Rivals & Friends Coeur D’Alene Students Adjust To New School

What do you do when your new biggest rival happens to be your best friend? For Regan Long and Stacey Dawson of Coeur d’Alene, it was tough. The two girls had been best friends since junior high school; suddenly they were competing against each other at softball games.

“It was hard to have a strong sense of rivalry and to throw out close friends and old teammates,” said Long, who went to Coeur d’Alene’s new high school, Lake City, last fall, leaving her friend behind at Coeur d’Alene High.

But they did it, as did hundreds of other friends and former classmates who split last fall when the city went to two high schools. A year later, students and staff agree it was an interesting and generally successful event.

Before the split, students were disappointed because they were going to miss their friends at the other school, while the others violently cried their eyes out fearing the end of the world. Anyone who is not included in those two categories just convinced their parents to pack up and move across town - and boundary lines.

When school started and the who-goes-where issue had died down, the which-school-is-better issue got going full bore. Lake City, being the “new school,” had a new facility and almost all new equipment. The only things missing were trophies in the cases and tradition.

Coeur d’Alene, the “old school,” was in the middle of being remodeled so the majority of classes were held in the portables, and the library was in a concrete room that resembled a garage.

This difference in facilities made the Coeur d’Alene students feel neglected and maybe even a little cheated. The first signs of relief for the wallowing Coeur d’Alene students was after Lake City lost every single varsity football game. I imagine students from Coeur d’Alene mentioned that to Lake City students a time or two.

As you may have guessed, the biggest issue between schools was the sports rivalry. If you missed any of the games, don’t worry because the local newspapers covered every one.

Although teachers, coaches and other adults in the community didn’t set a foot on the fields or courts, they also were involved in the rivalry.

Before every game there was more anticipation and desire to win than ever before among the teachers.

Andrea Partington, an English teacher at Lake City, mentions this competitiveness by admonishing, “That should be left up to the kids, and we should be careful that the rivalry does not deteriorate into animosity that hurts everybody.”

Things finally started to cool down a bit when the main building was finished at Coeur d’Alene near the end of the semester. It was equipped with the same 26-inch color TVs, with VCRs in every class, new desks and - of course - the same rule of no food or drink on the carpet. Best of all, the library was moved out of the garage.

As the year drew to a close, plans still stood to hold the senior ball together at Templin’s in Post Falls - a decision made a year earlier when students were trying to keep friendships intact. Everything went well, but many people felt it was awkward to be with people they hadn’t seen all year. Don’t be surprised if there are separate senior balls next year.

All in all, students quickly got used to two schools and were generally happy with the way things worked out. Friends from the two schools were divided along with the buildings, but close friends are still just as close off the field, as Dawson points out.

“I basically felt there wasn’t as much competition because we were all friends just having fun,” she said.

There were many positive things that came along with the hardships.

“The split was the greatest thing that ever happened to the Coeur d’Alene School District,” said Mike Palmer, a Spanish teacher at Coeur d’Alene. “It doubled the number of kids who can participate in school activities.”

It’s true, as many students who normally wouldn’t have made it on a team would agree.

The first year was one of many changes: no more crowded halls, parking lots, lines and no more teachers roaming from class to class.

Things are still changing. Lake City is filling up its trophy case and building tradition. Coeur d’Alene is building a new sports complex and hoping to complete remodeling soon. Both schools are building up where they are weak, and with these changes people will get to know Coeur d’Alene as a two high-school town.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Another new school? Does all this talk about Coeur d’Alene’s new high school make you wonder about what’s happening up north in the Mead School District? Mead has wanted to open a second high school for years now, but opposition to the site has slowed things up a bit. Not to worry; an administrator said last week the problems have been solved and construction is about to start. The new school, currently unnamed, is scheduled to open the fall of 1997 - so students who are sophomores this fall will be the school’s first graduating seniors.