THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Local high school football schedules a mix of ‘part luck, part persistent looking’ and part destination

Scheduling high school football games in the second year of a two-year cycle is supposed to be relatively easy for North Idaho athletic directors. 

In most cases, they just take last year’s schedule, and whoever they played at home last year, they play on the road this year, and vice versa. 

Then there’s the Coeur d’Alene Vikings. 

Sure, for seven of their nine games, the opponents are similar, just the sites are flipped. 

But Coeur d’Alene still had to find two new opponents.  

One was to avoid two trips in as many weeks to Eastern Idaho. 

The other was to replace a team (Raymond, Alberta) that was changing leagues and couldn’t play the Vikings that week. 

“This is our reality; this is what we do,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos, who will be heading into his 29th season as the Vikings’ head man this fall.

Here’s a look at how the football schedules for the area’s five biggest schools game together. 

Coeur d’Alene  

Schedule

Aug. 22 — at Rigby. Aug. 29 — vs. Silverton (Ore.). 

Sept. 5 — vs. Lewiston. Sept. 12 — vs. Sunnyside (Wash.). Sept. 26 — vs. Sandpoint. 

Oct. 3 — at Camas (Wash.). Oct. 10 — at Lake City. Oct. 17 — vs. Post Falls. Oct. 24 — vs. Life Christian Academy (at Central Washington University, Ellensburg). 

Overview 

After opening against Rigby in Missoula, Mont., two years in a row, Coeur d’Alene and Rigby were booted from Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula last year because of a country western concert. 

So the teams opened last year at Coeur d’Alene; this year, the Vikings travel to Rigby. 

Amos said he and Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez have talked about continuing the series after this year, and “I would like to get back to the Griz stadium, and I’m pretty sure he would to,” Amos said. 

Last year, Coeur d’Alene played the following week in the Rocky Mountain Rumble at Holt Arena in Pocatello. 

This year, Amos put the word out on “games wanted” sites in several states in the Northwest. 

The Vikings heard back from Silverton, which is located south of Portland and just northeast of Salem, and is some 420 miles from Coeur d’Alene. 

The plan, Amos said, is to play a rare three-game series (most are home-and-home), with Silverton playing at Coeur d’Alene this year, the Vikings returning the trip next year, then perhaps meeting somewhere in the middle in 2027, perhaps in the Tri-Cities. 

“As you know, our scheduling is part luck, and part persistent looking,” Amos said. 

Finding a nonleague game for the final week of the regular season is “almost impossible to find,” Amos said. 

But the Vikings heard from Life Christian Academy, a private school in Tacoma with less than 400 students. 

“They are a newer football program, and I think they’re trying to become that private powerhouse football program,” Amos said of Life Christian. “That week nine, you’ll take almost anybody. But we think they are going to be pretty good.” 

The game with Life Christian is a one-year deal “for now,” Amos said, with this year’s game scheduled for Central Washington University in Ellensburg. 

In the first two years of the three-team 6A Inland Empire League in football, Coeur d’Alene, which reached the state semifinals last season, drew the short straw and the bye in the final week. 

In league play, Coeur d’Alene travels to Lake City in Week 7, and hosts Post Falls in Week 8. 

“We won’t have a bye Week 9 next year; that will be someone else’s problem,” Amos said. 

In any event, Coeur d’Alene plays its usual juggernaut schedule — traveling to play an Idaho state champion (Rigby) and a Washington state champion (Camas), “and one of the best teams in Oregon,” Amos said. 

Silverton went 10-2 last year and reached the state 5A semifinals in Oregon. 

Lake City 

Schedule

Aug. 29 — at Lakeland. 

Sept. 5 — at Wenatchee. Sept. 13 — at Highland (Pocatello). Sept. 19 — vs. Gig Harbor (Wash.). Sept. 26 — vs. Eisenhower (Yakima). 

Oct. 3 — at Sandpoint. Oct. 10 — vs. Coeur d’Alene. Oct. 17 — vs. Lewiston. Oct. 23 — at Post Falls. 

Overview  

The Timberwolves’ schedule is the same as last year — with all the sites flipped from last year. 

Lake City, 4-5 last season, opens with three straight road games — at Lakeland, Wenatchee and Highland. The Highland game is scheduled for the Rams’ on-campus stadium, Iron Horse Stadium, not the ICCU Dome. 

Lake City’s home opener is Week 4, vs. Gig Harbor (Wash.). 

“Gig Harbor has just been dying to get over here,” Lake City athletic director Troy Anderson said. “Everybody wants to come to Coeur d’Alene. It’s easy, in some ways, to schedule some of these teams because Coeur d’Alene’s a pretty cool destination for people to come for a night or two, and play a football game.”

