Best of the best
BUTTE — Normally, the football season ends in the fall, but for Kolten Andrews, Danny Blevins and Charlo head coach Mike Krahn, they got to play one more game.
The two seniors were selected to the Cleverley Eight-Man All-Star Football Game, held last weekend in Butte at Montana Tech’s stadium.
BUTTE — Normally, the football season ends in the fall, but for Kolten Andrews, Danny Blevins and Charlo head coach Mike Krahn, they got to play one more game.
The two seniors were selected to the Cleverley Eight-Man All-Star Football Game, held last weekend in Butte at Montana Tech’s stadium.
Also selected was Arlee’s Zack Tameler, who was a home run running back for the Warriors all season long. Tameler’s highlight reel would have made Barry Sanders blush.
Krahn was named the defensive coach of the Blue Team and worked with not only his own players but other high school athletes that stood out last fall.
“The neat thing is that you see all these kids you faced during during the season and now they’re on the same team,” Krahn said. “It’s amazing how they all gel together in a short time. You really get to find out the personalities of the kids.”
The Blue team, with all three Lake County athletes on the roster, picked up the 49-22 victory last Saturday. Krahn said that despite just five days to put together a gameplan with players not use to each other, things went off without a hitch.
“Suprisingly, it’s a lot easier than you think,” Krahn said. “You anticipate it’s going to be tough but it’s amazing how it works once the kids get there.”
While there is some jostling of the positions, as Krahn said he even had a defensive end playing as an outside linebacker, everyone responds well to the competition.
“Sometimes you end up with a running back playing as a lineman and things like that. They’re all good kids and athletes,” Krahn said. “By the second day, all the kids had picked it up.”
Blevins and Andrews certainly deserved to be at the game playing as both contributed mightily to Charlo football.
“Unless you win a state championship, you end your season with a loss and the kids are kind of dissapointed,” Krahn said. “For me, it’s a great deal to be able to coach these kids one more time.”
Andrews certainly had his fair share of adversity as he had to overcome two knee injuries during his high school career. With his hard work, Andrews looked great out on the field during his senior season.
“He had both his knees operated on,” Krahn said. “He could have hung it up and stopped playing, I think more kids would have hung it up, but he stuck with it.”
Blevins and Andrews have both played football since they were in sixth grade, Krahn added. Both had great games against some of the best competition in the state and Blevins played both ways for the Blue Team.
Blevins also got a chance to be coached by legendary Superior coach Dan Lucier, who’s leaving the Bobcats after decades of coaching for a position in Pullman, Wash.
“So Danny can say he was one of the last players in Montana to be coached by Lucier,” Krahn said.
The eight-man all-star game is a bit different than the East-West Shrine Game since both teams rotate the regions that they draw the kids from. That means there’s no running record of which region, east-west or north-south, had done better.
“So there isn’t that overlying tension there,” Krahn said.
Win, lose or draw, the all-star games give players and coaches a chance to make memories one last time. While it will be football season in no time in Charlo, and the Vikings are already gearing up for their “Monday Night Football” workouts, the all-star game is a good chance for seniors to have one more positive appearance out on the football field.
“It’s just all around a great experience,” Krahn said.