THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Catching up on some high school coaching moves

Mike Divilbiss, who was the Post Falls High girls basketball coach last season, has some 30 years of college coaching experience, including stops at Lewis-Clark State and Idaho. 

Next season, he will add to his college resume. 

Divilbiss was recently named assistant coach at the South Dakota School of Mines, an NCAA Division II school in Rapid City, S.D. He will be an assistant under head coach Kylie Bechand, who played at Illinois when Divilbiss was an assistant there. 

“I thought he’d be here longer, but I totally understand,” Post Falls High athletic director Craig Christensen said. “But he’s been a college coach, and he had the opportunity to go work with a college coach that had played for him. It was a good opportunity for him to get his foot back in the college game. We’ll take good coaches, whether it’s one year or 10 years. He got us through a transition season, and we appreciate all the stuff he did for us.”

DIVILBISS, WHO was athletic director at Lakeland High from 2018-21, was 8-17 in his lone season at Post Falls. He guided the Trojans into the 6A District 1 championship series where they lost to Coeur d’Alene. Post Falls reached the state play-in game, where the Trojans fell to Capital of Boise.  

“He established some things we needed, and got us back into where we needed to be, and I appreciate all he did for us,” Christensen said. “He’s a very solid coach, and we were happy to have him for as long as we had him.”  

Divilbiss has won 392 games in 21 seasons as a college head coach.  

"I am extremely excited and thankful for the opportunity to coach collegiate women's basketball at an institution with the standards of excellence that surround South Dakota Mines," Divilbiss said in a school news release. "In addition, to do so with Kyley Bachand — one of the most competitive and driven players I ever coached, as well as one of the brightest stars in the profession — makes this opportunity one I truly cherish." 

"Mike is going to be a great addition to our program," Bachand said in the release. "With a wealth of knowledge and being relationship-driven, he is the perfect fit to help us take this program to the next level." 

POST FALLS didn’t have to look too far to find Divilbiss’ replacement — or the successor to Mike McLean, who stepped down after 18 seasons as the Trojan boys basketball coach. 

Both new head coaches worked under McLean. 

Brian Carlson, who was on McLean’s staff all 18 seasons with the Post Falls boys, will take over as the Trojan girls basketball coach. 

Carlson will be Post Falls’ fourth coach in five seasons. 

And Jayson Ulrich, the former Lewiston High coach who was the Post Falls boys junior varsity coach the past three seasons, will take over as the Trojan boys basketball coach. 

We’ll have more on Carlson and Ulrich later. 

IN ANOTHER coaching move, Jenny Whaley will take over as head coach of Timberlake softball, replacing Casi Lupinacci, who resigned after 10 seasons as Tigers coach. 

Whaley was an assistant softball coach at Timberlake the past nine seasons. More on Jenny later.

Chris Kiefer, who guided the Coeur du Christ boys basketball team to the state 1A boys basketball tournament in his first season as head coach — and the Saints' first year as a full member of the Idaho High School Activities Association — has stepped down.

"He did a great job for us last year," Coeur du Christ athletic director Kellen Clemens said, "but he has a lot going on with work and family, and coaching is too much to add on top of that."

Bill Ryan has stepped down as tennis coach at Lakeland.

Also, Israel Morrow is the new swimming coach at Coeur d’Alene, replacing Laura Curtis. 

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.