Mike Vlahovich

With the score tied in the fourth quarter and a state berth on the line, it was left to a sophomore to make the night’s biggest plays. Post Falls guard Marcus Colbert hit back-to-back 3-pointers a little more than a minute apart to break the 32-32 deadlock and propel the Trojans (19-4) to a 53-36 triumph over visiting Coeur d’Alene and a return berth from Region I to the Idaho 5A tournament Thursday through next Saturday at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

Seasoned veterans or newcomers alike, it didn’t matter. The Deer Park wrestling beat goes on. Eleven Stags – three of them defending state champions, the rest first-timers, including three freshmen and two sophomores – are headed to Mat Classic next week in Tacoma to see if they can make it three State 2A team titles in a row.

Greater Spokane League boys basketball heavyweights Gonzaga Prep and Shadle Park squared off in a game of thrust and parry Saturday afternoon. For every Highlanders lunge, however, the host Bullpups had a riposte, a 21-6 finish in the game’s final four minutes securing a 75-61 victory for G-Prep.

North Central landed squarely in the middle of a Hornets nest Saturday during the Washington Dream Duals at East Valley. The Indians, wrestling Enumclaw for the 3A championship, were stung early and never recovered.

A strategic decision paid dividends late in the Greater Spokane League wrestling showdown when once-beaten North Central traveled to unbeaten Central Valley Thursday night. But one early win in particular proved huge as NC’s Indians share second place with the Bears (both 7-1) following their 35-29 victory.

Luke Leifer was competing for Randy Cloke at North Central nearly two decades ago when the Indians tied Mead in Greater Spokane League wrestling. “My junior year, in 1991 we tied, but when I wrestled (the other years) we came up short,” Leifer said.

The lines of demarcation have been formed, the classifications determined by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 sports season, and Rogers just missed a cut. Rogers’ three-year enrollment of 1,316 students makes it officially the smallest of the state’s 66 Class 4A schools, not including those opting up to the classification. It’s either accept classification placement or appeal by Jan. 15. Appeals will heard on Jan. 24 with classifications finalized the same day.

When returning state champions and finalists can be seeded no higher than fifth in their weight classes at an invitational wrestling tournament, you know which tournament it is. The 38th annual Tri-State wrestling tournament, Friday and Saturday at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, separates the men from – well – the men.

Recently discharged from the Army following a tour in Vietnam and just back from a trip with my brother to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, I typed my first column at the Spokane Valley Herald. Today, I submit my last with The Spokesman-Review after 41 years and two months of walking the sidelines and sitting under baskets at high school sporting events, clipboard in hand, and for many of those years with a camera around my neck.

There are no greater advocates for their sport than wrestling coaches and fans. East Valley’s Craig Hanson saw such kindled passion on display when he put on a college invitational tournament last month. “I’ve just gotten compliment after compliment about how well it went and how good it was to have college wrestling in town,” he said.

TACOMA – When Spokane-area football teams take center stage during the Gridiron Classic today at the Tacoma Dome they’ll be facing teams that mirror themselves. Ferris completes the four-game day at 7:30 p.m. for the State 4A championship against Skyline. Both teams have a spread-offense style as the game pits the top two quarterbacks in the state, Washington State-bound Connor Halliday of the Saxons against Skyline’s Jake Heaps, headed to Brigham Young.