There Could Be More Openings

Two Intermountain League football jobs are open at St. Maries and Moscow and two could open by the end of the year.

Ted Reynolds is planning to return at Bonners Ferry. But he’s not going to coach under the school district’s pay-to-play policy.

The district requires varsity athletes to pay $100 to play.

“I wrote on my evaluation that I’d quit if something isn’t done,” Reynolds said. “It’s not fair to kids, and I’m not going to be set up to fail.”

Reynolds sold Christmas trees to raise funds for needy athletes and is planning a lift-a-thon.

“I can live with losing if we’re on the same page with the other teams we play,” Reynolds. “But you can’t win when you’ve lost before you get on the bus.”

At Priest River, Norm Stark, who led the Spartans to their best season ever last fall (7-2), hasn’t decided if he’ll return.

“I guess it’s 50-50 right now,” Stark said. “I’ll probably decide when contracts come out in May.”

Coaches in the Panhandle, though, say Stark has already made a decision to resign.

It would be a huge loss to Priest River because the school has a better chance at competing in years to come with Moscow leaving the league and Lakeland cut down to similar size with the opening of a second high school in the school district - Timberlake at Spirit Lake.

Not going anywhere

Coeur d’Alene football coach Shawn Amos admits he’s tempted to apply for jobs at West Valley and Moscow, but will see the Vikings’ rebuilding project through. He was contacted about both jobs.

Amos, a Moscow High grad, said the most attractive thing about the WV job is he’d probably get a $10,000 bump in pay.

Moscow is appealing because it’s his alma mater. But he’s hoping friend and longtime Moscow assistant, Doug Fisher, gets the job.

“We’re going to get things turned around (at CdA),” Amos said. “The kids are starting to make a commitment. We had 31 in the weightroom after school (last week).”

Amos said his younger brother, Kelly, an assistant at Lakeland, isn’t interested in the Moscow job, either. Kelly was the head football, wrestling and track coach at Clearwater Valley before taking a job at Lakeland last year.

“He came up here hoping to get the head coaching job at the new school (Timberlake),” Amos said.

Lakeland School District assistant superintendent Chuck Kinsey said the district hopes to announce head coaching positions at Lakeland and Timberlake by the end of the month.

Here’s the surest bet: Terry Kiefer will be back as head coach at Lakeland.

Lakeland teachers were asked their preference for assignments. Kiefer chose Lakeland as did more than half of the school’s teachers.

Is it coincidence that about 95 percent of the returning varsity and junior varsity players will attend Lakeland next year?

You can’t blame Kiefer for not wanting to hand over an established program and start over at Timberlake. Remember the lean early years at Lake City? It could be worse at Timberlake.

Lake City coach Van Troxel isn’t interested in the head football job at Kennewick (Wash.) High.

Kennewick recently fired coach Ted Homme, who was a longtime assistant for Ed Troxel, Van’s dad, before replacing the legendary coach when he retired.

“If it was another time it’d be something I’d consider,” Van said. “But my family would kill me if I even thought about it.”

, DataTimes