As head fooball coach at Lakeland High School, Tim Kiefer is 3-3 this season.

As one of 12 Coeur d’Alene Press All-Star Pigskin Prognosticators, he’s far better than that — thanks in large part to his first-place tying 10-5 record last weekend. If you ask Coach, he might tell you there was a little bit of luck behind his stellar selections. He wouldn’t be lying.

Seeing as how he’s putting his grinning mug and sterling reputation on the line trying to win free Press advertising for the Rathdrum Lions backpack fund, The League is disinclined to make him look silly. However, the truth is a harsh mistress who must be served.

Coach Kiefer was the first pigskin picker this year to miss deadline. Because he didn’t get his picks in on time, The League was forced to choose for him, as randomly as possible. Their solution: The League had Joanna Donofrio, the 15-year-old daughter of Press assistant news editor Joel Donofrio, make Coach Kiefer’s picks. Joanna isn’t a football fan, which apparently makes her an expert.

Joanna is why Coach Kiefer was the only picker backing the Bears, who dismantled Detroit. She picked the Bears not because Brian Hoyer had replaced cancerous Jay Cutler at quarterback, but because Da Bears are her dad’s favorite team. She also selected the Oakland Raiders in their upset over host Baltimore on Sunday. And why? Because a friend of Joanna’s likes the Raiders, of course.

Because of the Joanna’s pigskin pickin’ prowess, Tim Kiefer shares the top weekly honors with Mark Koerner and John Gervais. John Beutler is alone in first place on the season at 41-22, and on the other end of the scale, several of the prognosticators have fallen on some tough leather. They’re whining something fierce, too, and The League is considering sanctions against them.

For the best results in your office pool, pick the brain of a 15-year-old girl whose dad loves the Bears. For this week’s selections and standings, go to B5.