THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Lake City boys spending December ‘in the fire’

I guess you couldn’t have blamed the Lake City High boys basketball team for planning an overnighter this week. 

The Timberwolves opened their season Tuesday night at Mead, perhaps an hour of a drive from Lake City High, then played Wednesday night at Mt. Spokane, some 4.8 miles from Mead High. 

Then again, the T-Wolf boys will get plenty of practice being on the road this month. 

First up is a three-day tournament next week at Owyhee High in Meridian, where Lake City is schedule to open next Thursday vs. Damien of La Verne, Calif. The Spartans are already off to a 7-1 start through Monday. It’s the same Damien that hosts the annual Classic at Damien that Owyhee has played in for several years. 

At the end of the month is a four-game tournament in San Diego. 

BETWEEN THOSE for Lake City is a standalone game on Dec. 20, Saturday night at the Moda Center in Portland, against Annie Wright of Tacoma, as part of a long day of high school hoops at the home of the Trail Blazers. 

“Just thrilled to death about that game,” third-year Lake City coach James Anderson said. “A showcase game in the Moda Center. An exciting invitation, an exciting moment for our program. I’m looking forward to it. 

“The call (to play at the Moda Center) came out of nowhere," Anderson added. “Nothing I pursued, or knew about, just trying to get into more things like that. I’ve sent a lot of emails just trying to get into bigger tournaments.” 

Why all the travel? 

Well, for one thing, playing in a three-team league, Lake City (and Coeur d’Alene, and Post Falls) has 13 other spots to fill for games. 

“We’ve tried really hard to branch out, and brand ourselves a little bit,” Anderson said. “We went to Oregon team camp over the summer; we travel a good amount in the summer, and played in some big events, and we had a very good summer, and people noticed.” 

Plus, it’s not easy finding nonleague games around here. North Idaho teams often have to go to western Washington, or eastern Idaho, or southern Idaho, for games. 

Besides ... 

“We wanted to travel,” Anderson said. “We’re kind of riding a moment, going back to what Jim (Winger) and Kelly (Reed) created, and Blake (Buchanan) and Kolton (Mitchell) and those guys.”

That 2022-23 team, coached by Winger and assisted by Reed and John Astorquia, and led by Buchanan (now at Iowa State) and Mitchell (now at Idaho), went undefeated and brought home the program’s first state title. 

The summer prior to that season, Lake City won its bracket at the Section 7 tournament in Glendale, Ariz., the home of the Arizona Cardinals. And during the season, the T-Wolves knocked off defending state champion Owyhee, and beat future Washington Husky Zoom Diallo and Curtis High of University Place, Wash., to win a holiday tournament at Curtis. 

“They put us in a really good position; I’m the luckiest guy in the world to inherit it,” Anderson said. “I’m just trying to capitalize, and give these kids as many special experiences as we can, while those opportunities are here.” 

Lake City won the consolation title at state in 2024, then finished as state runners-up last season. 

OBVIOUSLY IT costs money to travel, and school districts aren’t able to help as much as they used to. Anderson said it’s a “challenge” financially, but said the team (and parents) have put in the work to raise the funds. 

“But we hope the experience is worth it for the kids,” Anderson said. “And we’re putting ourselves in several lose-able games in the early part of the season, so we’ll see how we hold together through December.” 

Anderson said his team’s schedule for this season is as difficult as he’s ever seen in North Idaho. 

“I could totally see us having a losing record by Jan. 1,” he said. “This gauntlet that we’re going to go through in December is something else. But that’s what we want. We want the challenge; we want to throw them in the fire, and we want to see how we come out.” 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.