THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Moments you just don't forget

Coaches often preach about moments, whether it's a player or a team.

A moment you remember forever.

It could be as simple as a final home game as a student-athlete, or even playing at a new facility.

ON WEDNESDAY afternoon, the Lake City High girls soccer team competed in a nonleague match against Moscow at the Marimn Health Center in Worley, and its brand new turf fields, used for soccer, football and pow-wows for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

After teams waited days to get back on the field due to smoke from wildfires across the northwest, the air finally cleared up enough to allow the game to go on.

“We were crossing our fingers that the AQI (Air Quality Index) dropped before the match,” Lake City coach Matt Ruchti said. “It was the first sporting event other than a camp held at that facility since it opened.”

In the match, Lake City won 10-1, improving to 7-0-0 entering Friday’s match against visiting Gonzaga Prep.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” Ruchti said. “We were just fortunate to be one of the first teams to get to play down there. They had a lot of community members out and we had fans that traveled to make it really special for both teams.”

In 2020, the state 3A soccer tournament was played on the turf at The Fields in Post Falls. The 5A tournament is scheduled for the facility in 2024.

Don’t forget, playing on the turf in Post Falls likely saved those tournaments from being postponed after that freak snowstorm caused tournaments at other sites to be readjusted on the second day.

During halftime of Wednesday’s match, a Thorns FC (girls) team competed in a brief scrimmage.

“They had a blast,” Ruchti said. “I really like that turf in Worley,” Ruchti said. “Real Life has a great facility in Post Falls and I like that setting as well. For a high school kid to get to play in that atmosphere on Wednesday, it was a great night for us.”

The same could be said for the Lake City volleyball team, which celebrated senior night with a win over Moscow in four sets.

Senior Olivia Liermann, who is out for the season with a torn left ACL injury, was able to get on the court for one point on Wednesday.

“We were able to get her in for a serve, so that was pretty cool,” Lake City coach Michelle Kleinberg said. “She served the first ball, stood back out of the way and we subbed her right back out. But it was cool for her to be able to take the court with her teammates again.”

Try as she might, fellow T-Wolf senior Dorie Kiesbuy couldn’t quite get through the match either.

“Dorie did her best to hang in there, but came down with food poisoning (Tuesday) night,” Kleinberg said. “She did her best to hang in there, but was exhausted after the third set, but she gave everything she had for her team.”

Credit to both Liermann and Kiesbuy though.

It could have been easy to just stay home, not play or support their teammates and friends with those setbacks.

But they showed up, stepped up and did what teammates do.

Win or lose, you have to respect that.

IN YEARS past, whenever the Seahawks played a home opener, it was kind of cool to see just who was going to come back to the Northwest as they introduced the alumni before kickoff.

The guy that was coming back last Monday really didn’t need an introduction. As you could probably tell, everyone in the crowd that night pretty much knew where No. 3 for Denver (Russell Wilson) was going to be.

It wasn’t to the extreme that Brett Favre’s return to Green Bay as a Minnesota Viking had, with a dedicated camera to Brett wherever he went, but it was pretty close.

Like those local sports outdoors and Monday’s game in Seattle, just be fortunate that the smoke finally cleared and we can move on to the next thing.

Finally.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.