League Alive And Kickin’ Cda, Sandpoint Favorites But Others Are Closing Gap

North Idaho Soccer League preview

North Idaho Soccer League girls coaches see a day soon when parity will be the rule in the conference.

The newest teams are making measurable strides in closing the gap on the perennially strong ones.

In addition to the coaches expecting most teams to be of like ability in the near future, they also believe the top teams in the league can contend for the state championship.

That happened last year when Coeur d’Alene finished runner-up and Sandpoint took third.

“I think the teams that go to state could win a state title,” Sandpoint coach Amy Wells said.

North Idaho should be wellrepresented at state in late October. By virtue of reallocation of state berths, the area will send three A-1 teams to state this fall, one more than last year and two more than previous years.

Actually, four teams from the league will be given the opportunity to play at state. Three of the six A-1 teams (Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Sandpoint, Moscow, Lakeland, Lewiston) and one of the two A-2 teams (Post Falls and Bonners Ferry) will be offered state berths.

The Idaho Youth Soccer Association, which governs club and high school play, reclassified prep teams based on their ability level in July. Post Falls is A-1 and Moscow and Lakeland are A-2 in all other sports.

“Just the improvement we’ve seen with Lakeland and Post Falls shows that parity is probably three to four years away,” first-year CdA coach Geary Jerde said.

“The league has jumped light years in the last two years in terms of parity,” Moscow coach Pat Gagon said.

As many as five of the six A-1 teams figure to challenge for the state berths. Defending league champ Coeur d’Alene and runner-up Sandpoint should battle for the league title, most coaches agree, and Lake City, Moscow and Lewiston appear to be fighting for third.

Coeur d’Alene graduated five off its team that fell to Boise 2-1 in the state title match. But the Vikings have plenty of talent to challenge for gold.

NISL play should provide more than an adequate test for the Viks, who return the league’s top scorer in sophomore striker Janee Andre. Seniors Kara Kovatch (midfielder), Teah Beckman (defender/ forward) and Kelley Garasky (defender) provide leadership on a young but experienced team.

Sandpoint fielded one of the youngest teams at state last year, and the Bulldogs believe they could be the team to knock off the Viks.

LC, Moscow and Lewiston won’t just hand the top-division spots to CdA and Sandpoint.

League play began last week, and early results indicate the coaches know what they’re talking about.

In interesting early matches, Sandpoint held off visiting Lake City 2-0 and the Bulldogs survived a 2-1 scare at Moscow. In the first match Tuesday between crosstown rivals, CdA blanked LC 2-0.

First-round state qualifying matches will be held at the site of the top seeds. The championship and third-place matches will be Oct. 25 at Post Falls.

Here are a handful of league matches that should be entertaining: CdA at Sandpoint, Sept. 20; Moscow at Sandpoint, Sept. 27; CdA at LC, Oct. 2; Sandpoint at LC, Oct. 7; Sandpoint at CdA, Oct. 11; and Moscow at LC, Oct. 14.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo