THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: TALES FROM THE ROAD — A funky gym, a bloody nose, and other stories from refs and coaches

Falls Christian Academy — or, as it was later called, Post Falls Christian Academy — closed in 2004. 

But the memories of that school's cozy gym live on, at least in the minds of local basketball coaches and referees.

"The toughest (gym) was the old Falls Christian gym,” recalled Bruce Bailey, former coach and athletic director at Wallace High. “They had the carpet and the overhang. A lot of times parents would sit in regular chairs around the gym. I remember one time the ball came flying out of bounds, and it rolled right on top of two of our kids’ laps, and they pushed it in, and one of our players grabbed it for a layup and they never called it out of bounds or anything. 

“The opposing coaches were Tim Mitchell and Marsell Colbert, and they were going irate, screaming. That was fairly chaotic. 

“It was very hard to get the ball inbounds because of the overhang. Any times we had games in there they were chaotic, because of the atmosphere.” 

Paul Manzardo has refereed basketball (and football) for decades. 

“That gym (at Falls Christian) was hard because you were on top of one another,” he recalled. “There’s no sidelines or end lines, and that plastic flooring was so hard on your body. 

“I’ve stepped on feet, but they had chairs along the sideline, backs of chairs against the wall, but you didn’t have much room. If they had their feet out, you’re going down, or you’re going to step on ‘em.” 

John Posnick also refereed basketball for many years before retiring a few years ago. 

“We kinda said it looked like an old Domino’s pizza box,” Posnick recalled of the Falls Christian gym. “That checkered floor they had, blue and red. Everybody up above was on that overhang, that railing up there. they didn’t have hardly any stands. 

“That was a very weird place.” 

AT LEAST Posnick didn’t get injured at Falls Christian. 

That happened in Kellogg. 

“In December of ‘13, I got a broken nose in a game,” Posnick recalled. “To start the game, I’m throwing the ball up and this kid for Kellogg, he jumped, and he came down, he tapped the ball, came down, pivoted and his elbow ... “ 

Disclaimer ... 

“We always take our whistles out, so they don’t hit our whistles and pull it,” Posnick said. 

Anyway ...  

“He came down and pivoted, and hit me right in the nose with his elbow,” Posnick continued. “It was like getting Sunday punched. I went down and blood is just pouring out of my nose. I got a towel on it (and) we delayed the game.” 

The result? 

“I finished,” Posnick said. “I didn’t have anybody else I could put in. I believe it was three(-man mechanics), but the JV officials weren’t quailified. So I just packed it with toilet paper, and about a week later I needed surgery.” 

THE BOYS basketball game in 1993 at Sandpoint, vs. visiting Coeur d’Alene, is still talked about three decades later. The much-anticipated game was sold out well in advance, and fans who arrived after the gym was packed had to watch the game on closed-circuit TV in the commons, just outside the gym. 

Kris Knowles, a ‘93 Coeur d’Alene High grad who later coached at Lake City and was later athletic director at Sandpoint and then at Vallivue of Caldwell, played in that game. 

“The gym was completely packed; the entire student body from Sandpoint, right after school, went right into the gym,” Knowles recalled. “So the gym was packed for three games — sophomore game, JV game and varsity game. When the Coeur d’Alene varsity team arrived in Sandpoint, we walked in and the gym is absolutely packed already. ... My mom had to watch the game on TV (in the commons) — and I was playing 20 feet away. I think my mom came in at halftime. And that game is still talked about; I hear about it all the time here (when he was at Sandpoint), how awesome that game was, and how the crowd, and the energy was unbelievable.  

“I can remember the crowd noise; when we scored it was pretty silent, and when they scored it was really loud. The interesting things you remember as an 18-year-old. 

“It was an awesome, awesome environment. 

“Now, the interesting part of that was, Sandpoint beat us (in Sandpoint),” Knowles said. “We had to play them in the district tournament at Coeur d’Alene, and the line to get into that game stretched from the entrance to the gym all the way to 4th Street. Never seen that ever; growing up in Coeur d’Alene, not one time ever seen a line (like that).” 

TYLER HAYNES graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 1989, and played his senior year for his legendary father, Donny. Tyler later was head coach at Sandpoint for 11 seasons over three stints. 

“When I first started coaching in Coeur d’Alene, I was coaching freshman basketball, and my roommate (Duke Staggs) was an official,” Tyler recalled. “And the whole season, he never had any of my games. He really made it clear he didn’t want to ref any of my games. But they were in a bind, and it was like the last game of the year. He had to ref my game, and I remember in the middle of the game, I remember running down the sideline yelling, ‘Duke, those are my socks! Those are my socks!’ And he was furious because he didn’t want anybody to know that there was a connection, that we were roommates. 

“It was a strange year, because it was the year before Lake City opened up (in 1994),” Tyler said. “The kids that were going to Coeur d’Alene played on one team and the kids going to Lake City played on another. And we played each other. It was a heated game. It was the Coeur d’Alene Blue vs. the Coeur d’Alene White team, and we were the White team — we were heading to Lake City. It was a pretty big game for a freshman game, considering the rivalry started early with that game. 

“And we kept like 15 on each team. We wanted to build both programs, and wanted to get them off strong, with numbers.” 

Jim Winger was Coeur d’Alene’s boys basketball coach for two seasons before starting the program at Lake City in 1994.  

“It was Jim’s idea, and I think it helped both schools,” Tyler said. 

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 Twitter @CdAPressSports.