PHS coach hands over boys soccer reins

Tenured ten year coach Jess Kittle tendered his resignation at the end of the Fall 2014 season recently after a decade at the helm of the Polson boys soccer program.  

Health issues arose which imposed their demands upon a preference to devote time and energy into coaching, prompting the decision to step aside.

A week after the soccer season ended, Kittle schedule an appointment with the doctor to evaluate the status of his broken wrist sustained during a practice session.

 While there it was decided to schedule a follow up CT scan regarding a desmoid tumor that had been removed after his first year as coach nine seasons ago.

The CT scan revealed a recurrence and a biopsy two weeks after that verified  that the  tumor had returned.

Desmoid tumors are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an intermediate (locally aggressive) fibromatosis.

While not viewed as a benign growth,  they are also not considered malignant.   

But because they can aggressively expand, it must be dealt with and treated as if cancerous, although it does not metastasize or spread throughout the body.   

Some doctors classify desmoids as cancer and other doctors don’t.

In the course of gathering material pertaining to coverage about his resignation, coach Kittle felt that the occasion would  provide a valuable platform for calling attention to the affliction and educating the public about the nature of the disease that afflicts three people per million.

The website on the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation can be viewed at:

http://www.dtrf.org/index.php/about-br-desmoid-tumors/about-desmoid-tumors.html

Nine years ago, Kittle not only had to have the tumor surgically removed from his left side, he also had to undergo over two dozen radiation treatments to destroy remaining tumor cells as a precaution against any that may have escaped detection during the surgical procedure.  All too aware of what he had to endure the last time, it was felt that he would be stretching things too thin undergoing treatments and then still trying to give his all to the soccer program.  Kittle recalls, “last time was several months before I could get around normally and I still couldn’t dive to my left side in practice for two years.”  Hence the decision to hand over the reins of the program.

Coach Kittle was the program’s junior varsity coach back in 2004 when then varsity coach Jim Stephan resigned following that season.  Kittle recalls, “I was not going to apply for the varsity job. But several of the players on the team that year called me and asked me to apply… It took about a week for them to convince me…. I’m glad they did, I had a wonderful 10 years of coaching because of them.

 Over the ten year span under Kittle‘s tenure, the Polson boys soccer team has amassed 38 wins and tied 15 times.  Kittle’s career highlights include Polson sweeping Whitefish in 2010 as well as capturing the Northern Conference crown with a conference record of 7-0-1.  The Pirates made it as far as the state semifinals that year as the #1 seed out of the North.

 The following season in 2011, Polson finished their conference schedule with a 6-2 record, taking the #2 seed out of the North into the playoffs. Along the way they beat Livingston (Park) 1-0 on the road, then traveled down to Hamilton.  

The Pirates and Broncs ended regulation in a 1-1 tie, then played 20 minutes longer of scoreless soccer.    

The tie precipitated a shootout, where Polson missed its first shot while Hamilton netted theirs.  But thereafter, the Pirates scored three shots in a row while the Polson keeper shut down the Bronc kickers by denying them another chance to score more.  The win sent Polson to the state championship game at Whitefish.   The Bulldogs were the only team to beat the Pirates that season.  Down 0-1 in the championship, a Pirate player had an opportunity to net the equalizer when the ball recoiled off the keeper on the left side of the net.  His redirected rebound rocket ricocheted off the left sidebar and unfortunately for the Pirates, a Bulldog defender was able to clear the ball out before another Polson foot could pull the trigger on another attempt. Kittle has also coached several Spring soccer seasons, even guiding a couple of co-ed teams that integrated boys from Mission Valley Christian Academy (MVCA) along with girls from both MVCA and Polson High School as well as a couple of U18 girls squads.  He started his coaching career in the late 1990s in the Polson Youth Soccer Association Fall recreation program.

 Kittle  was nominated for the state Coach of the Year (COY) in 2010, although the award was conferred upon the Libby coach that season.  Nominated once again in 2011, this time the state COY award would bear his name.  “A few weeks after that I was informed that I had also won the Rocky Mountain states COY,”  the region including the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.  Being one of 8 nominees for the national COY award that season, he embarked upon the pilgrimage to the national convention in Kansas City in January of 2012. Kittle recalls, “I will never forget that trip, it was amazing to see all the clinic presenters and vendors there. I did not win the national COY but I felt honored just to be a nominee.”

(See Leader article  - http://www.leaderadvertiser.com/sports/article_e25ad8ce-2c20-11e1-b4f9-0019bb2963f4.html.)

Among some of Kittle’s other favorite memories are the “County Fair” conditioning practices.  Kittle was aware that “the boys had a love/hate relationship with these conditioning practices.

They knew it was going to be hard on them, but they also knew they would be in much better shape because of them. We always tried to make it fun, even though it was hard work.”

Then sports editor Brandon Hanson injected himself into some of these practice regimens.  His observations were what Kittle considers to be his favorite article from his coaching career.  

Article can be viewed at: http://www.leaderadvertiser.com/opinion/article_6111c80c-b144-11df-bf5e-001cc4c002e0.html?TNNoMobile

While Kittle may have stepped aside to allow time to recover from his ordeal, his heart will still remain dyed purple & gold with affection for the soccer program.  He will continue to operate his business Kittle Custom Home Design and Kittle’s Natural Produce.