Leiss in limbo as Viking coach
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | March 6, 2013 8:00 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - Kent Leiss was asked by one of the Coeur d'Alene High boys basketball players the other day about offseason activities for the basketball program - such as camps, and plans for playing in a summer basketball league.
He wasn't sure how to answer him.
"I'm trying to figure out what to do next," Leiss said Tuesday.
Leiss resigned under pressure on Feb. 1 - "I wish I hadn't at the time," he says now - after allegations surfaced from parents of Viking players that he verbally abused players.
Leiss rescinded his resignation the following week, then met with school district officials on Feb. 11, when he was told they would conduct an investigation into the allegations, and have an answer at the next school board meeting on March 4.
But he said he received an email from the central office on March 4 that said his situation was not on the agenda for the board meeting that night.
The Coeur d’Alene School Board did not act on the resignation, nor the rescinding of the resignation. And now that the season is over, the point is moot, said Laura Rumpler, public information officer for the Coeur d’Alene School District.
Still, he says he has not heard from district officials what his status is.
“I’m kind of in limbo,” he said. “I’m going to wait a few days and see if somebody tells me something.”
Coeur d’Alene High athletic director Todd Gilkey said coaching recommendations for all sports in the 2013-14 school year will be made to the school board in May — and that includes a recommendation on the varsity boys basketball coach for next season. That means Leiss must wait until then to see if he is the Vikings’ coach again.
Leiss, who was in his 10th season as Vikings coach, said part of the reason for rescinding his resignation was to clear his his name through the investigation process. Part of it was to coach the team again.
This year’s Vikings, with just one senior on the roster, were 10-7 when he resigned. They went 3-3 under interim head coach Darren Taylor, losing to Post Falls in the second-place game of the 5A Region 1 tournament and falling short of state.
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“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”