THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Putting the Prairie program back on baseball map

Sometimes, it’s the question that needs to be asked. 

So when Tim Shaw, a longtime baseball coach in the Bellevue, Wash., area, moved to North Idaho six years ago and began volunteering at the Post Falls American Legion Post 143, it was the answer that got him involved.

“I’m a baseball guy and so I asked where we were at with our Legion program and who our contact was,” said Shaw, who is now the commander of the post. “The answer I got was 'I don’t know.' I asked ‘why don’t we know?’, so I started doing a deep dive into what the heck was going on with baseball, because it wasn’t being paid attention to.”

Shaw began working with the coaches in 2020, where the Prairie Class AA program played nine games during the COVID-shortened season.

“The coach was doing the best he could with what he had,” Shaw said. “But I’d noticed that when I’d go to games, we’d have mismatched helmets, no bags and three different types of jerseys. So I talked to him about raising some money and the next year, the program folded.”

PRAIRIE DID not field teams from 2021 to 2023. The program — now called Prairie Cardinals, based in Post Falls and offering travel baseball and softball teams — has 12 teams between softball and Little League, including three Legion squads, the largest being at the Class A level (Class AA is the highest level of Legion in Idaho).

“When they got it fired back up, we were all in,” Shaw said. “We’ve been supporting them and we’re really impressed with what they’re doing now.”

Nathan Collier, who played for the Prairie AA team in 2012, has coached his group of players for the last three years.

“I saw an opportunity to plug into the American Legion system,” Collier said. “It’s been the vision and there’s a core group of us that have worked together to push that vision and it’s really taken off with three teams in the program. We’re doing really well with it right now.”

Collier added that they have 35 to 40 players in the three Legion programs.

“When I played, it was us, Lewis-Clark, Coeur d’Alene, Trail and Cranbrook,” said Collier, who played on the Prairie team in 2012 that advanced to the state tournament in Lewiston. “Somewhere along the line, that got lost.”

Trail and Cranbrook opted to play against Montana programs after the 2012 season, leaving just Coeur d’Alene, Prairie and Lewis-Clark as the lone AA teams in the north. 

Northern Lakes, which features players from Lakeland and Timberlake high schools, started fielding a program at the AA level in 2015, and now plays at Class A. Some lower-level programs play in district tournaments in Washington, where Prairie fielded a team last year that advanced to the state A tournament in Yakima.

“There’s a lot of competition at the Single-A level and there’s anywhere from 8 to 10 at our level each year,” Collier said. “There’s been a lot of natural opponents playing against programs from Spokane, but it’s going to be a year-to-year evaluation to see where we’re at. We’re open to moving up (to AA), but these kids are still 15 to 16 years old and were playing against programs that were 19U in some cases last year. We’re still playing up in some games, but we also don’t have one senior on the team.”

In Collier’s final season at Prairie in 2012, he hit the final home run at McEuen Field in Coeur d'Alene during the five-team Area A (district) tournament that July.

“I played with some great guys,” Collier said. “Several of us had opportunities to play at the next level, which was great. We’re trying to bring that back to the area with American Legion baseball and give the kids opportunities to play at the next level and have a great experience.”

Collier added that Gavin Wienker, Mason Perkins, Bryce Berger and Isaiah Kerney will be counted on to provide leadership. Wienker, Kearney and Berger will be seniors at Post Falls next year, Perkins a junior.

“He’s been our Friday night guy and our ace,” Collier said. “Basically, since he got with our group, he’s always wanted the ball. I can’t imagine a situation where he doesn’t want to go out and compete. He has a great ability to compete and will to win. He’s kind of a quiet guy, so it doesn’t come out with a lot of emotion, but there’s a big competitive spirit there.”

Same for Perkins, a catcher.

“We had a college coach tell us that he was really fun to watch last year,” Collier said. “I’m calling pitches and moving guys back and forth throughout the game, but I really don’t have to do that anymore because Mason is doing that now. I’ve coached him for four years and he’s got an ability to do that without me telling him what to do.”

THE POST Falls Legion post has held a number of fundraisers in order to help where there’s been a need.

“We’ve been doing dinners and bought them a bus this year,” Shaw said. “There’s really no substitute for doing things right. Baseball is important to me and we’re losing a lot of that in some towns. They’re not playing at this level. And American Legion baseball has been really challenged with all these club teams as well.”

Yet this group hasn't had a lot — if any — that have left the program.

“They’ve set it up as summer teams for Little League,” Shaw said. These feeder teams, when they’ve got a system in place for multiple years, it seems to work. If they have a philosophy and something in place, the kids are sticking with it as those kids go up in the program. That method seems a lot more successful than some kid that joins a Little League team and doesn’t know anyone. These kids are playing together for years and we’re hoping this format is going to do the job. And so far, it has.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.