THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Not quite the finish we had in mind

There’s always a downside to watching someone’s season end with a loss.

One, you see someone that has put in the work — all the hours in the gym getting better — just coming up a little short.

For those seniors in high school, it could also be the last time wearing your school’s colors, or just last time playing a game you grew up loving since you could walk.

Finished, done, just like that.

FORGET THE result of last Saturday’s state 6A boys basketball championship game between Lake City and Owyhee for a few minutes.

For a few of those Timberwolves, that could have very well been it.

A few players have the chance to move onto the next level, while others played in their final game.

The Timberwolves had five seniors — Shane Parker, Reese Strawn, Cason Miller, Carter Kloos and Braden Meredith — on that squad.

Credit to the players of Lake City. After the game, they didn’t shy away from the questions after the game, even if they might have wanted to be anywhere but there.

Miller has an offer to play basketball at NIC and Meredith will continue his playing career at NAIA College of Idaho, but for the school’s football program.

Strawn, whose semifinal showing with 25 of his game-high 28 points in the first half against Boise was a huge reason why the Timberwolves were in the title game for the second time in three years.

Strawn will represent the Region boys team in today’s 22nd annual Idaho all-star games at North Idaho College starting at 3:30 p.m. 

Timberlake’s Tyler Engelson and Asher Williams and Thomas Bateman of Bonners Ferry will also compete for the Region, coached by Nathan Williams, who led the Badgers to a second-straight state title last Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

If nothing else, it could be something fun to see these once rivals share the court one last time, right?

YOU CAN understand the disappointment from third-year North Idaho College women’s basketball coach Nathan Covill after Thursday’s loss to Snow in the Region 18 tournament in Twin Falls.

At 17-13, it’s very likely that the Cardinals won’t receive an at-large bid to the NJCAA Tournament, the field of which will be announced on Sunday.

And with top-seeded Southern Idaho also losing in its semifinal, chances are that was the final time this Cardinal team takes the floor.

Credit where credit is due for this group, however. They started Scenic West Athletic Conference play 9-3 before losing four straight to end the season.

All that while some might not return after the team was told in December that scholarships will be cut 33% as all athletic programs were told to scale back due to financial reasons.

“It’s just unfortunate that we’re not going to be able to keep this team together,” Covill said. “Credit to them for not letting it affect them. In the next week or so, we’re going to have some tough conversations with some kids.”

Covill arrived when NIC was still in the regional-friendly Northwest Athletic Conference, where athletes had tuition paid for, but not room and board.

Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years, NIC’s athletics budget grew from $2.2 million to $6.2 million.

“To their credit, they came to practice each day knowing it could be their last months in a Cardinal uniform,” said Covill, who has nine freshmen on his roster. “It’s going to be unfortunate because we can’t keep them all with how we recruited them. It’s unfortunate because they’ve been a real blessing to coach and now I’ve got to tell a lot of them I can’t bring you back.”

Which is a shame because it seemed as if some of the programs were on their way back to competing at the level they enjoyed in 2015, when they moved out of the NJCAA.

Now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.

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.