As Coeur d'Alene High golf coach Bryan Duncan said Wednesday, his No. 1 goal is always to do whatever is in the best interest of his competitors and team.

After a month-long battle, that goal came up a little short.

The Vikings' appeal of the result of the state 5A boys golf tournament at Pinecrest Golf Course in Idaho Falls was denied by a group of board members of the Idaho High School Activities Association during their June meeting in Boise.

"That's why I ran the appeal," Duncan said. "It wasn't a huge surprise, but it needed to be placed. I wanted to make sure the kids have every chance to be successful, and it was unsuccessful. Hopefully in the future it doesn't happen to another team."

On the final day of the state 5A golf tournament, an Eagle player was disqualified for using a range finder, which is illegal under USGA rules. According to the state rules, the player should have only received a two-stroke penalty.

Had the DQ stood, Coeur d'Alene would have won the tournament by one stroke. Instead, Eagle won by eight strokes.

"The kid made a mistake," Coeur d'Alene athletic director Todd Gilkey said. "But it was the adults that dropped the ball."

The professional at Pinecrest stood by his decision, but the player was allowed to continue by the rules committee, according to Duncan.

"It was a real sticking point," Duncan said. "When push came to shove, the PGA professional upheld the decision, but was allowed to continue by coaches from other schools that were on the coaches committee."

"I saw five boys and parents elated that we'd won the state title for 15 minutes," Duncan said. "Then had a coach come out of the locker room and reverse the decision. That part is rubbing some people the wrong way."

When Coeur d’Alene hosted the state tournament in 2010 at Avondale Golf Club in Hayden, no coaches were on the committee.

“You shouldn’t have coaches on the rules committee — ever,” Duncan said. “We had the foresight to make sure there’s no coaches on the rules committee.”

Gilkey is also on the board of the IHSAA, but abstained from the final vote.

“It’s only a two-stroke penalty by the state rules,” Gilkey said. “It was in the rules and they had them right in front of them. Every coach was given a set of rules — with that rule right there — during the coaches meeting. Everyone had a copy of them, and for whatever reason, they didn’t read it. The kid made a mistake — but a bunch of adults did too.”

They’ve since fixed the rule so that it won’t happen again.

“Everyone was in a tough situation,” Gilkey said. “It was going to be a no-win situation, no matter what came of it. It almost became a perfect storm. I can honestly say in 13 years, I don’t remember something like this happening at a state tournament. It was a groundbreaking situation we were in.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Duncan said. “We competed as hard as our hearts could. Based on the reversing — we lost the state title.”

In other news: Eagle High was granted a 10th football game this fall and will host Lake City on Aug. 24. Eagle, which lost the state 5A title last year to Coeur d’Alene at Bronco Stadium, beat Lake City in the playoffs last season.

This fall, the state 5A soccer tournament will be held at either Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls or Lake City High Oct. 18-20 and Cross Country will be in Lewiston Oct. 27.

Tournaments in golf and all but 3A softball will also be in the northern region next spring.