Lake City’s league games are Week 7 at home vs. Coeur d’Alene, and Week 9 at Post Falls on a Thursday. 

Finding games against Greater Spokane League schools is getting harder and harder, ADs say. And a new school opens in the Tri-Cities this year, making it tougher to find teams there. 

“We’ve had to look a little farther West,” Anderson said. 

Post Falls 

Schedule

Aug. 29 — at Lewiston. 

Sept. 5 — at Sandpoint. Sept. 12 — vs. Eastmont (East Wenatchee, Wash.). Sept. 19 — vs. Lakeland. Sept. 26 — vs. Glacier Peak (at Eastern Washington University). 

Oct. 3 — at Battle Ground (Wash.). Oct. 10 — vs. Moses Lake. Oct. 17 — at Coeur d’Alene. Oct. 23 — vs. Lake City. 

Overview 

Like Lake City, Post Falls’ schedule is just like last year — just the sites are flipped. 

The only difference — after traveling to Glacier Peak last year, the Trojans will host Glacier Peak this year on the red turf at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. 

“Usually when we have five home games we’ll try to play at a college site, just to get the kids the opportunity to get on campus and get that experience,” Post Falls AD Craig Christensen said. 

Post Falls has played “home” game at EWU before, and also played “home” games at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, and at Whitworth in Spokane. 

Post Falls, which advanced to the state quarterfinals last season, opens with games at 5A Lewiston and Sandpoint. 

The Trojans’ 6A IEL games are the final two weeks of the regular season, at Coeur d’Alene and vs. Lake City. 

Lakeland 

Schedule

Aug. 23 — vs. Bonners Ferry. Aug. 29 — vs. Lake City.  

Sept. 5 — at Weiser. Sept. 12 — vs. West Valley-Yakima. Sept. 19 — at Post Falls. Sept. 26 — vs. Moscow. 

Oct. 3 — vs. Timberlake. Oct. 17 — at Sandpoint. Oct. 24 — vs. Lewiston. 

Overview 

Lakeland, which reached the state 5A semifinals last season, had just one opponent to replace this year when Frenchtown, which played at Lakeland last year, couldn’t host the Hawks this year because its league schedule changed. 

“When Frenchtown said they couldn’t play us, I started beating the bushes,” Lakeland AD Matt Neff said. “I send emails to almost every applicable school we would want to play in western Montana and eastern Washington. I think I posted on the IHSAA website that we were looking for a game. At one point Highland (of Pocatello) had reached out, and at that point I couldn’t do any more (road games at) southern schools, because we were already playing Weiser, and we don’t have the funds to do two southern Idaho schools (on the road).” 

Eventually, Neff landed a home game with West Valley-Yakima in Week 4, after home games with Bonners Ferry and Lake City, and the roadie with Weiser. 

“it worked for them and it worked for me, and to be honest, in the AD world, when you can lock up a football matchup on the right week, it’s a big deal,” Neff said. 

With Moscow in Year 2 of playing down in the 4A Intermountain League in football, Lakeland’s two 5A IEL games are the final two weeks of the regular season, following a bye — at Sandpoint in Week 8, and vs. Lewiston in Week 9. 

Timberlake 

Schedule

Aug. 23 — vs. Sugar-Salem (at Anaconda, Mont.). Aug. 29 — at Grangeville. 

Sept. 5 — vs. West Valley. Sept. 12 — vs. McCall-Donnelly. Sept. 19 — vs. Kellogg. Sept. 26 — at St. Maries. 

Oct. 3 — at Lakeland. Oct. 17 — at Moscow. Oct. 24 — vs. Bonners Ferry. 

Overview 

For the third straight year, Timberlake will play 4A power Sugar-Salem. 

For the second straight year, the teams will meet halfway, opening the season at Mitchell Field in Anaconda, Mont.  

The other eight games are all the second year of home-and-homes. 

Six days after playing in Anaconda, Timberlake travels to Grangeville. 

The Tigers’ two IML games are the final two weeks of the regular season — at Moscow and vs. Bonners Ferry. 

The loss to Moscow, which dropped down from the 5A IEL last year and this, kept Timberlake out of the state playoffs. The Tigers were 13th in the final MaxPreps rankings, missing an at-large berth by one spot. 

“We were 3-6, and yeah, we played a tough schedule, but you’ve got to win football games to get into the playoffs,” Amos said. “As much as we don’t like MaxPreps, you’ve got to win football games for us to deserve to get a chance to get into the playoffs.” 

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.