Notebook: IEL, GSL should continue to meet

When Greater Spokane League administrators opened up the 2009-10 boys and girls basketball schedules, it made sense for schools to look the short distance to the east for nonleague matchups.

Coeur d’Alene girls basketball coach Dale Poffenroth wasted no time landing games against some of the GSL’s best – Lewis and Clark, Mead and University.

With reclassification and East Valley dropping out of the GSL next year, the league will be adjusting its schedule again. League secretary Randy Ryan said teams should have at least two nonleague dates. That would preclude teams from playing in three-game tournaments as they did this year.

The GSL and 5A Inland Empire League teams should try to schedule as many games as possible.

Of the 25 games played between GSL and IEL teams this year, the Idaho teams won 19. A closer inspection shows that IEL girls teams went 10-3 against the GSL and the IEL boys teams went 9-3.

“It was quality basketball,” Poffenroth said of the games against the GSL schools. “You had to work hard to win. This year, it’s like playing a league team. Our basketball over here is very good. The other nice thing is you didn’t have to travel very far.”

The Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lake City boys each went 3-1. CdA beat North Central, East Valley and Mead and lost a season opener to Gonzaga Prep; Lake City beat Mt. Spokane, EV and NC and lost to Shadle Park; Post Falls beat Shadle, Mt. Spokane and Central Valley and lost to Mead.

In the girls matchups, CdA beat U-Hi, Lewis and Clark, Mead and EV and lost to SP; Lake City went unbeaten, beating Mt. Spokane, Ferris, EV and SP; and Post Falls beat Mt. Spokane, lost to Mead and split with SP.

Further examination shows the IEL teams went 9-3 at GSL sites (the IEL boys 5-1, the IEL girls 4-2) and IEL teams went 8-1 at home (IEL boys 4-1, IEL girls 4-0). Some other games were played at neutral sites in tournaments.

Poffenroth wants to schedule as many games against GSL teams as possible next year.

•Reclassification will also mean that GSL and IEL football teams will not be able to keep playing as they’ve done in recent years.

With a 10-week schedule – the final week of which is reserved for crossover games with the Columbia Basin Big Nine – the 10 4A and 3A GSL teams would have nine dates to play a full league schedule. An option the coaches want involves using the first week for nonleague games and reducing the league schedule to eight games. But that would mean not all the schools would play each other. Administrators would frown on that option unless the coaches could offer a viable solution, Ryan said.

Can you say parity?

And then there were none.

The North Central girls basketball team, picked to finish seventh in league, knocked off preseason favorite and defending champ Lewis and Clark 45-38 at LC on Tuesday.

NC’s last win against LC came in 1990-91.

Four teams have a loss each – LC (5-1), Central Valley (4-1), NC (4-1) and Shadle Park (4-1).

The best game Friday features Mead (4-2) at Shadle.