Handle Teams Invade Washington Friday

It’s cross-the-state-line week in high school football as eight North Idaho teams meet Washington schools making their season debuts.

Highlighting the cross-over marquee Friday will be three games featuring Inland Empire League and Frontier League teams. The Panhandle teams drawing the most difficult assignments are Lake City and Coeur d’Alene.

Lake City (1-0) travels to traditional Frontier League power Cheney, while Coeur d’Alene (0-1) entertains East Valley. Two-time defending champion Cheney and EV are mentioned frequently as favorites to win the Frontier championship.

In the other IEL-FL matchup, West Valley treks to Lewiston (1-0). All evening games begin at 7:30.

In other contests, Bonners Ferry (0-1) goes to Post Falls (1-0), Lakeland (0-1) visits Sandpoint (1-0), Freeman is at St. Maries (0-1), Kellogg (2-0) goes to Lakeside of Nine Mile, Wash., Newport treks to Priest River (1-1), Chewelah of northeast Washington is at Wallace (1-1) and Moscow (0-1) makes the short trip to Pullman.

In a pair of afternoon North Star League games, Mullan (2-0) is at Kootenai (0-2) and Lakeside (1-1) goes to Falls Christian (0-1). Both games begin at 3:30.

Lake City, coming off its second victory in school history, and Coeur d’Alene, a frustrated 21-8 loser at Boise, will both be underdogs Friday.

LC and CdA coaches say two scenarios could occur that would enhance their chances of winning. First, teams generally make marked improvement from the first to second games. Second, teams playing in season-opening games often make typical season-opening mistakes.

Tall CdA gets taller

The CdA boys basketball team was already going to be tall this winter with the return of 6-foot-6 junior standout Luke O’Dowd and the addition of 6-6 junior Casey Hoorelbeke from the junior varsity.

But the Vikings went from tall to towering Tuesday when 6-8 senior Philip Dewjorek enrolled.

Dewjorek, from Germany, transferred from South Eugene (Ore.) High where he led the school to fourth in the State 4A tournament, Oregon’s largest classification.

The left-handed Dewjorek averaged 12.9 points and eight rebounds last year while shooting 67 percent from the field.

“We’ll see if we can make room in the program for him,” CdA coach Larry Bieber quipped.

Bieber said Dewjorek is living in Hayden Lake with friends of his parents, who reside in Germany.

Dewjorek had to leave South Eugene because an Oregon prep rule allows foreign athletes just one year of eligibility. He came to the U.S. as a sophomore on an exchange program, attending Mercer Island High near Seattle. But after suffering an injury early in the season he returned to Germany for a year.

He moved to Eugene his junior year.

Idaho High School Activities Association executive director Bill Young said any student who transfers schools without his parents moving must file an eligibility waiver. The waiver must be filed by the school he’s transferring to, Young said.

The IHSAA’s eligibility committee either approves or denies the waiver. If a waiver is denied the student can appeal to the IHSAA board of directors.

“He’s a super kid, but I’m not going to tell you anything about him now,” said South Eugene coach Dean Stepp, who spends his summers in the Coeur d’Alene area and applied for the head coaching job at CdA the last two times the position came open. “Call in a month or so and I’d be glad to talk about him.”

This ‘n that

Catching up on late college decisions: Long-distance runners Chris Cole of Coeur d’Alene (Colorado State), Bryce Knight of Lake City (Idaho St.) and Tony Smith of Moscow (College of Southern Idaho) will continue their running careers, and LC softball standout Laura Tolzmann is attending the University of Mary, an NAIA school in Bismarck, N.D. Tolzmann was named the Inland Empire League’s most valuable player last spring and led the Timberwolves to a runner-up finish at state for a second straight year.

Falls Christian’s Sarah Peterson, who signed to play basketball at Concordia College in Portland, decided to also play soccer and earned a starting job. She hadn’t played soccer since junior high.

Longtime Post Falls assistant football and wrestling Jack Foster has been named head softball coach, taking over for Chris Johnson.

Former CdA assistant football and track coach Todd Limoges was hired as head football coach at small A-2 school Payette, which plays in the Snake River Valley League.

, DataTimes