Gunderson leaves a legacy

As a freshman, Breanne Kelley, who has become an all-state

athlete in several sports for the Lady Pirates, decided what spring

sport to take: track. But it wasn't an easy choice; one of her

concerns was if Bob Gunderson was going to be leading the team.

As a freshman, Breanne Kelley, who has become an all-state athlete in several sports for the Lady Pirates, decided what spring sport to take: track. But it wasn't an easy choice; one of her concerns was if Bob Gunderson was going to be leading the team.

"I was talking with her out at the track and she asked if I was going to be around and I said that I would coach for four more years," Gunderson said. "I haven't made a promise like that before."

Kelley would go on to become a top point-getter for the girls' track team and would be on two state championship teams. Gunderson did, in fact, coach four more years and Kelley graduated from Polson last week. He will now step down as track and field coach after a career chock full of championships and memories.

In the 34 years he spent coaching track and field, Polson head coach Bob Gunderson spent just one year away from the program. And during his hiatus during the 1991-92 school year, Gunderson coached middle school track and discovered a hidden treasure trove of athletes.

"They had a whole bunch of enthusi-astic boys in middle school," Gunderson said. "This was probably the best bunch of seventh grade boys that ever came out for track."

While he would quickly jump back into the position of head coach for the boy's track team after his replacement left after one year, he didn't forget the core group of athletes that would lead Polson to a state championship in 1996.

"Mindy Harwood called them ‘The Stable' (referring to a bunch of horses)," Gunderson said.

The Pirates were so dominant that year, that not only were their times and marks good enough to take the Class A crown but it would have also been tops in Class AA, B, C as well.

With six individual state champions, the Pirates scored 107 points, significantly more than the second-place team, Glendive, who scored 80. It was Polson's eighth state championship in boy's track and field, and it was their first since 1981.

And it was that 1981 team that took exception to a comment made by Gunderson after divisionals that his 1996 team might be the best team this town has ever seen.

"I made a comment about the best team and on Monday at practice there were five men from the 1981 team, who came over and they begged to differ," Gunderson said with a smile.

But that's the nature of Polson, a town that has a rich track and field tradition. Until 1993, when the Pirates won their first boys' basketball state championship, all of the high school's titles had come in track and field.

Polson has five boys' track and field Class B titles. In 1965, the Pirates won every race at the state track meet. They won Class A titles in 1974 and when Gunderson came to town in 1977, he would lead the town to further glory in the sport.

"This was a track town," Gunderson said.

Getting started

Gunderson said that when he was in high school at Hingham, by Havre, he participated in track as a supplement.

"I did track but only to make me better a better basketball player," Gunderson said.

Doing the distance runs, Gunderson said that the town didn't have a track so as the "pre-warmup" the team would have to run six miles to the nearest town with a track.

In 1970, he got his first coaching job as an assistant in boys basketball and the track program in Havre. While he was a basketball aficionado, Gunderson had to cut his teeth in track and field by teaching the throwers.

"I learned as I went," Gunderson said.

However in his second year, his javelin throwers took first and fifth in the state and helped Havre to the 1971 state championship.

"We won by the points that they scored," Gunderson said.

After that, Gunderson was hooked on the sport. He would coach two years in Plains and then three years in Chester as the head basketball coach before coming to Polson in the 1976-77 school year, and he's been here ever since.

"I've always liked Polson," Gunderson said. "I just like the town, and the people are great."

Gunderson earned his first team state trophy in 1979 when the Pirates took third at state, and then he earned his first state championship in 1981.

The boys had placed fourth at the divisional by scoring 41 total points but ended up scoring 44 points for the state title.

"This is the only time that I know of that a team scored more points at a state track meet than they did at the divisional during the same season," Gunderson said.

Throughout his years here, he's created a juggernaut. Polson had six consecutive years in the mid-90s when the team placed in the top three at state. The Pirates had a 14-year streak where they either won the divisional title or finished second.

And as an assistant of the girls' track team, Gunderson saw team state championships in 2003 and 2004. As a head coach, he saw girls' titles in 2008 and 2010.

When asked about the success, Gunderson brings up his co-workers, the assistant coaches, who make the track and field team a well-oiled machine.

"I can't believe how lucky I've been while coaching here," Gunderson said. "They should have all the credit. Those coaches do all the trench work."

The track

For 27 of his years in Polson, Gunderson coached on a cinder track at Linderman Elementary.

"You had to have it watered for four to five hours," Gunderson said. "They'd bring out the city water trucks and spray it down until it was mud."

Then they would pull a drag over the track, slurring it up and then wait for it dry and harden. It would firm up and then it would take over an hour to chalk up the lines for the meet.

"With three or four track meets a year, that's a lot of work," Gunderson said. "Your clothes were black and oily, and it was just unbelievable."

Due to it being a cinder track, Gunderson's kids would actually practice by running on the inside of the track, and the hurdlers would run down the jumpers' runways.

And at every meet, there was the finish line crew, a group of community members that had been doing it for over 40 years when Gunderson first got to town.

He said he made the mistake during his second home meet in Polson of questioning the timing during a race. Head timer Les Thomas set him straight.

"I walked away, and I would never ask him another question about the timing," Gunderson said with a laugh.

Over 17 years ago, tragedy delivered a blow and a big loss to the community with the loss of two friends dear to Gunderson.

Thomas and Toby Nelson both served on the finish line timing crew and were staples of Polson track and field throughout the years. However, Thomas was killed in a car accident near Ronan and Nelson also passed away at roughly the same time.

"In one week we had two of the largest funerals that this town has seen," Gunderson said.

Retiring

There's a lot for the head track coach to do. It's time consuming keeping track of equipment and times, making sure uniforms are clean and ready to go, along with dealing with a large team of athletes.

Gunderson's Sunday rituals during track season included church and then going through the papers and ranking all the kids in the state. In fact, papers from around Western Montana would call up the coach before the state meets to see who was the favorite to win.

He was usually right.

"Most of the time it's pretty consistent," Gunderson said. "It could change a little bit with events but it usually evens out."

Along with that, Gunderson has had years and years of developing friendships with his athletes and fellow coaches. He said that he can go to every town in Montana and run into somebody he knows. He said he'll certainly miss being able to work with all the kids. While Gunderson won't be entering his athletes into invitationals and working on his famous statistical databases of marks and times, he won't be slowing down either.

"I don't want to go to the coffee shop and tell stories," Gunderson said. "I've always been a busy guy."

He'll continue to teach at the high school and also be an assistant coach for the boys' basketball team, but he'll get a little more free time when track season rolls around.

"I've never had a spring break," Gunderson said. "Next year I'm going to go see my grandson play tennis in Lewistown."

And he'll now get to sit back and enjoy a track meet as opposed to the rigors of running around from event to event as a head coach.

"I know I will have withdrawal symptoms next year, but I feel it is time for someone younger to take over the program," Gunderson said. "It went by quickly until I started to think and remember about all the things that had happened."