THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Botching names, and Yankoff's snaps

Levi Wullenwaber was a standout football and baseball player at Lewiston High back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

But recently, he’s apparently seen some action in a few Lake City High football games. 

At least, in the local newspaper. 

However, it was his oldest son, Gabe Wullenwaber, who was actually supposed to be in The Press for his accomplishments as a running back and linebacker for the Timberwolves, most recently in last Saturday’s near-upset of Highland of Pocatello. 

I guess when you’ve been covering high school sports in North Idaho for more than 40 years, a lot of names stick with you. 

And every now and then, you end up typing the dad’s name into a high school sports story, instead of his kid’s name. And in the rush to get the section out and keep the delivery drivers happy, sometimes the story doesn’t get as good of a read as it should have ...  

... And you hear about it the next day. 

“It has been cause for some good laughs at the dinner table and coaches’ meetings,” Levi said, good-naturedly.

I’m sure I’ve referred to some other sons by their dads’ names over the years, or referred to a younger brother by the older brother’s name. 

Like his son Gabe, Levi Wullenwaber is active in Lake City High athletics. 

Levi, whose younger brothers Luke and Jesse also starred at Lewiston, is an assistant football coach for the Timberwolves, and is the junior varsity softball coach at Lake City. His daughter, Brooklyn, played softball at Lake City, and Levi was a travel softball coach for years, until his daughter graduated from high school in 2023. 

Levi has another son — Roman, who’s on the freshman football team at Lake City. 

If he starts making the news, we’ll try not to refer to him as Levi. 

Then again, maybe we’ll call him Gabe a couple of times, so Gabe gets some of the ink he missed out on this fall. 

AS FOR Michelle Kleinberg, the Lake City High volleyball coach, I’m not sure how she suddenly became Michelle Kleinert in a few recent editions of The Press. 

I remember covering someone in Sandpoint with the last name of Kleinert when I worked at the Daily Bee, but that was more than two decades ago. 

Of course, so was Levi Wullenwaber, who must have had some big games against the Bulldogs back then. 

Anyway, apologies to Michelle ... and Gabe ... and Levi. 

COLSON YANKOFF recently made the 53-man roster for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, which is big news. 

Even bigger news — the former Coeur d’Alene High star has been active for each of Washington’s first two games. 

Even bigger news than that — Yankoff has seen action in both games. 

Sporting jersey No. 41, Yankoff played 16 special teams snaps in the season opener, a 37-20 loss at Tampa Bay, and played 12 special teams snaps last Sunday in a 21-18 win over the New York Giants, according to stats provided by the Commanders’ media relations department. 

Yankoff made the Washington team as a backup tight end, and special teams player. 

He played quarterback and a little bit of wide receiver at Coeur d’Alene.  

He redshirted at QB at the University of Washington, then transferred to UCLA, where he was eventually switched to wide receiver, then to running back and kick returner. 

Washington gets the Monday Night Football spotlight this week, playing at Cincinnati (0-2) at 5:15 p.m. on KXLY. 

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.