Lake City girls coach Anderson to take over T-Wolf boys program

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — Leave a winning girls basketball program with a loaded roster coming back, to take over a program which lost most of its top players from a team that was one of the best in Idaho boys basketball history?

“I’m the kind of person that gets a little restless,” said James Anderson, Lake City’s girls basketball coach the past six seasons, who was hired Tuesday as head coach of the Lake City boys. “It’s pretty typical; every 4-6 years that I get restless and do something drastic like this .... I just looked over at the challenge that was sitting there, and wanted to take it on, and see if we could do some things that we did with the girls with the boys, and go for it.”

“We are extremely excited to start a new era for the boys program with James as our head coach,” said Lake City athletic director Troy Anderson — no relation. “James brings a fantastic work ethic, positive culture and experience in the community as an ambassador for the game.”

James Anderson, 44, replaces Jim Winger, who resigned earlier this month after 24 seasons in two stints at Lake City. Winger was 377-204 at Lake City, 410-222 overall. His last team at Lake City featured four college recruits, won the program’s first state title, and finished 26-0.

“But that’s part of the appeal to me, honestly,” Anderson said. “A large part of the appeal was the challenge that the boys were going to be this year, and just setting a challenge for myself, and taking that on, and seeing what we could make out of it, and trying something a little bit different.

“I gained a lot of experience with the girls, and there was really no reason to leave, other than I’m really just anxious to take on a new challenge for myself.”

Anderson went 105-39 in six years as Lake City’s girls coach, with two trips to state — a consolation title in 2019, and a third-place finish in ’22.

“Obviously it’s been a really hard couple of weeks for me,” Anderson said in mulling his decision. “I can’t thank the girls and the girls program enough for what we were able to do there. But I just felt like for me and for them, it was time to do something a little bit different. So when the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to take a look at it, and I want to build something that’s fun to play in.”

This past season, the Timberwolves lost to Eagle in a state play-in game and finished 19-6, and most of the key players will return next season.

“I knew we were leaving a lot on the table, and they’re going to be extremely successful, no matter what happens,” Anderson said. “That part’s super, super devastating, and I kinda wish the timing was a tad bit different, but the opportunity was there, and I wanted to make it happen.”

“It’s the right challenge and the right timing for him,” Troy Anderson said. “I want to do right by what’s going to challenge our best people in the building. He’s consistently one of our best, not only coaches, but teachers. He likes to challenge himself, and that makes him a really fun person to work with. He’s driven.”

James Anderson said telling his girls team he was leaving was “brutal.”

“It just broke my heart,” he said. “Sometimes a new voice can be good for teams. This group’s been around me for a long time, so, as much as I’m going to miss them, I hope in some ways this can be a new voice for them, and they can have the big year that they deserve, and have success as well.”

Anderson graduated from Alta High in Sandy, Utah, in 1997. As a sophomore he played on a state title-winning boys basketball team.

He then played one season at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo., and three seasons at Western Colorado in Gunnison.

He began his coaching career with two seasons in the Ellensburg (Wash.) High girls program. He was head boys basketball coach at Kittitas (Wash.) high for two seasons, going 32-15 before getting hired as a teacher at Lake City.

Anderson originally earned a bachelor’s in international business and worked in that realm for a bit in Ellensburg.

But he wanted to coach, and after a year at Ellensburg High, he decided he probably needed to teach as well. So he went back to school and got a second bachelor’s, from Central. He was a long-term substitute teacher at Kittitas.

Anderson has been at Lake City for 15 years. He coached in the Timberwolf boys basketball program for nine years — two as freshman coach, seven as junior varsity coach and varsity assistant.

“You get a little stagnant every now and then. It was time to make a switch and see what happens,” Anderson said of moving from the girls program to the boys program. “Sometimes in life, you need a new challenge, and this one seemed to make sense in a lot of ways.”