Take care of your feelings on the court

I should have watched more closely following the January 4 boys basketball game between Lapwai and Lakeside.

Apparently, there was some friendly trash talking going on, after which the Lapwai player pointed to the scoreboard, still lit up with the Wildcats’ 89-76 win.

Safe to say Lakeside got the last laugh.

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But that’s not news at this point. Neither is the January 4 game.

What is interesting is that it would appear Lapwai removed that game from their online archives.

Again – kind of dumb – so maybe I missed it. But as someone who watches quite a few hours on the subscription service that streams high school sports, I don’t think so.

Oh well, I guess I won’t be able to go back and watch that little interchange.

It would only confirm something most of us know already, that Lakeside has a knack for getting under its opponents’ skin.

Say what you will, but it works with fairly high frequency. Likely 19 out of 21 times. They only won 18 of those, but we have it from a reliable source there was a close loss in there that got the winning team riled up, nonetheless.

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The reason for this line of thought is to lead into something that happened last weekend at the state boys 1AD1 basketball tournament in Caldwell.

The Knights had a bus window broken, which was discovered following their two-point semifinal win over Grace. The window appeared to have had an object thrown against it.

To be clear – no one is ever justified in this kind of behavior.

If you are someone that dwells on trash talk that takes place amidst the adrenaline and atmosphere that come with a high-intensity basketball game, you are free to let your displeasure come out on the court in the form of more points and better defense.

It does no good to stew over the words of a 16-year-old said in the heat of battle once the game has ended.

Were any of us held to the words we said as 16-year-olds, there wouldn’t be many upstanding people left.

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The broken-bus-window routine is familiar for Lakeside, too.

The 2020 football team was leaving Clark Fork on a September evening when a baseball-sized rock, thrown with so much force that it entered one side AND passed through the opposite window, struck the Knights’ bus.

Having a rock thrown at a bus window once in three years is a lot for a rural Idaho school. Forget twice.

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But in the end – even after walking out of their state semifinal win that sent them to the state championship game and finding their bus vandalized – the Knights got the last laugh.

They’ve got the trophy.

And so long as no one throws a rock through the glass that it is encased in, it’s safe.

Collin Scheel is the sports reporter at the Gazette Record.