T-Wolves, Trojans open league play
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 3 months 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. | September 27, 2013 9:00 PM
Aside from a brief pit stop at home a couple of weeks ago, most of Lake City’s new spread offense has been on display hundreds of miles away.
41 points at Rocky Mountain. 42 more at Kennewick. 40 at home vs. Hillcrest. 30 last week at Eastside Catholic near Seattle.
That’s an average of 38.2 points per game for the Timberwolves (2-2), who travel to Post Falls (2-2) tonight at 7 in the 5A Inland Empire League opener for both schools.
“We haven’t really haven’t played a bad game yet; we’ve just make a few too many mistakes,” Lake City coach Van Troxel said. “I think if we cut out the little mistakes, we could be a pretty good football team.”
Troxel said his players love the new spread offense.
“In fact, they were mad because we slowed down (at Eastside Catholic) because we were ahead, and were trying to run the clock. They want to play fast.”
Post Falls has won two straight, but coach Jeff Hinz says there’s room for improvement — especially cleaning up mistakes.
“We’ve got to get better,” Hinz said. “They’ve been scoring a lot of points, and so we’ve also got to put up some points, and clean up some things on defense and offense, and get after them.”
Minico (2-2) at Coeur d’Alene (1-3): The Spartans, a 4A school in Rupert in south-central Idaho, make the long trek to the Lake City tonight. Minico split with a pair of Utah schools, beat Burley 47-26 and lost last week to Twin Falls 40-19, giving up 513 yards to the Bruins.
Coeur d’Alene, coming off three lengthy road trips in its first four games, begins a stretch of three straight home games.
Deer Park (1-2) at Lakeland (1-2): Deer Park is coming off a 25-20 loss to St. Maries last week. Lakeland won 29-14 at Deer Park last year.
Timberlake (2-1) at Sandpoint (1-2): The teams met for the first time ever last year, with 4A Sandpoint winning 19-14 at 3A Timberlake for the Bulldogs’ lone win of the year.
St. Maries (2-1) at Kellogg (0-4): The teams met in the season opener four weeks ago, with St. Maries winning 48-7 at home.
Kootenai (2-2) at Clark Fork (1-1): Both teams own victories over Mullan, Kootenai winning 50-0 last week and Clark Fork triumphing 48-12 the week before.
Lakeside (0-3) at Potlatch (1-2): Potlatch is coming off a bye, after losing 42-14 to Lapwai. Last week, Lapwai beat Lakeside 48-6.
5A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Lewiston 0 0 2 1
Lake City 0 0 2 2
Coeur d’Alene 0 0 1 3
Post Falls 0 0 2 2
Friday’s Games
Minico at Coeur d’Alene
Lake City at Post Falls
Richland at Lewiston
4A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Moscow 0 0 2 2
Lakeland 0 0 1 2
Sandpoint 0 0 1 2
Friday’s Games
Deer Park at Lakeland
Timberlake at Sandpoint
Raymond (Alberta) at Moscow
INTERMOUNTAIN LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Timberlake 0 0 2 1
Bonners Ferry 0 0 2 2
Priest River 0 0 1 1
Kellogg 0 0 0 4
Friday’s Games
Timberlake at Sandpoint
St. Maries at Kellogg
Chewelah at Priest River
Bonners Ferry at Orofino
CENTRAL IDAHO LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Orofino 0 0 4 0
St. Maries 0 0 2 1
Grangeville 0 0 2 2
Friday’s Games
St. Maries at Kellogg
Bonners Ferry at Orofino
Asotin (Wash.) at Grangeville
1A DIVISION I
NORTH STAR LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Wallace 1 0 4 0
Lakeside 0 1 0 3
1A DIVISION II
NORTH STAR LEAGUE
League Overall
W L W L
Kootenai 1 0 2 2
Clark Fork 1 0 1 1
Mullan 0 2 2 3
Wednesday’s Game
Mullan 28, Wallace JV 22
Friday’s Games
Kootenai at Clark Fork
Lakeside at Potlatch
Superior (Mont.) at Wallace
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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.”