THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM WITH ALL THE TROPHIES

by Brandon Hansen & Sports Editor
| June 7, 2012 8:00 AM

With apologies to Green Bay, Polson might have a bigger claim to the name “Titletown, U.S.A.”The state of high school athletics in this town is bor-derline dynastic. In the 2011-12 school year, Polson won three state championships, something that shouldn’t be considered “routine” or “business as usual.”

However, the coaches and athletes donning the Pirates Purple and Gold have made it seem like that. I have always considered high school sports much tougher to build successful programs since you can’t choose your players like you can in college and pros. You’re at the mercy of how enrollment sways and what talent is com-ing down the pipeline.

However, looking at what every Polson coach has been able to accomplish in their respec-tive sport, there’s not a whole lot that townsfolk can com-plain about when it comes to their sports.

(Other than perhaps the cost of traveling to all these state tournaments. But who doesn’t like a riveting drive from the biggest lake in the Western U.S. to Butte, which has the world’s biggest ecological disaster, the Berkley Pit?)

Let’s take a look at the scorecard shall we? If this were one of those NFL films that is a season recap, the one for Polson High School might be roughly four hours long.

During the fall season, Scott Wilson’s Polson Pirate football team didn’t allow a touchdown for several weeks and went undefeated in the regular season. The New England Patriots couldn’t have scored on the Pirates’ defense. Jan Toth’s volleyball team was a gritty, technically-sound bulldozer that took it to the rest of the Northwestern A en route to another conference championship. Michael Hewston’s girls soccer team made it to the postseason with several young players on the roster. Jess Kittle’s soccer team advanced to the state champion-ship and Kittle was named the Montana Coach of the Year, and the Mountain Region Coach of the Year.

(I’ve almost run out of breath here).

In cross country, the girls took home the Northwestern A crown while running at the Polson Bay Golf Course thanks to more talented underclassmen.

And speaking of golf, the Polson Lady Pirates took home the state title in dominant fashion. In most of the golf tournaments they attended throughout the season, Polson usually had the first three or four spots on the leaderboard filled. Head coach Bill Owen was also named coach of the year after the successful campaign.

I’m pretty sure Owen could turn even me into a half-decent golfer, and I’m the kind of guy that finds water more often than geese when I’m out on the links.

And we’re not done yet. That’s just the fall season. Many schools would be ecstatic about success like that over several school years, but Polson managed to do it in two months.

During the winter, both the Pirates and Lady Pirates made the state basketball tournament. Randy Kelly had the Polson girls basketball team fine-tuned for fast breaks and a smothering defense. Forget scoring against the Lady Pirates, teams were happy if they could get past half court against the crushing Polson press.

Polson boys head coach Brad Pluff led his team to the state tournament for the third straight year. This season really showed the heart of the boys basketball team. After losing several seniors from the 2011 team and then star post player Tyler Krell due to injury towards the end of the season in 2012, the Pirates adjusted their offense and put together an impressive showing at the NWA Divisional Tournament.

They defeated Whitefish in the challenge game of the tournament to advance to state.

I’ll also never forget Riley Sampson being a vacuum cleaner under the basketball for the boys basketball team. There’s one kid that didn’t care about a pretty stat line but meant so much to his team when it counted. Sampson was like Dennis Rodman without the piercings and the funny hair, but since he’s got one more year of high school, that’s still a possibility.

Bob Owen’s wrestling team, never to be short on toughness and persistence, won their third straight divisional title and competed well at state. The most promising thing about Polson wrestling? Lots of those kids are coming back.

In the spring, Polson pulled off the dual state championship feat. The Polson softball team won its seventh championship in school history and third straight. Head coach Larry Smith made sure his team hit its peak at exactly the right time - the state tournament.

Frenchtown had beaten the Lady Pirates twice during the regular season but couldn’t pull it off in the undefeated semi-final game of the state tournament and Polson would go on to beat Belgrade for the gold.

Then there’s the Polson tennis program which looks incredibly strong thanks to the hard work of head coach Bob Hislop. Hislop has built a roster of young talent on both teams and the Lady Pirates took home the state championship this year, while the boys took fourth.

I don’t think my college’s tennis program was run as well as Hislop’s. I remember listening to a Libby parent at divisionals and they flat out said at the beginning of the tournament, “Oh Polson is two or three times better than any of the other schools hands down. They’ll win it.”

And there wasn’t a hint of disdain in their voice. The person sounded like they were in awe. Both Polson teams won the Northwestern A divisional title and the girls took a whopping nine players to the state tournament.

Polson track had several top marks at the state meet, including Sampson, who took second in the shot put and Claudia Hewston, who took second in the 1,600-meter race. All signs show that the track program should be in good hands with Mike Ellis at the helm as head coach.

(Maybe I should just start making Riley Sampson fan club shirts already? I’m sorry the kid is just good at sports)

All of this in just one school year.

For a Class A school that has roughly 500 kids, that’s impressive. Whitefish and Columbia Falls have much higher enrollments, with the Wildcats being a borderline AA-sized school. Libby is dead even with Polson in enrollment. Yet the Pirates and Lady Pirates continue to be the toast of the conference and have been so for a marked amount of time.

My high school back in Washington state was a similar size as Polson and I’m pretty sure we had two athletic kids altogether and the rest just liked wearing the uniforms. It isn’t very often when a school can put three state championship trophies in the hallway display case.

Then if you factor in all the conference championships and individual champions, you’ve got to think all that hardware is getting pretty crowded.

It was nice to see the outpouring of support from the local businesses who put a word of congratulations for the state champs on their message boards in town. Fans should really enjoy this period of Polson athletics with a stable and hard-working coaching staff, a large group of super talented athletes walking the halls of the high school and one cool Pirate mascot.

Because, come on, if the MHSA had a championship for mascots, the Pirate would most definitely have a few trophies.

Everyone else in the school does.