Soccer, soccer, and more soccer

This just in: They play some mean soccer up in these parts.

Congratulations to the Sandpoint boys soccer team, which re-affirmed its status as one of the dominant sports programs in the state of Idaho with another championship. That’s No. 8 since 2000 for those scoring at home.

If there were any doubts about the level of soccer played in the panhandle, they were quelled last weekend. Besides Sandpoint, Post Falls won the 5A boys title, and Lake City and Post Falls played in the 5A girls final.

Another congratulations goes out to head coach Adam Tajan, who claimed his first state title as the boys coach, adding to a résumé that already boasted four girls titles. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better coaching tandem than Tajan and longtime assistant Ed Bock anywhere in the state. Well done, gentlemen.

The scary part for the rest of the state is that the Bulldogs return many of their best players — including Jeremiah Gagnon, who scored four goals at state, and Joab Logan, who dominated the second half of the year — and will no doubt be the team to beat at the 4A level next season.

• Sandpoint soccer sabbatical

Speaking of next year, look out for the Bulldog girls. It had to sting for them to watch Lake City and Post Falls play for the 5A championship, considering the Bulldogs went 3-0-1 against those two teams during the season.

Alas, the district tournament has proven to be a dangerous minefield in recent years. Three years ago the Bulldog boys might have had the best team in the state, regardless of classification, but were tripped up by Moscow at districts.

This year, it was the Bulldog girls who felt the sting of a district upset, as they may have been one of the top teams in the state. For solace, they can look to the Bulldog boys, who rebounded with a championship upon their return to the state tournament.

Leading scorer Meghan Pagano, a fixture on the team for the past four years, will be sorely missed next year. That said, the cupboard is far from bare, with Sierra Scott, Emma Weme, Heidi Skinner, the Robinson sisters, the Kiebert sisters and goalie Makayla Sundquist, who posted seven shutouts, returning with plenty of fire in the belly.

• Tough as nails!

A while back at the Daily Bee I heard someone say, presumably with a straight face, that soccer players were tougher than football players.

I chalked the comment up to youthful exuberance, as I think most sports fans at least see the humor in such a claim.

No doubt soccer players are tough, and any collisions on the field are magnified by the lack of any pads — save for some shin protection. Since I’ve never played soccer before, I can’t really say which sport is tougher.

What I can say is many of the players on the soccer pitch boast arms only slightly bigger than a garden hose, though they are extremely fit. And while a 200 pound player appears average on a football field, he’d look like a giant on the high school soccer pitch. But that’s merely a size observation, and not a true indicator of toughness.

For that, consider this hypothetical: Put the Seattle Sounders starting 11 and the starting defense of the Seattle Seahawks in an alley, then offer a million dollars to whichever unit can get to the other end first. Care to hazard a guess on who might win this venture?

Regardless, until you’ve strapped it up and taken on an angry 260 pound pulling guard, it’s simply big talk, and cheap as dirt.

• WWJD?

Nothing irks me like a coach running up the score, regardless of the sport, age, level or reason.

So I couldn’t help but send an email to the head boys soccer coach of Northwest Christian in Spokane, after noticing they had beaten Priest River by the ridiculous score of 17-0 this season.

In short, I asked him how he could justify humiliating a clearly overmatched opponent like that. I mentioned watching many of Randy Thoreson’s Sandpoint juggernauts call off the dogs once the score reached about 7-0, opting to work on things other than scoring and not showing anyone up.

I also mentioned Priest River just recently started up a soccer program, and barely has enough kids to field a team. I asked him how he thought the kids on the other side of the score must have felt.

The coach responded that he learned a lot from both the game and the aftermath, and said he had instructed his players only to score on headers in the second half.

Regardless, what goes around usually comes around in the world of sports.

Here’s hoping the Spartans beat Northwest Christian some day, doing so with a little more class.

• Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee. For comments, story ideas or suggestions, he can be reached at eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com.