signee Teagan Colvin, has played only once since breaking her right hand during the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas in late December.

“You never like to have your point guard out, but it’s helping us in the long run,” fifth-year Coeur d’Alene girls basketball coach Nicole Symons said. “It’s making some people that haven’t played those minutes step up for us. When Teagan comes back, we’re going to have to work on making sure she gets back in there and get her back into it. But it’s a different dynamic without her for sure.”

Still, Coeur d’Alene had its chance to knock off visiting Lake City on Monday night, leading late in the third quarter before the Timberwolves pulled away for a 59-45 win, clinching the Inland Empire League title and top seed to the 5A Region 1 tournament. Lake City also beat Coeur d'Alene 54-45 in the Fight for the Fish game Jan. 12 at Lake City.

“We’ve just got to clean up a few things on the defensive end,” Symons said. “If we can do that, we could have a shot at it.”

In the MaxPreps rankings, Boise is second and Rigby third. Rocky Mountain of Meridian is the only team to beat Lake City this season, winning 45-44 at Lake City High on Dec. 1.

Lake City won 49-43 at Boise on Nov. 16 in the Timberwolves' season opener.

Lake City starts four seniors (Montana signee Avery Waddington, as well as Sophia Zufelt, Kamryn Pickford and KaLiah Frazey), in addition to junior Sadie Zimmerman.

“Our four seniors carry us in a lot of different ways, both offensively and defensively,” first-year Lake City coach David Pratt said. “It’s a good group of kids.”

Just how good? We’ll find out soon enough.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.