STATE HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENTS: Kootenai peaked at right time
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 1 month 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. | October 29, 2014 9:00 PM
It's not how you start.
Because if it was, this might not be possible.
After winning only two matches entering the 1A Division II District 1 tournament, the Kootenai Warriors caught fire at the right place, and right time on Saturday afternoon.
Kootenai (6-13) beat Clark Fork, Lakeside and Mullan twice - tripling the team's win total for the season coming into the day - and advancing to the state tournament starting Friday at Declo High.
"We've got some things we need to button up, but overall, the girls are ready," first-year Kootenai coach Mary Gentry said. "The season didn't go well for us, but the girls fought hard, didn't give up and didn't give in."
It is Kootenai's first state appearance since 2005, three years before the tournament was separated into two divisions.
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