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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Prep notebook: Dale Poffenroth retires

Coeur d'Alene high school head coach Dale Poffenroth won four state girls basketball titles with the Vikings and three with Central Valley. Poffenroth is retiring from coaching. (Jerome A Pollos / Associated Press)

Dale Poffenroth has no idea what is on the other side of coaching.

He is retiring as Coeur d’Alene girls basketball coach after 12 seasons.

Poffenroth, 67, retired as a teacher and head coach at Central Valley before taking the position at CdA.

This time it appears he must embrace retirement.

The tipping point came in December when his wife, Debbie, took a spill in the dark parking lot outside of CdA’s gym.

“She tripped and as she was flying forward she put her arm down and broke her humerus right at the shoulder,” Poffenroth said.

That required her to sleep on the couch for about six weeks, Poffenroth said.

“Here I am going to practices and games and it’s painful for her to move,” he said. “At what point do you owe her something for sitting in the crowd and putting up with going to games?”

Poffenroth’s decision was made all the more easier with the death of three close friends to his programs at CdA and CV.

“Maybe there are other things I should be doing,” Poffenroth said.

He got his 600th career victory at the end of the 2014-15 season. He coached three CV teams to state titles and his overall record in 29 years is 607-169. He coached four more state title teams at CdA, finishing with a 233-66 record.

Poffenroth leaves a young but promising team at CdA. He lined up all the girls with club/AAU teams for the ones who wanted to play including a schedule for the team during June.

CdA will return four starters, but Poffenroth said that all nine returners started a minimum of five games.

“It should be a decent group,” he said.

The Poffenroths, who have been married 44 years, attended the WCC tournament in Las Vegas.

“She’s been giving to me for 40 some years,” Poffenroth said. “I don’t think I have another 40 years. So while I can I want to give her 10-15 years to do some things she wants to do. We’ll try that anyway. I guess I’ll find out next December if I’m bored or not bored.”

All-state games

It’s the all-state basketball game season.

All the boys and girls showdowns are Saturday.

In boys, three games will be played at Mountlake Terrace High School. The 2B takes on the 1B at 2, the 2A faces the 1A at 4 and the 4A and 3A players square off in the nightcap at 6.

Here are the area players selected to play: 4A – Cameron Tucker (Central Valley); 3A – Kobe Reese (Shadle Park); 2A – Trevon Allen (Clarkston); 1A – Cameron Gay (Lakeside); 2B – David Olds (Northwest Christian) and Wyatt Roettger (Lind-Ritzville/Sprague); 1B – Dallas Isaak (Almira/Coulee-Hartline), Gunner Brown (Curlew), Aaron Fitts (Republic) and Matt Holbrook (Garfield-Palouse).

Allen and Isaak were named 2016 WIBCA Mr. Basketball players for their respective classifications.

Justin Jones of Clarkston and Ray Ricks of NWC were named Wayne Gilman coaches of the year.

In the girls, the games Saturday are at King’s High School in Seattle.

The 2B vs. 1B game is at 2, 2A against 1A at 4 and the 4A vs. 3A games is at 6.

Here are the area players selected to play: 4A – Riley Lupfer (Lewis and Clark), Taylor Cunningham (LC), Tayler Drynan (Gonzaga Prep) and Jessie Loera (Moses Lake); 3A – Megan Nilsson (Mt. Spokane); 1A – Shaye Swannack (Lakeside); 2B – Ashton Aune (Colfax) and Eilish Smith (Springdale); 1B – Abby Glorfield (St. John-Endicott), Gracie Dickerson (St. J-E), Brenna Oliver (Almira/Coulee-Hartline), Demi Jo Vaughn (Republic), Mary Ann Jacobs (Colton) and Zoe Moser (Colton).