Coaches Go On Victory Search

A pair of coaches will be seeking their first wins with their new high school football teams Friday in Coeur d’Alene.

Mt. Spokane-Mead, the new Greater Spokane League school, makes its debut against Coeur d’Alene at Viking Field.

The school, a split off Mead, is playing all sports in the GSL except football this year. With no seniors, Mt. Spokane is playing an independent schedule with juniors and sophomores.

Mike McLaughlin, who guided Mead to eight straight state playoff appearances, moved to Mt. Spokane along with his entire coaching staff. Several sophomores will start for the Wildcats, including the entire offensive line.

Few of Mt. Spokane’s players were in the old Mead program.

Unless Coeur d’Alene shows marked improvement from a 40-13 loss to Lake City, the Viks will struggle to beat the first-year program.

Although it’s early in the season, Friday may be the Viks’ best opportunity to give new coach Shawn Amos his first victory. Future chances at wins appear slim with a return game at LC, dates with the three other Inland Empire League teams and non-league encounters against Intermountain League powers Lakeland and Moscow.

“We will play better than we did last week,” Amos said firmly. “(Last Friday) was a very bad practice game. It told us where we’re at, and we have a long ways to go. It’s a character test for our team (Friday).”

In other games Friday involving IEL teams, Clarkston visits Lake City (1-0), Cheney is at Post Falls (0-0-1), Sandpoint (1-0) goes to Lakeland (0-0-1) and Lewiston (1-0) treks to East Valley.

Elsewhere, Riverside (Wash.) is at St. Maries (2-0), Chewelah (Wash.) visits Bonners Ferry (0-1), Prairie (0-1) goes to Wallace (2-0), Priest River (2-0) visits nearby Newport (Wash.) and border rivals Pullman and Moscow (0-1) meet at Moscow.

In eight-man contests, Colton (Wash.) is at Clark Fork (2-0), Lakeside (1-1) visits Falls Christian (1-1) and Mullan (0-1) goes to Kootenai (0-2).

Kellogg (0-1) makes a long trip to central-eastern Idaho to take on Salmon (1-1) on Saturday.

Fans should note that all games involving IEL and IML teams are starting 30 minutes earlier this year, beginning at 7 p.m.

There were some late-arriving fans at season openers last week that were unaware of the change.

CdA’s Amos did have one bright spot last week.

Sophomore outside linebacker A.J. Ballensky was pressed into duty because two players ahead of him were ineligible.

All he did was record nine tackles, four for losses and caused two fumbles.

“He was very active and the rest of our defense wasn’t,” said Amos. “He wasn’t even on our varsity roster. He’s a starter now. He’ll be on our roster this week.”

Mt. Spokane’s schedule includes games against Post Falls (Oct. 10, at Joe Albi Stadium) and at Sandpoint (Oct. 17).

West Valley, picked to finish last in the four-team Frontier League, dropped what had been traditional games against Lewiston, Post Falls and Sandpoint because it was tired of being physically beaten up before starting league play. West Valley will play one Idaho team when it travels to Bonners Ferry (Oct. 17).

No. 200

The Lewiston at East Valley game Friday is an interesting matchup in more ways than one.

Bengals coach Nick Menegas can pick up his 200th career victory. Menegas, in his 12th year at Lewiston after a stint at Post Falls, is in his 22nd season overall as a head coach. His record is 199-57-3.

With the retirement of longtime Mullan coach John Drager, Menegas is now the winningest active coach in Idaho.

Lewiston should have its hands full with East Valley. The Knights, coached by former West Valley/ Coeur d’Alene/Pullman coach Jim Clements, are predicted to win the Frontier League.

The defending State A-1 Division II Bengals also share the longest winning streak in the state with State A-2 champion Snake River at 13. The next longest streak is held by State A-4 eight-man champ Mackay (12).

A foot up on ‘em

While four of the Inland Empire League’s fabulous five NCAA Division I recruits are on redshirt status at their respective schools, another former IEL standout is off to a hot start in the junior college ranks.

Freshman placekicker Ben Davis of Coeur d’Alene needed just less than two quarters in collegiate debut to break a longstanding school record at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho.

In an exhibition game against a team of New Zealand All-Stars, Davis booted a 62-yard field goal on the last play in the first half. The previous record was 57 yards set in 1982.

“It was a real rush,” Davis said. “I’ve really surprised myself.”

Davis’ kicking coach predicts the former Vik will have a shot at the national junior college record (67 yards).

“The 62 yarder cleared by more than 10 yards,” Ricks assistant Jim Eggleston said.

On the kickoff to open the second half, Davis drilled the ball 75 yards through the uprights, Eggleston said.

Davis was recruited along with three other kickers, including the top prep kicker from Utah. Ricks put particular emphasis on finding a kicker after making just three field goals last season.

“He won the starting job the first 10 minutes of the first (preseason) practice,” Eggleston said. “He’s definitely one of the best kickers I’ve ever seen. We feel like any time were within 70 yards we can give him a shot.”

Davis missed three attempts in Ricks’ season-opening win (14-7) at Mesa (Ariz.) Community College.

“But it wasn’t Ben’s fault,” Eggleston said. “We lost our holder and snapper on the first two plays of the game.”

Four of the IEL’s five Blue Chip recruits - Post Falls’ Austin Lee (Stanford), Sandpoint’s Jeremy Thielbahr (Washington State) and Ryan Knowles (Idaho) and Lewiston’s Brad Rice (Idaho) - will most likely sit out this fall.

The fifth IEL Division I player, Lewiston running back Laki Ah Hi, is seeing limited action at Idaho.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo