The thrill of victory, now and then

Full disclosure, I spent the past week poolside in sunny Arizona soaking up a North Idaho winter's worth of Vitamin D. It wasn't terrible to experience 90-degree temperatures while everyone at home was getting ready to hunker down for the rest of fall and the long snowy winter ahead.

But being away I missed the Friday Night Lights of my home team, Post Falls Trojans hosting my alma mater, Coeur d'Alene Vikings. Thanks to technology, I was able to catch some of the game online. But even a balmy October evening on the patio in the desert is no substitution for being bundled up in the bleachers under a harvest moon, enjoying a hot dog with mustard, while everyone from Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene are cheering the teams on.

In 2024 the long-time rivals, Trojans and Vikings, each had five wins and two losses going into Friday's game with the league championship on the line and an automatic berth to the state tournament. What should have been a battle to the finish was anything but. The night belonged to Coeur d'Alene from kick-off, who went on to beat Post Falls on Trojan Field, 21-zip.

Maybe they'll meet again in the state championship game!

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I just happen to remember the first time Post Falls ever beat Coeur d'Alene in high school football. It was Post Falls' homecoming game in the fall of 1994, to be exact. The score was 27-13, Trojans and it was the last home football game for me and Bert as the parents of a Post Falls High School student. Our youngest was a senior and a varsity cheerleader. Her boyfriend was the quarterback, and they were both on the homecoming court. It doesn't get any more quintessential Norman Rockwell small-town glory days than that.

The quarterback, Darick Pope, had the game of his life. He threw touchdown passes, ran for touchdowns and did just about everything but sell popcorn in the stands. The Trojan defense, which included future Olympic athlete Ian Waltz, was on fire. And we beat the Vikings for the first time ever!

 In the '90s, I was publisher/editor of the weekly newspaper, Post Falls Tribune. In our next edition, I laid out the pages on grid paper, wrote the paper's news budget, and selected images from contact sheets of negatives, cropped with a grease pencil. When I delivered it all to David Townsend, the Coeur d'Alene Press copy desk editor assigned to paginate our paper each week, he informed me that you can't run sports photos on the front page. The photo I'd selected to run with a story about the game was a great shot of Darick throwing the football with the scoreboard in the background, taken by a Press sports photographer.

I respectfully informed David that in Post Falls, then with a population maybe 10,000, there was no bigger news in the River City than the Trojans beating the Vikings at homecoming. No contest. And I'm happy to say that in 1994, the hometown weekly newspaper proudly ran a sports photo on page 1, above the fold.

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Happy birthday today to our youngest grandson, Connor (21!), sharing a birthday with Teddy Allred, Greg Helbling, Nathan Tull, Holly Hansen, Christopher Adamson, Tim Snyder (70!) and Margaret VanLeuven. Tomorrow’s birthday celebrants are Rocky Banks, Melissa Hjeltness, Adam Slobodow, Randy Millsap and David Ingalls. On Friday, Damon Darakjy,  Jack Price, Mary Foeller, Kyley Greer and Kathryn Arrand will put on their party hats. Gail McGaughey (70!), Patricia Benes, Shweta Bangaloree Green, Scott Peterson, Wanda Corcoran, Linda Jones, and Brock Prince celebrate the anniversary of their birth on Saturday. Cade Coffey, Trinity Newman, Brenda Willoughby, Anthony Beckstead, David Cole, Jen Butler, Deirdre Eldredge, Deeann Zahn and Aidyn Dugger enjoy their birthday cake Sunday. Melanie Simpson, Terri Gervais, Laura McNeil, Jenni Gibson, Jill Swoboda, Jonathan Mueller, Tracie Olin Smith, Kathleen Clancy, Bernadette Oaks, Heather Montee, Dale Fitch, Jamie Oliver and Ashley Gerzina blow out the candles to start the work week Monday. On Oct. 29, Sandy Patano, Jerry Baltzell, Mark Symons, Kara McCollum, Bill Guy, Amanda Krier, Mary Ransdell, Dave Clark and Shawn Duncan are celebrating.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email thoreson.kerri@gmail.com.