THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, March 5, 2015

In 2004, two schools on the Rathdrum Prairie embarked on a trip to their respective state boys high school basketball tournaments in the Boise area.

Post Falls was headed to the state 4A tourney, Lakeland to the state 3A tourney. It was Lakeland's last year in 3A; the Hawks moved up to 4A the following year, where they would compete with Post Falls, Sandpoint and Moscow for state berths.

On the way down south, both teams stopped at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande to practice. Post Falls finished up its practice just as Lakeland was arriving.

Being neighbors of sorts, the Trojans hung around to wish the Hawks well.

Post Falls was coached at the time by Dave Stockwell; Lakeland by Trent Derrick.

"And so, with my sense of humor," Stockwell recalled the other day, "I said to Trent, 'I hope you enjoy this trip because, since you're moving up, chances are it will be a while before you get to state again.'"

Little did Stockwell know, joking or not, how right he was. Lakeland missed out on state for 10 straight years until last week, when the Hawks beat Sandpoint in the 4A Region 1 championship game to qualify for state, which begins today.

Lakeland's coach now? Dave Stockwell.

"I went to shake his hand after the Sandpoint game," recalled Derrick, who is now Lakeland's athletic director, "and he said, 'the curse is over.'"

"I'm the one that cursed the program, and I'm living the curse," said Stockwell, now in his fourth season as coach at Lakeland (16-6). "Now the curse is broken, and hopefully it stays broken."

AFTER THAT 2004 season, Stockwell coached three more seasons at Post Falls, including another trip to state in '05. He then was an assistant for four seasons with the University High boys basketball team in Spokane Valley.

Derrick coached Lakeland through the 2011 season.

In 2004, he recalled, Lakeland had qualified for state for the fifth time in six seasons, "and we were feeling pretty good about moving up to 4A," Derrick recalled. "We thought we were in a good position moving up."

In '04, Derrick was a young coach, and didn't know Stockwell all that well. When Stockwell said that to Derrick in '04, Derrick said he just laughed, and didn't say much.

"But inside, I was saying, 'you just wait,' but he put the curse on us," Derrick said. "And I paid him back by hiring him," he added with a laugh.

More on that later.

Derrick said he never believed in a "curse," and didn't think much about what Stockwell said at the time.

But some strange things were happening to Lakeland over the next few seasons - a broken arm to a key player in 2006, a torn ACL to another key player during football season prior to the '09 season. In 2010, "we had a good team, but Moscow was better," Derrick said.

IN 2011, Derrick resigned as coach after 15 seasons to become athletic director at Lakeland. One of the coaches Derrick and the rest of the Lakeland interview party talked to was Stockwell.

That exchange in 2004 never came up in the interview - Derrick said he didn't think of it much again until after Stockwell was hired, when he brought it up.

Years later, Stockwell said that famous line "came out wrong; it was all in fun."

But still ...

"You never know when you say something, it might come around to bite you in the butt," Stockwell said.

Derrick said there was no animosity or hard feelings in the aftermath - had he remembered, it wouldn't have been a sticking point in hiring Stockwell.

In fact, the AD sings the coach's praises these days.

"He's sure done a nice job with our kids, and our program," Derrick said. "The thing about Dave, he puts in a lot of time in the offseason with skill development - he doesn't go to too many tournaments."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.