Blake Buchanan scored 19 points with eight rebounds and Lake City (17-6) beat Rocky Mountain 65-57 in an Idaho 5A state first-round game at Ford Idaho Center on Thursday.

Life during the pandemic has been all about playing the waiting game. Waiting for curves to flatten. Waiting to reconnect with loved ones and friends. Waiting for businesses and restaurants to reopen. Waiting for sports to return. Waiting for a vaccine.

In Buzz Bissinger’s classic book about a season with an Odessa, Texas, high school football team, he dubbed them “Friday Night Lights.”

Girls soccer

The Greater Spokane League and Great Northern League had three teams qualify for the state girls soccer tournaments last season, led by Gonzaga Prep, which finished third in 4A and lost two all-state players but remained the unanimous pick of coaches of those who replied as the top team in the league. 

The Greater Spokane League football season got off to a rousing debut last week with a full slate of games and the grand opening of Union Stadium, the spectacular new facility for the Mead School District.

Girls soccer

Girls soccer

Volleyball

With not a cloud in the sky, an announcer’s voice boomed through the pristine new Union Stadium for Mead and Mt. Spokane High Schools, but only elicited the applause of cheerleaders and coaches.

It wasn’t the opening day that the Mead School District would have wanted for its brand new football facility, but it worked out pretty well nonetheless. And nobody really minded that players had to come dressed on the bus and had to huddle in opposite stands during halftime due to pandemic protocols.

Freshman quarterback Jo Sonnichsen threw two touchdown passes and Mead topped visiting Lewis and Clark 34-17 in a Greater Spokane League 4A/3A game – the first to be held at Mead School District’s new Union Stadium on Saturday.

Football

Endurance was the theme at Friday’s 5A/4A state wrestling tournament, as Idaho’s best grapplers crammed an entire championship bracket into one day.

Volleyball

The times, they are a-changin' across the Greater Spokane League. What would have been a tumultuous season anyway has been thrown for even a bigger loop with the COVID delay and late-February start date.

Ken VanSickle’s cell phone “blew up.”After a year without high school sports, the Greater Spokane League had just held its first sporting event of the 2020-21 season. It was a slate of volleyball games, including a Shadle Park sweep of East Valley and North Central sweep of first-year member Othello.

Several North Idaho boys and girls seniors were named to the annual state high school all-star game, to be held this season at Post Falls High School on March 20.

Mt. Spokane 3, Central Valley 1: Tia Allen notched 24 kills and two blocks and the Wildcats (2-0) beat the visiting Bears (0-2) 22-25, 25-10, 25-17, 26-24 in a Greater Spokane League 4A/3A match on Tuesday.