Plowing through to the finish

Barring another massive snowstorm — knock on berm — the Idaho high school winter sports season should end on schedule, with the completion of the state boys basketball tournaments in southern Idaho.

That would be about the only thing that went as scheduled during this sports season.

It was the winter of the reschedule, keeping athletic directors even more busy than they already are.

Games were postponed because of snow, and rescheduled. Games that were rescheduled were postponed again, and rescheduled. Some rescheduled nonleague games ultimately ended up canceled, if dates were needed to make up league games prior to postseason play.

Each school felt it, some more than others.

Post Falls lost all four games of a scheduled trip to Oregon and southwestern Washington, playing 17 regular-season games instead of its scheduled 21. Four extra games might have helped a young Trojans squad with just one senior on the team, one returning starter and just four returning varsity players, but who knows.

St. Maries played just 15 of 19 scheduled regular-season games. The Lumberjacks were snowed out six times and ultimately didn’t play four of the games, all against Intermountain League foes — two vs. Bonners Ferry, one each vs. Timberlake and Kellogg.

Genesis Prep wasn’t affected as much — it doesn’t snow much in Phoenix. The Jaguars had a few games bounce around the schedule, but ended up playing 20 in the regular season.

And we’ve previously chronicled Timberlake’s bizarre stretch — after a game on Dec. 20, the Tigers played just one game over the next 37 days, until a game on Jan. 27. The Tigers played 18 of a possible 20 games during the regular season, not playing scheduled games with St. Maries and Moscow.

THE IDAHO Vandals had to be pleasantly surprised to learn their football team was selected for one of the midweek national TV games in the Sun Belt Conference this fall.

After all, the Vandals (along with New Mexico State) are getting booted out of the league at the end of the year. Idaho will drop down next season to the FCS in football and join the Big Sky Conference, where its other teams already reside.

Idaho will play at Troy on Thursday, Nov. 2, a game slated to be shown on ESPNU.

Last month, when the Vandal hierarcy visited Coeur d’Alene as part of its statewide National Signing Day tour, football coach Paul Petrino sounded all but certain the Vandals wouldn’t be selected.

“They’re not going to ask us,” he said. “Idaho’s not going to be in any of those midweek games, I can guarantee you that. People in the midweek games are people the Sun Belt’s trying to help. They’re not going to try to help us.”

Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said he hoped the Sun Belt wouldn’t use the Vandals’ lame-duck status against them, “but you have to realistic, too,” he said. “We’d love to be on; we deserve to be on ... but in all reality, it’s probably a longshot.”

Of course, most people outside Moscow thought Idaho was a longshot to make it to a bowl game last year. So the Vandals will gladly make the quick turnaround from a Saturday home game for a national spotlight game five days later in Troy, Ala.

“It helps with recruiting,” Petrino said of playing midweek games. “We did it a ton when I was at Louisville (as an assistant coach). It’s really good for recruiting, because you’re the only game on.”

The last time Idaho was in a bowl game (2008), the Vandals parlayed that appearance (followed by a near-miss season in ‘09) into a Friday night ESPN2 home game with Boise State.

Vandal fans might remember that game, if not the final score.

And, way back in 1989, I remember Idaho playing Montana in the Kibbie Dome on an ESPN Thursday night game. The Vandals’ quarterback was some guy named Friesz, if memory serves.

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