Crosstown cousins
Highway 95 dissects Coeur d’Alene, with Coeur d’Alene High School to the east and Lake City High School to the west.
But this scenic lake community is not a city divided.
Athletic competition between the two high schools in one town hasn’t produced anything “that is going to end up on Page 1 and be an embarrassment to either school,” Lake City principal John Brumley said. “We’ve avoided that one-upmanship and retaliation. Once that gets started, it’s hard to stop.”
Maybe that’s what happens because of the pride and tradition that develops from almost a century of supporting one city school, which was the case until Lake City opened 14 years ago.
“It’s a great place for high school athletics right now because the town is into what we do,” Lake City football coach Van Troxel said. “It doesn’t matter what sport, they support all activities.
“There aren’t many neutral (fans), but there are a great number of people that are (fans of) both.”
CdA superintendent of schools Harry Amend said, “I would say the rivalry between Coeur d’Alene and Lake City has been uniquely positive.”
That’s not to say that there isn’t a rivalry.
“I think the rivalry has actually developed into one of respect, but it’s obviously very important to both sides whenever we play,” CdA football coach Shawn Amos said. “It hasn’t gone to the ugly status, as far as fans and players go. I don’t want to make it too rosy. There’s still that edge to it, but I’d say it’s a healthy edge. If you lose, you’re still really upset about it.”
Dennis Spencer, who moved to his wife’s hometown more than seven years ago and has children attending Coeur d’Alene, was impressed by what he found.
“When I moved up here, the rivalry was a neat experience,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of schools have this. I think it is actually a very, very healthy rivalry, from the kids.”
Along the way there have been a few incidents. But most of those would be considered minor, the type typically associated with teenagers, not ones that necessitate a call to law enforcement.
Amend, who knows a thing or two about rivalries, credits the community’s long history of supporting the Vikings – or more important, supporting kids – for the civility.
“People here believe an important part of education happens through activities,” said Amend, who was a student at Central Valley when University opened and lived in the Mead district when Mt. Spokane opened. “They benefited by it through high school. They have a belief (that) when a Coeur d’Alene team travels to southern Idaho to play for a state title, they’re getting a lot out of that in the development of their young people.”
Amend proudly displays a picture in his office from last season’s State 5A girls basketball tournament. After the championship game, won by Lake City over top-ranked Coeur d’Alene, the girls on both teams posed, at his urging, for a picture at center court.
“For the most part, we pull for the city,” former school board member Jane Curtis said. “We would obviously rather keep all the state championships in the north, and not just the 5A teams.”
That explains why there were an estimated 6,000 fans from Coeur d’Alene in Moscow when Lake City won the State 5A football championship. Generally, the Timberwolves drew several thousand less for their other games.
Paul Fromm, whose son Nick is projected to be a standout basketball player at LCHS, agreed.
“I’m a Lake City fan because my kids go there, but if my kids’ teams aren’t in the running I cheer for Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “I want the championships to be in North Idaho. Of course, I also pull for Post Falls.”
The community needed a second high school. CdA was double-shifting students in the years before LCHS opened in 1994.
“A positive to having two schools is it doubled the activities for kids,” recently retired Coeur d’Alene athletic director Larry Schwenke said. “Not only sports but band, debate, student government. People were a little concerned about the quality of competition when we split, but if you look at the records, Coeur d’Alene and Lake City have won a number of championships.”
The big difference is that instead of waiting for the postseason for the intensity to increase, every sport has a midseason game or two between the intercity rivals.
“The bottom line is you have to choose sides, but then, hopefully, everybody can be a grown up when the games are over,” said Curtis, whose daughter was an athlete at CdA. “We want positive things to happen to kids.”
Building a clean, healthy rivalry did not come about by accident.
“We were so excited because we so desperately (needed a second school),” said Curtis, whose tenure on the board included the years of planning and opening Lake City. “But everything comes with challenges. The Coeur d’Alene school district did a good job. Looking back, some things could have been done better, but for the most part we did really well. Kids will be kids. You’ve got to remember that.”
Curtis believes that some early difficulties were probably the result of jealousy. Lake City was a beautiful building with top-of-the-line facilities. CdA was showing the wear and tear of age.
