On Favre, spring sports, and those pesky deadlines
Spring (fever) in Sandpoint
As more than two-feet of snow currently lies icy and cold atop War Memorial Field, a tale of two cities and their spring sports teams unfolds.
In Lewiston, the Bengal tennis team is outdoors trading groundstrokes, practicing second serves and refining volleys, lobs and overhead smashes.
In Sandpoint, at least when they're not shoveling a couple feet of snow off the courts, the tennis team is packed inside the middle school gym, trying to simulate actual tennis in an environment where doing so is impossible.
In Lewiston, the baseball and softball teams take batting practice, field pop flies, work on double plays and cutoffs as they fly around the diamond preparing for their first game
In Sandpoint, the teams hit off a tee into a net, take soft-toss with plastic balls, throw medicine balls back and forth and run around make-shift bases on a basketball court.
In Lewiston, the golfers smash drives down a green fairway, then practice long irons, short chips and putting on the local courses.
In Sandpoint, the golf team also drives, chips and putts. However, they do so on a wrestling mat, with plastic balls and strips of artificial grass laid down to simulate a putting green.
It will be a trial by fire for the teams when the games actually begin, yet nobody familiar with Bulldog athletics doubts they'll be at their best come May, when the games begin to count.
If adversity does indeed build character, the Sandpoint spring sports teams will have the latter in spades. The SHS coaches deserve major props for remaining positive and making the most of a difficult and often trying situation, while fielding solid teams.
A dying breed
So long Brett Favre. The NFL is going to miss your devil-may-care attitude and genuine exuberance for the game of football, with an emphasis on the word game.
Today's breed of NFL quarterbacks are coached to be automatons, game managers, asked not so much to win games as they are not to lose them. They study film ad nauseam, are fed plays through an ear piece in their helmets and are drilled to not stray from their pre-snap progressions. On third and eight, if a play is not there, coaching gospel says quarterbacks should throw the ball into the stands and live to fight another day.
Not Brett Favre. He never met a throw he didn't think he could force in there and complete. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. His play often left his own coaches grinding their teeth, whilst the gray hairs practically sprouted under their headsets. But the riverboat gambler guts that often fueled his impromptu on-field decisions were as strong on his final pass as they were on his first. The good always seemed to outweigh the bad.
Favre also played the game with an easy, natural smile. He managed to make what has become big business still feel like a game. Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning also won Super Bowls, but their cardboard smiles seemed slightly more forced, smacking more of relief than in-the-moment joy.
Enjoy your retirement, gunslinger, the NFL will miss you.
Deadline blues
It wasn't reverse sexism, nor favoritism, when the Sandpoint girls basketball game results and pictures would appear in the next day's Bee, while the boys results would have to wait an extra day. Rather, it was an early deadline, coupled with the nature of the schedule, that made for an interesting winter sports season.
To better explain, let's take a look at a typical night of home hoops action, when the girls and boys would play a varsity doubleheader at Les Rogers Court.
The girls team would tip off first at 6 p.m., usually ending around 7:30-7:45, depending on the zealousness of the officials. With an 8:15 deadline, I had just enough time to get the stats, grab a quote or two from the coach, drive back to the Bee and race to beat the deadline. By the time I returned to the gym, the boys game was in the second half and the story would have to run a day late, short shrift that I had no control over.
A special thanks goes out to all of the SHS and Clark Fork coaches for their diligence in doing all they could to help beat the deadline. Thanks also to the Bee readers, for their patience and understanding when many of the games ran a day late. The deadline has been bumped back another hour recently, so hopefully the bulk of spring sports will see the next day's sports page.
Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at 263-9534, ext. 226, or via email at “eplummer@cdapress.com.”