THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: About this built-in break on the high school sports calendar ...

Spring Break. 

Or spring break. 

In high school sports, it's the week in late March (or early April) where the spring sports season — already a short one — pretty much grinds to a halt. 

Coaches know better than to schedule games during spring break, since many of their players (and families) use the week as an invitation to get as far away (mostly as far south) as possible. 

Why look out your window on a Wednesday morning in early April in North Idaho and watch it rain, when you can be enjoying the warm sun on a beach in Mexico, or Hawaii, or somewhere I’d never heard of until a few years ago — Turks and Caicos.  

Can’t say that I blame those folks, though. 

AT THE risk of sounding like I’m saying “Get off my lawn,” I don’t remember Spring Break (or spring break) being such a big deal when I was growing up. 

Of course, attending Catholic school for the first eight years may have had something to do with it. 

I don’t even think we had a spring break when we were in Catholic school. 

Seems to me we had something called an “Easter Break.” 

But it wasn’t a full week off, bookended by weekends. 

If I remember, it was five days off — and two of those were weekend days. 

(Of course, my memory could be a little fuzzy on that one. Remember, I grew up back in the day when we walked 34 miles each way to school.  

Uphill. 

Oftentimes through the snow.) 

ANYWAY, I’M pretty sure on that five-day “Easter Break” thing.  

And I know for sure we didn’t go to Cabo during that time. 

Or to Hawaii. 

Or to Turks and Caicos. 

We didn’t even go to Yakima.  

Us kids stayed at home (a novel concept these days, as well) while our parents worked.  

Nowadays, when folks ask what you did over spring break, more often than not the answer was a trip far, far away from North Idaho.  

If you were to ask what we “did” over our break, it was usually yardwork. Or housework. 

Or, when we were done with our chores, we went outside and played with our friends. Or shot baskets in the driveway. 

And, like the “world travelers” of today, we took our minds off school for a few days. 

Then mom and dad came home from work, and we had supper. 

SO, MORE power to those who can, will and do travel during this week of the year. 

But the concept of a one-week stoppage during a high school sports season still seems a little weird, even though it’s been this way for years. 

You practice for a few weeks, play a few games ... then shut it down for a week. Then you gear up for the home stretch, the final six weeks of the spring season, then it’s on to summer vacation. 

Could you imagine a one-week break during the middle of the fall or winter high school sports seasons?

Football coaches, in particular, would go crazy — play four games or so, then shut it down for a week in early October, then ramp it up for the second half of the season. 

If any season needed a break, it would seem to be the winter sports season — the longest of the three. 

But even with a built-in excuse for time off — the Christmas and New Year’s holidays — many teams keep playing during that time, just to “stay sharp.” 

But spring ... it just seems a little more laid back. 

And who knows? Maybe the week away from sports, by this point in the school year, can be rejuvenating.  

Maybe I’ll have to try it sometime. 

Spend a week in Mexico this time of year. 

Or Hawaii. 

Or Turks and Caicos. 

Maybe even Yakima. 

For research purposes, of course. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.