Greg Lee

Lakeland High School baseball standout Josh Phelps went home for lunch Tuesday wondering if he'd been selected in pro baseball's amateur draft. He called his parents at work, but they hadn't heard anything. About 30 seconds after he hung up the phone, the call he'd been waiting for came. On the other end of the line was a Toronto Blue Jays scout, who informed Phelps he was selected in the 10th round.

While high school students and teachers are counting the days remaining in the year, a handful of athletic directors will be working long after their schools close for the summer. Several head coaching jobs remain open at North Idaho schools. But several positions also have been filled in recent weeks. Here's a look at the jobs that have been filled or remain unfilled.

1. Prairie's James Ownbey slides into third base before Coeur d'Alene's Ben Johnston can make the play. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 2. CdA's Mark Scates prepares to bring it against Cardinals. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Multisports stars Alli Nieman of Sandpoint and Austin Lee of Post Falls have been on the track of success. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Alli Nieman will take her skills to the University of Idaho. File/The Spokesman-Review

1. Multisports stars Alli Nieman of Sandpoint and Austin Lee of Post Falls have been on the track of success. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Austin Lee was a state titlist in the shot put. File/The Spokesman-Review

Lake City High School coach Van Troxel wants to point more Coeur d'Alene area boys toward the city's junior tackle football program. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

As Bonners Ferry golf coach Dan Butler thought about his girls winning the State B championship, it dawned on him that it must have been meant to be. Too many things had to converge at the same point for it not to be fate, he explained. The road to destiny, for example, included the following: The Badgers opened the season with just two girls. To field a team in tournaments, they needed a minimum of three players (the three lowest scores of four players are scored at meets).

Playing as captain on the CdA golf team helped turn around Rick Haymond's life. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

When I was in high school - and, yes, I can remember that far back, thank you - I recall being told frequently by family and friends to enjoy my youth. They said as I grew older I'd notice that the years would pass by more quickly. I can't explain why, but it's true. The 1995-96 high school athletic season came to an end last weekend. The year transpired seemingly at the pace of a 100-meter dash, not an eight-lap 3,200 race.

A state tournament sandwich. That's how three Lakeland High School senior baseball players described concluding their careers with a second state title. The first came when they were freshmen contributors on Lakeland's 1993 State A-2 title team. They added the opposite piece of bread in the form of the 1996 title Saturday.

After using all of his strength to defend his championship in the State A-1 3,200 meters Friday night, Billy Herman of Centennial knew he wasn't going to have anything left for a defending run in the 1,600 on Saturday. Herman, the most dominating long-distance runner the past three years in all classifications, had battled a virus all week. So before he went to bed Friday, he offered up a prayer for Chris Cole of Coeur d'Alene.

Lakeland sophomore Sarah DeBoer powers to second place in the State A-2 100 hurdles. Photo by Glenn Oakley/Special to The Spokesman-Review

Rain, rain go away, come again in, say, three days. That was the collective cry of the State A-2 baseball teams Thursday as foul weather forced the postponement of two of the four-round games and the suspension of another.

The State A-1 and A-2 fastpitch softball tournaments will be held in Coeur d'Alene beginning today. It's the final year of the invitational-style tournaments. Next year, the Idaho High School Activities Association will take over. Coeur d'Alene is perhaps an appropriate place for the final invitational-style tourney, since it's considered essentially the birthplace for high school softball in the state.

Dana Streeter looks for a time well below 15.0 in state 100-meter hurdles. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

A-2 track Moscow coach Chris Tarabochia has watched his boys and girls track teams dominate meets all spring. He expected fairly easy victories in the A-2 District I-II meet Saturday at Lakeland High School's Corbit Field.

Bryce Knight of Lake City, left, and Chris Cole of Coeur d'Alene are not really joined at the hip. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Post Falls High School baseball coach John Pettoello always seems to find a way to put a positive spin on a negative outcome. Pettoello still expects his team to play late into the A-1 Region I Tournament despite a 4-2 setback to Coeur d'Alene in first-round play Tuesday at CdA. CdA (17-7), meanwhile, earned an opportunity to play in the tournament's final day on Saturday. The defending regional champion Vikings are in position to return to the tourney championship game.

Nicole Irons of Post Falls clears 8 feet in pole vault, best effort in Friday's event, matching season's top mark in area. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Coeur d'Alene's Todd Hughes is congratulated after hitting a homer that ended the first game of doubleheader with LC. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

This is the time of year when high school boys basketball coaches normally are solidifying plans for summer tournaments and camps. Starting lineups may not be set, but coaches find themselves projecting. That's not the case, though, for Post Falls High coach Scott Moore. He doesn't know if he'll carry that title next year. His coaching future teeters on the rim.

1. Early on, observers pegged 6-foot-4 Sandpoint student Mike Lindgren as a football player, not a pitcher. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Josh Phelps of Lakeland is a standout at, and behind, the plate. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

It's been reported that several North Idaho baseball and softball players and track athletes have been seen walking around with aluminum bats and relay batons stuck to their lips. And, no, they aren't auditioning for Pepsi commercials. Although the report is an exaggeration, spring sports in the Inland Northwest have yet to experience legitimate spring weather the first five weeks of the season.

CdA's Liana Robinson pursues an errant throw as Lake City's Regan Long slides into second. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review