ON TO MONTANA

A funny thing happened once Caitlin Courchaine went to college.

After playing on two state Class 4A girls championship teams, and a state runner-up squad her senior year at Central Valley, Courchaine had walked away from basketball after graduation, heading off to Washington State University to be a student.

“Washington State is just so big and it felt weird to not be playing basketball,” Courchaine said. “I didn’t realize it at the time.”

Instead of basketball, she worked. She traveled – including a monthlong trip to Italy to visit her sister.

But when it came time to head off for her sophomore year of college, the urge to play a game she’d dedicated herself to throughout a stellar prep career came back strong.

“It just sort of hit me: I missed basketball. I decided to just see what my options were.”

Courchaine got in touch with Dale Poffenroth. Poffenroth had just applied for the vacant head coaching position at North Idaho College and put in a good word for his former swing guard.

Poffenroth didn’t get the job, but Courchaine, a second-team All-Greater Spokane League player three consecutive seasons at CV, got a spot on the Cardinals roster.

“At first, I was a little intimidated, but then again, not really,” she said. “(Coach) Chris (Carlson) was always very welcoming. It was a lot like riding a bike – you just pick it right back up, get going and get training.

“I just felt like I wasn’t burned out like I was coming right out of high school (At NIC). I knew 110 percent that this is what I wanted to do. There were no doubts and I went in and gave it my best. My second year there I really enhanced my play.”

And helped the Cardinals to the Scenic West Athletic Conference regular season championship and a runner-up finish in the National Junior College Region 18 Tournament, earning second-team SWAC honors and a spot on the All-Region 18 team.

Along the way, the 5-foot-8-inch guard led her conference in free throw percentage (87 percent), was a top-five finisher in shooting percentage (47 percent) and averaged 11 points per game.

Now, Courchaine will take her game to Helena and the Fighting Saints of Carroll College – following the lead of one of her oldest friends.

“Katie Rogers’ dad and my dad have been friends since the fourth grade,” Courchaine explained. “We’ve known each other since we were in diapers, and we played together my sophomore and junior seasons at CV. She went on to play at Spokane Falls and then went to play at Carroll when I was at NIC.”

The reports about playing college basketball at Carroll were enticing, so Courchaine asked the NIC staff to submit recruiting tapes to coach Shawn Nelson and his staff – hoping there would be a need for a guard.

As luck would have it, there was.

Courchaine was one of the first players recruited by Nelson and his staff for the 2006-07 season.

“Caitlin has won championships at every level and knows what it takes to succeed,” Nelson said in a press release. “She is very fast and has the ability to get up and down the court in a hurry, which will keep the pressure on opposing defenses. She is very good at finishing off the dribble and will make everybody better with her passing skills.”

Courchaine has spent two weeks on campus this summer, helping the Saints with their summer camp and getting to know her new teammates.

“They have a talented roster,” she said. “I’m really impressed by the two weeks I was there for camps and the way they coach. I was impressed by the girls – the camaraderie and the chemistry that was there already.”

But what Helena doesn’t have is her family. At NIC, Courchane’s mother and father, Stan and Lisa Courchaine, attended every game, as did her grandmother, Helen.

“Having my grandma, Grandma Helen, able to come to all of my games was awesome,” she said. “She’s my biggest fan.

“She’s probably going to miss watching me play the most. My parents will be getting an update almost every single day on the telephone, but Grandma Helen is going to miss it, for sure.”

Also gone is the connection that had her grandmother most excited about North Idaho.

“She has the Swedish connection with the Carlsons – his parents are Swedish and so is she,” Courchaine explained. “That was a big thing for her. She’s already asking if Shawn Nelson, the coach at Carroll, is Swedish, but he’s not. It’s kind of a bummer.”