It’s a season lost for seniors along the Gulf Coast
After the initial waves of shock wore off following Hurricane Katrina, I couldn’t help but think about the Gulf Coast area high school fall athletic teams displaced or whose seasons were postponed or canceled.
Specifically, my heart went out to the seniors, especially those whose careers abruptly ended. No football, volleyball or soccer matches or cross country meets.
The seasons will resume for the freshmen, sophomores and juniors. But not for the seniors.
Can you imagine their 2005-2006 yearbooks? Blank pages where pictures and a summary for the fall sports season would usually go.
In the bigger picture of death and life, this is a minute inconvenience. But for the rest of the seniors nationwide – whose fall sports seasons began like many of the previous ones – it’s cause for reflection.
Are we, here in North Idaho, so far removed from the disaster that it doesn’t matter? I don’t think so.
It made me wonder if there’s anything we can do here. I’m not talking about a fund-raiser or donations or anything like that. All of us, I’m sure, have had opportunity to send a little something to the relief effort.
I’m open to ideas. Give me a call. There has to be something we can do – other than let time cause it to fade into our memory banks.
Bound for glory? We’ll see
The series premier Tuesday of ESPN’s “Bound for Glory” – the reality show starring Dick Butkus that I wrote about last week – was well short of must-see television, but it’s worth a second look next week.
The first show featured the first day of preseason practice through the final practice scrimmage before the season opener.
The premise of the show is Butkus was brought in to take a losing program back to its once-proud winning days.
“I don’t give a damn what happened before,” Butkus growled before the Montour Spartans, 1-8 a year ago, hit the field for their first practice. “I don’t want to hear about it. We’re starting a new day here.”
Soon, though, reality started to sink in for Butkus.
“It’s going to be harder than I thought,” Butkus said. “They don’t have a clue on how to win.”(Reality update I: Montour, 1-3, lost for a second straight week last Friday, 21-17 to Moon.)
(Reality update II: Former Sandpoint coach Satini Puailoa had a brief appearance in a scene in the weight room.)
And the winners will be …
Yes, we listed the order of finish for most teams in our glances at the fall sports recently.
Here’s what I think our area football state playoff qualifiers will do beyond the regular season. It will be short postseasons for most area teams.
The 5A qualifiers have a chance to go the furthest. After Coeur d’Alene and Lake City meet in the regular-season finale, they’ll turn around and meet again in the first round of the state playoffs.
The winner faces the unenviable task of traveling to Boise for a semifinal. But if that team can pull off a road victory, it would advance to a state title game at the Kibbie Dome.
So which team will win – CdA or LC? If I say now, that will blow all suspense come season’s end. So I’m going to wait until my final installment of Panhandle picks before saying which team will win.
In 4A, Sandpoint will win a first-round game but get flattened against defending state champ Bishop Kelly in the semifinals (see BK 62, Lewiston 7, two weeks ago).
In 3A, Bonners Ferry will win a first-round game but make an exit when it must travel south for a semifinal.
In the 1A playoffs, Wallace will lose a first-round Division I game while Mullan knocks off Post Falls Christian in the first round before getting handled the following week.