Brumley was the principal at CdA and one of his assistants was Steve Casey, a best friend from college. When Brumley moved to the new school, Casey became principal, until retiring two years ago.
“The two of us met once a month,” Brumley said. “The fact we had a close relationship between the two administrative teams helped. It kept us very out in front of any issues that might be arising.”
There were also combined school activities like dances, so friends who were separated could socialize.
“We started off on the right foot and we’ve continued those things,” Brumley said. “In most communities where there are two high schools, there are a lot of unhealthy rivalries. We’ve had just a couple of little things, but it’s kind of a unique situation. I talk to colleagues in (southern Idaho) and it’s not like that.”
The next step was to remodel CdA, which has been done.
“This community was very proud, very happy to build a new school,” Amend said. “They were as proud of it as they always were of Coeur d’Alene. Now both are beautiful schools. That’s a source of community pride.”
Another thing that kept the rivalry in check was another budget crisis. One consideration was the elimination of freshman programs. The solution was “Cruise for Kids,” a combined fundraiser that split proceeds equally and saved the programs. It continues to this day.
Another combined fundraiser is a new-car raffle, although each school keeps the money from tickets its students sell.
“Working together for a common goal, those kinds of things bring unity,” Schwenke said. “A large segment in our community supports both schools. A lot of Coeur d’Alene alumni have kids at Lake City.”
There are also community youth programs, such as Little League and soccer, that know no boundaries when teams are formed.
“Our kids hang out, but when it comes to competing they don’t necessarily like us and we don’t necessarily like them,” Troxel said.
Donna Messenger, a retired track and cross country coach at both schools, said, “The kids know each other, sometimes they have even been teammates. Sometimes they’re playing against their cousins. To me the whole challenge is: Can they compete hard when they’re on the field and then shake hands afterwards? That is partly the job of the coaches and adults in the situation to make that happen.”
It seems to work.
“Coaching all those years in Montana, I understand Butte-Butte Central and what goes on (there),” Troxel said of a rivalry known to get extremely out of control. “We’ve had very few incidents that were ugly. That’s what makes this, right now, a great rivalry. It’s just a competitive rivalry.”
“Those school rivalries have become dangerously unhealthy,” said Spencer, who is from Hawaii and lived in North Carolina. “Our generation – and I’m very much guilty myself – we have put way too much emphasis on youth activities and kind of lost focus that this is North Idaho. … I still think we are (far removed) from the problems other cities have, but I don’t think it’s as wholesome and healthy as when I moved here.
“It’s still incredible and still a great place to raise kids.”
The football game fills the stands and the basketball spirit games, called the Fight for the Fish, turn away people.
“Since I was at Walla Walla, we didn’t really have a rival per se, nothing like Kennewick-Kamiakin, Richland-Pasco,” Lake City boys basketball coach Jim Thacker said. “I was never really involved in anything like that until I got here. It’s really a spectacular event. It’s not the game. It’s the enthusiasm, the fan support. The game is almost secondary. Last year my ears were still ringing two days afterwards.”
Randy Russell, the CdA principal, also knows his rivalries. His high school rival in Montana was another community school, and the antagonists only saw each other at the game. He noticed while at North Central that within the Greater Spokane League there seemed to be a rivalry game every weekend and they didn’t mean much to the general community.
Not so in Couer d’Alene.
“It was an eye-opener for me,” Russell said. “Here, when it’s Fight for the Fish the whole town shuts down. Here, you’re seeing people all the time … and when the event is over your life goes back to being normal and you still see those same people.”
Spencer agreed but sounded a word of caution.
“No one wants to point fingers. All people, myself included, come up short sometimes,” he said. “Personally, I think the parents from both schools are probably the ones that have a tendency to push it toward the unhealthy level.
“I don’t think they’ve gotten that far but, in my humble opinion, it’s heading in that direction. There seems to be a faction at both schools that seem to be allowed to go unchecked.”
That is a good reason for fans, and their children, to remain civil, as is Messenger’s message.
“I believe in the value of sports and lessons they teach so much, I can’t believe it’s been an unhealthy rivalry,” she said. “I know if it is left up to the kids those rivalries would be healthy.”