League More Than Borderline Success But Idaho Schools Have Some Concerns

The Border League, like most new things, has a glitch or two.

By and large, though, it’s been functional. That’s the consensus of a dozen Frontier and Inland Empire League boys and girls basketball coaches and administrators.

It’s understandable why most of the concerns and suggestions for improvements for next year - the second of a two-year commitment - come from Idaho coaches and administrators. The league was founded on concepts and change embraced and tested by time about 10 years ago by the Frontier teams.

“It’s a matter of pluses and minuses,” Coeur d’Alene athletic director Larry Schwenke said. “But I believe the positives of the league outweigh the negatives.”

Post Falls A.D. Sherie Patano agrees.

“I tell everyone that I want to reserve judgment until the end of the season, but I see a lot of positives,” she said.

Said Cheney A.D. Joe Richer: “The Border League beat the alternative.”

The alternative likely would have pitted the four Frontier League schools - Cheney, West Valley, East Valley and Clarkston - against one other three times in league. In football, they played one another twice.

“That was ludicrous,” Clarkston A.D. Norm Klug said of the football schedule. “And in softball, we’re going to play each other five times. When we looked at basketball, there just weren’t enough games out there.”

The Frontier lost three teams - Colville, Pullman and Riverside - in a statewide classification realignment. That left the remaining four facing a scheduling dilemma in basketball.

The merger of the leagues helped bail out the Frontier. But it also was a win-win for IEL schools, which had been forced to fill out a 20-game schedule with 12 non-league contests in previous seasons.

All eight of 18 coaches interviewed for this story agreed that the best attribute of the Border League is its competitiveness. “I think it’s added a lot of excitement to the season,” Lake City boys coach Jim Winger said. “We’ve seen an intensity and importance to league games that we’ve not had before.”

And the stiffer the competition and the longer the league schedule, the more tournament-tested teams are for state-qualifying tournaments, the coaches say.

“In terms of competition, it’s increased with the combined league,” Cheney boys coach Denny Humphrey said.

Coaches plan to voice their likes and dislikes to administrators, who will evaluate the league’s first season in March.

One concern area administrators will address next month is a schedule that is serviceable for all teams, especially with Moscow joining the league next year and expanding the conference schedule to 18 games.

The issue that may be the most hotly debated involves the boy/girl varsity doubleheaders that feature usually four games (counting earlier junior varsity games) and sometimes five games in one night.

All home-and-home Border League games matching Frontier and IEL teams are doubleheaders, with the boys and girls sharing equally the 6 and 7:45 p.m. starts. Because of the differing season starts in Idaho, though, about half of the games featuring IEL teams were doubleheaders and the other boys and girls contests were held on separate dates.

IEL boys and girls coaches would like to eliminate the doubleheaders for several reasons. That could be done by scheduling the boys at one school and the girls at the other on the same night, they say.

“I don’t think any varsity team - boy or girl - should be playing at 6 o’clock,” LC’s Winger said.

“Whether we play early or late, I still think the doubleheaders make the girls games like JV games,” LC girls coach Dave Stockwell said. “I want to be the main card, not share the card. I think it’s important for the girls game.”

Stockwell and two other girls coaches said they’ve noticed that when their teams play the early game the crowd starts off small but is bigger by the second half. If the girls play late, the crowds thin generally by halftime.

“We’ve had (late) games where there was a good crowd, but when we came out after halftime, it was a ghost town,” Lewiston girls coach Pat Zink said.

Boys and girls coaches propose a rotation that would offer girls games on a Thursday-Saturday basis and boys games on a Tuesday-Friday cycle. That could be flip-flopped from week to week, they say.

Frontier administrators remembered that their coaches didn’t embrace the doubleheaders initially. Change takes time, they said.

“We’ve heard some of the complaints from the Idaho schools about the doubleheaders and it’s kind of like deja vu,” Cheney A.D. Joe Richer said. “Their comments are similar to the comments we heard about 10 years ago when we went to doubleheaders. The thing about the Border League is Idaho got hit with all the changes the first year that we’ve dealt with over an extended period of time. For us, the Border League is the best thing that’s happened.”

Klug, one of the administrators who helped develop the Border League, is adamantly opposed to dropping the doubleheaders. And he doesn’t mind admitting his reason is a bit selfish.

“We’re using two nights a week instead of four,” Klug said. “From our (Frontier) side of the situation, our patrons like it, our coaches like it, our athletes like it. It consolidates the nights.”

It’s not just a basketball matter either. Cheerleaders, band members, ticket takers, custodial crews, et al, benefit from doubleheaders, Klug said.

Another area of concern regarding the doubleheaders is gate receipts.

When doubleheaders were initiated in the Frontier League, attendance and gate revenues dropped substantially. But gate receipts returned to pre-doubleheader levels within three years, Klug said.

Although final figures aren’t in, administrators and coaches believe crowds and revenue are down dramatically this year. That can be attributed to adjusting to the new doubleheader format. Some of it can be blamed on the strength of a school’s teams, too.

Richer offered another reason.

“There are no established rivalries between Washington and Idaho schools,” Richer said. “So that could be a reason our crowds are down. But if we stick it out, obviously some rivalries will develop.” The Border League is guaranteed one more year. Beyond that?

East Valley, for example, will join the Greater Spokane League in two years.

And initial talks are under way between Frontier and GSL officials about combining for all sports in two years for regular-season play.

“It’s very preliminary,” Richer said. “Many, many questions have to be answered.”

Even if the Border League ends up being just a two-year venture, coaches and administrators still believe it’s worth it.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to go on; it isn’t etched in stone,” Klug said. “But right now it’s the best possible scenario for all of us.”

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This sidebar appeared with the story: Border League Cheney Clarkston Coeur d’Alene East Valley Lake City Lewiston Post Falls Sandpoint West Valley