Going out on top: After perfect season, Winger steps down as Lake City boys basketball coach

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Originally, Jim Winger thought he might spend four more seasons as Lake City High boys basketball coach.

Then he thought about the advice he’d gotten several years ago from Henry Hamill, a former Lake City assistant football coach.

The topic was, when was the right time to step down as coach?

Give it six weeks … two months after the season, he was told. By then, things become a little more clear.

So after giving it that much time, Winger said, the light bulb went on — after the enjoyment of his last four seasons as coach, capped by this year’s 26-0 season and the first state championship in program, an entertaining and dominating season by one of the greatest teams in Idaho history — the timing was right.

And so on Tuesday, Winger turned in his letter of resignation after 24 seasons as Lake City boys basketball coach.

“The team we had the last four years was so incredible, so talented, so much fun to be around,” said Winger, 57. “The thing that made the light bulb go was, for four years, we never had a player issue — attitude, or discontent — and we never had a parent issue. I bet there’s not another program in the country that could say that. To have that type of team that is that talented, that much fun … we lived ‘The Life of Riley’ for four years, man, and never had to deal with an issue … maybe ride that wave and say we experienced the ideal situation; we may never have that again.”

After losing twice at state in 2022, the Timberwolves never lost again — over the spring, summer, fall and high school seasons, that group went 46-0.

“We just had the perfect scenario, and that would be hard to repeat,” Winger said. “After 35 years as a coach, maybe this is the right time to call it quits.”

Winger was a head basketball coach for 26 years — the first two at his alma mater, Coeur d’Alene High, before starting the Lake City program in 1994.

His overall record was 410-222.

Winger was 33-18 in two seasons at Coeur d’Alene. He went 151-73 in nine seasons at Lake City, before stepping down to focus on his job as athletic director. He returned five years later as head coach and guided the Timberwolves the past 15 seasons.

Under Winger, Lake City qualified for state 13 times, played in three state title games, and brought home two second-place trophies and two third-place trophies.

He stepped down as athletic director last year, but returned this year on a half-time basis as an administrator when the school asked him to come back. He’s leaving that role, too, at the end of the school year.

“It’s sad, but we’re super happy for him, because he’s meant a lot to us,” said Troy Anderson, who succeeded Winger as AD this year. “He’s a big reason, not only myself, but a lot of people, are in education. Being able to have him in the building still, and being able to bounce ideas off him, it’s helped me grow so much as a leader. There’s going to be a lasting impact for quite a while. It’s going to be interesting where we go as a building without Jim Winger. But this is what’s best for him for sure.”

In his earlier years, Winger also coached some freshman football at Coeur d’Alene and Lake City, coached American Legion baseball and volunteered as a high school baseball assistant, and also coached softball and golf.

“It’s high school sports, so you have your ups and downs,” Winger said. “But I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had some great kids that have come through for 26 years, great assistant coaches — Kelly (Reed) and John (Astorquia) have been unbelievable. I was very fortunate that Donny (Haynes) recommended me (as Coeur d’Alene High head coach in 1992), and John Brumley and Ron Adams took on a chance on a 26-year-old kid way back when. Both AD and basketball coach, if I could go back in time, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It’s been so rewarding, and so fun. I’ve just been very, very fortunate.”

“The thing people don’t realize is how much he lives off those positive relationships with kids,” Anderson said. “He is your biggest supporter for life. He will always have your back; he will always be the guy that reaches out to former players … yeah, you want to win a state title, but you measure coaches informally by how many people come back to you, how many handshakes and ‘how you doin’s do you get? Jim Winger’s right at the top of that list.”

Winger said the uncertainty over whether the Coeur d’Alene School District levy will pass in May — if it doesn’t, there will be no sports next year, coaches were told — was concerning.

But Winger said he went to Woodland Middle School games, and AAU games in Spokane, to keep an eye on the kids coming up. So he was planning to return.

Until the light bulb went on.

“It just seemed like now was kind of the right timing.”

Anderson said normally the school would post the opening for the boys basketball job immediately. But this year, Lake City will await the results from the May 16 levy vote before proceeding.

The 2021-22 Lake City team was expected to play for a state title, but was upset in the first round at state and failed to bring home a trophy. With everyone back, expectations were extremely high this year. Winger and his assistant coaches did their best to make things fun and take the pressure off the players. But he said the season wore on him a bit.

“It was an unbelievable ride, and an experience you’ll always remember,” Winger said. “The pressure’s always there, but the internal pressure is great — anything but a state title this year was a failure. Four months of making sure you’re doing everything right, pushing the right buttons … it kinda wore on me. Especially what happened the year before. It’s not real easy to know that you have to win a state title or your year is a failure. That kinda wore on me. Usually my batteries are kinda recharged after spring break, but I’m still kinda tired and worn out, even though it was so awesome and wonderful.”

In his early coaching days, Winger was known for his famous stomp, usually when an official’s call didn’t go his team’s way.

As years went on, the stomps went away, and Winger’s approach to coaching changed a bit — less coach-speak, more talks about blinkers and ships and talking squirrels, and the players responded.

“You always knew he had this rough exterior back in the day,” said Anderson, who played at Lake City for Winger, and was a senior on the 2001 team that placed third at state. “But you just don’t realize just how much he cares for people, and cares for the process and his school.

“He’s been a mentor to me. I have watched how he’s led, and I’ve learned so many lessons how to work with people from him. Not only from coaching, but from administration. I think you were afraid of him a little more as a player, but you learn what kind of person he is when you’re around him day in and day out.”