New Border League Probable
The groundwork has been laid to resurrect a Border League concept for Inland Empire and Frontier athletic teams, beginning next year.
School officials from both leagues met in Spokane last week and worked out a 16-game “league” schedule for boys and girls basketball, beginning in the 1997-98 season.
“We still have a lot of details to work out, but we’ve agreed to a league together in principle,” Lake City athletic director Ron Adams said.
The teams that will be in the league are LC, Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Lewiston and Sandpoint of the IEL and Clarkston, Cheney, East Valley and West Valley of the Frontier League.
Each team will play a home-and-home series with the other eight teams, thus constituting the 16-game league schedule. That will leave just four other dates for teams to fill.
School officials and basketball coaches from both leagues will meet again next week to begin ironing out details regarding the crowning of a league champ and seeding to the two state-qualifying district tournaments.
One idea is that all 16 games should count toward seeding to the district tournaments. Another idea is that just games against teams from your own state should seed the respective district tournaments.
School administrators have also talked about using a combined league concept in football. A major drawback is that Idaho teams begin playing a week earlier than Washington teams.
“Not every team can schedule every team,” Adams said. “But we’ll still try to schedule as many of the league teams as we can.”
Athletic directors want to implement a league concept in other sports, too.
The old Border League existed from 1972 to 1975 and included four teams: Mead, Central Valley, University and Coeur d’Alene.
A new division?
We’ll try to break down the latest talk of realignment of classifications in Idaho so all can understand.
The Idaho High School Activities Association will consider two proposals at its meeting in April:
1) Continue classification as is, or 2) Add a fifth classification (similar to the A-1 Division II for football).
“Ever since I’ve been here and before I got here there’s always been talk about realignment, reclassification,” IHSAA executive director Bill Young said.
This time, though, it appears it might be more than talk.
“There’s probably a 50-50 chance there’ll be a change,” Young said. “But what we’ve got to talk about if we add a fifth classification is enrollment numbers and whether we’ll add a division in every sport.”
Young doesn’t see a fifth division in every sport - perhaps just in the major sports. Idaho has had four classifications since 1964.
What has spurred the look at realignment is the middle-size A-1 and largest A-2 schools don’t want to be heaped with the largest A-1 schools. There are about 10 A-1 schools with enrollments ranging from 2,000 to 2,400.
“That’s where the focus has been,” Young said.
Stay tuned.
Coin in their pocket
The Lake City High girls basketball team could lose at Lewiston tonight and finish no worse than tied for the Inland Empire League championship.
The Timberwolves defeated Lewiston in the first league encounter 60-47.
LC can capture the league crown outright tonight. Most importantly, the T-Wolves would earn the right to be hosts for the state-qualifying regional tournament under the new format.
Lewiston must defeat LC and finish league Saturday with a win over Post Falls to force a tie and a coin flip for hosting rights.
“It has serious implications,” said Lewiston coach Pat Zink, whose 15-1, 5-1 Bengals square off against the 17-2, 7-0 top-ranked T-Wolves.
“They’re guaranteed at least a chance for the right to host the tournament; we have to win to have a chance so it’s a little more stressful time for us,” Zink said.
Added Zink: “If we lose (tonight) we’re not going to concede the regional tournament to them. Both teams are very good. It’s going to come down to the players. It doesn’t matter how smart coach (Dave) Stockwell and I are. It’s going to come down to the players.”
Stockwell’s top concern tonight is defense.
“I think our offense will handle itself, it’s a matter of how well we play defense and how well we press,” Stockwell said.
No matter what happens, this is just one more confrontation down a road that includes another head-to-head battle or two.
“They’re all going to be wars,” Zink said.
It’ll be No. 1 vs. No. 2 when LC and Lewiston collide tonight.
LC has been ranked atop the A-1 poll all season. But the Bengals have made big strides in recent weeks. They finally vaulted past Borah into second this week after Borah lost to Boise last week.
The girls rankings along with standings and scoring leaders can be found in the Stat Sheet.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CAN ANYONE COACH? Priest River High is in need of two head coaches, one for softball and one for baseball. If interested call Priest River athletic director Ron Hopkins (448-1211). Deadline for applications is Feb. 7.