THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: The road will lead them back again

It’s easy to think about what could have been on my nearly eight-hour drive home from Meridian to the Silver Valley.

Whether it’s an extremely long straight stretch across the Blue Mountain Pass in Oregon, or just winding down the Fourth of July Pass, after a weekend like last week, it happened.

A bunch.

WITH JUST a few more defensive stops at any point against either Owyhee of Meridian or Madison of Rexburg, the Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball team could have brought home a trophy at state.

Against Owyhee, the Vikings were just one play away from possibly adding a banner to Viking Court.

But alas, Coeur d’Alene finished 1-2 after winning the past two state championships.

In case you missed it, Owyhee wound up winning the program’s first title since that school opened in 2021, beating Boise 38-33 last Saturday night at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

Coeur d’Alene sophomore Brookeslee Colvin scored 28 in the opener against Borah of Boise, then had 36 against Owyhee in the semifinals before fouling out in the final moments.

A late turnover in the third-place game gave Madison a win and Coeur d’Alene a 1-2 record at state.

Keep in mind that Coeur d’Alene's roster included only one senior — Kelsey Carroll — and a player that had been listed as the team manager — sophomore Kyndal Bridge — that saw valuable minutes at the state tournament.

And with a first-year coaching staff, it’s very safe to say that Coeur d’Alene will learn from this, just like the staffs at Post Falls and Lake City will next year to make things a lot more competitive for whoever ends up getting back to state.

WHEN IT comes to Timberlake, which was already down one starter due to injury, losing another in the state play-in game hurt its chances at another appearance in the championship game.

But, you’ll never hear that as an excuse from the Tiger coaches or players.

Timberlake tried, but ran into a buzz saw that was Sugar-Salem, which won the state 4A title with a win over Bear Lake.

Between 2015 and 2021, either Timberlake (2016, 2017, 2020, 2021) or Sugar-Salem (2015, 2018, 2019) captured the state title.

In a few of those years, the teams met in the opening round or the semifinals, like last Friday’s semifinal at Middleton High.

Not too shabby for teams separated by nearly 500 miles.

And who knows, maybe Timberlake gets to state again next year, and sees those Diggers again.

Win or lose, it will be something to see, won’t it?

LOOKING AHEAD, both Coeur d’Alene and Timberlake return a handful of players from those teams that qualified for state this year.

Not saying that they’ll be right back in that same position again next year, but you can’t help but think so.

Even Lakeside, with a younger group of players, will have another year to grow from going 1-2 in the 2A tournament.

Sure, the same challenges will present themselves next year.

Staying healthy, finding ways to win big games when it seems that the deck might be stacked against them.

Maybe more importantly, avoiding those Treasure Valley roadblocks that are surely not going anywhere.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.