Seniors At The Wheel Veteran Players At Center Of Vikings’ Drive To State; Tournament Opens Today

Brian Holgate expected his Coeur d’Alene High baseball team to be good this spring.

Very good, in fact.

For the Vikings to challenge for a state championship, it would require more than mere talent, Holgate suspected.

“I knew we had enough talent to play with anybody,” he said. “But the thing we harped on was leadership. If we had leaders, the baseball stuff would take care of itself.”

Mission accomplished - so far. CdA (17-5) opens state play tonight against Centennial (16-5) at Capital High School in Boise. The first pitch is at 4 PDT.

Coeur d’Alene’s crosstown rival, Lake City (13-10), takes on Twin Falls (22-5) at 6:30 at Les Bois Junior High.

It’s been leadership by committee for the Viks’ five seniors.

Shortstop Nick Rook and pitcher Mark Scates have been the vocal, emotional leaders. On the opposite extreme has been soft-spoken second baseman Ben Johnston.

And in the middle have been catcher/ pitcher Scott Ross and first baseman Joe Wagner.

The seniors’ personalities are blended together like seams on a baseball.

That’s not to say that neither the seniors nor the team in general haven’t had moments of friction.

“We’ve had conflicts, but we haven’t let them go unresolved,” Johnston said.

The Viks were chirping at each other in the regional title game last Saturday. They were on the verge of losing control, Johnston said.

“We noticed it was starting to bring our team down,” Johnston said. “(Rook) talked to us and we pulled together and rallied back. The neat thing is we all have respect for each other.”

Coeur d’Alene hopes to advance to the state title game like it did two years ago. But this time, the Viks want nothing less than a championship.

Rook, Johnston and Scates played in the state tourney two years ago. And they had high hopes of returning last year, especially after opening the season with 13 straight wins.

But the Viks had a late-season collapse. Part of it, they say, was because of a lack of leadership.

“For some reason, the chemistry wasn’t there,” Rook said. “This just proves team unity is important.”

That’s why Wagner believes there’s just one team that can beat the Vikings at state.

“The only team that can beat us is ourselves,” Wagner said.

Lake City is headed to state for the first time in its three years, and Timberwolves coach Cory Bridges is going for his second time (he took Minico to state in his final season there).

Bridges isn’t surprised his T-Wolves upset Lewiston for a state berth.

“Early in the year, I thought we’d get there (to state) for sure,” Bridges said. “I thought we’d challenge for the league title. I had a lot of faith in this team.”

LC has had streaks of inconsistent pitching, and its strength has been hitting.

“To show you what a great coach I am, I figured we’d pitch great and have trouble scoring runs,” Bridges said, laughing.

Lake City is in the tougher of the two brackets. If the T-Wolves win, they would take on the winner of Boise (25-2)-Highland (18-9). Boise is the defending champion.

If CdA wins, it will meet the Skyline (24-0)-Meridian (24-3) winner.

CdA will start Scates (2-0). LC will go with Jeff Brennan (5-1).

Other tournaments

Lakeland has only itself to blame for its first-round opponent in the State A-2 tournament, which begins today at Meridian’s Storey Park.

The defending state champion Hawks stumbled in the District I-II championship game, falling to Moscow 4-1.

The loss set up a rematch of last year’s state championship. Lakeland (17-3) will meet Vallivue of Caldwell (21-6) in the final game of the four openers at 3:30 p.m. PDT.

In the other matchups, Moscow (15-10) takes on South Fremont (21-4), Preston (22-6) goes against Emmett (17-6), and Jerome (16-10) meets Bishop Kelly (16-12).

Vallivue returns most of the key players from the team Lakeland spanked in last year’s final.

The Hawks, on the other hand, lost much to graduation, but they still bring plenty of weapons to state - especially in the throwing arms of Kurt Reese and Ryan Banks.

“I told the kids (after district) that we made the first step by winning league and we made the second step by getting to state,” Lakeland coach Ken Busch said. “Now is the third step. We want to accomplish something at state.”

It sounds like a broken record, but Wallace qualified for state.

Wallace (14-7) opens play today in the State A-3/A-4 tournament by taking on Glenns Ferry (16-9) at Rodeo Park in Nampa.

In other openers, Grangeville (15-2) meets New Plymouth (20-12); Fruitland (20-12) squares off with Firth (14-8); and Clearwater Valley (8-7) takes on favored Nampa Christian (25-0).

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