Fall Sports Preview

ARLEE FOOTBALL

Arlee’s football team should be a force to be reckoned with again this year. After a tough loss in the first round of the playoffs against Great Falls Central Catholic, the team is looking to bounce back. They are returning six starters out of 18 kids they have out this year.

Returners include seniors Patrick Big Sam and Brad Brazil, who are both All-State players. There is no lack of talent for the Warriors, who also return All-Conference players Harold Yocum and Tyler Tanner.

The team has a new head coach this year in Todd Yocum, who has been an assistant the last couple of years. He said among the team’s goals are to win the district and make playoffs again.

This year, their conference will include Plains, who dropped down from Class B.

Their first game will be against Victor on Friday in Arlee.

 ARLEE VOLLEYBALL

The Arlee Scarlets are returning all but one starter this year as they try to make it to the top of their district. Coach Lonnie Morin said her goals for the team this year are to improve their knowledge of the game. She also said she hopes to put a middle hitter into their offense. “We’re just trying to get them to play good, solid volleyball,” she said.

The team is returning some talented players, including all around athletes senior Becca Whitesell and junior Carly Hergett, just to name a few. The team has 20 girls out.

Morin is back to coaching high school volleyball after a few years at the junior high level. She used to be the head coach when her daughter was playing, and now will have her help as the assistant coach.

Arlee’s first games will be in Phillipsburg next weekend at an opening tournament.

 ARLEE CROSS COUNTRY

The Arlee cross country team will be led by coach Ashley Gaumer for the second year. The team, which has about 15 kids out, returns some great runners, including senior Becca Whitecell, who will be doubling up her fall sports by doing both cross country and volleyball. Whitesell placed 19th at the state meet last year. Coach Gaumer said her goals for the year are to build the team up and work on individual growth. She also said there are a lot of returners looking to be state competitors, including Ivory Brien and Isaac Desjarlais, who was injured last year. Desjarlais is also competing in football. To compete at the state meet, boys have to run under 30 minutes, and girls have to run under 33 minutes.

 CHARLO FOOTBALL

Charlo’s football team is ready to continue their winning ways this year after a tough loss in the first round of the playoffs last year. Helping to reach that goal will be the return of senior quarterback Michael Delaney, who broke his leg last season. Coach Mike Krahn said Delaney is a leader on the field, along with senior Gage Smith. Smith is an All-State running back and full back for the Vikings.

The team lost four starters to graduation, but have 24 kids out this year. That number allows the team to scrimmage amongst themselves. Coach Krahn said their goal for the year is to win the conference and to secure home field advantage in the playoffs. With Delaney back, Trent Dennison, who filled in as quarterback last year, will be more available. Krahn said Dennison is a great punt returner and defensive player, but was not able to play both sides of the ball last year because they didn’t want him to get hurt and lose another quarterback.

 CHARLO VOLLEYBALL

The Charlo volleyball team is not short on girls this year, with 30 kids out. New head coach Cammie Evenson will have plenty of talent to work with. Evenson, who is originally from Richey, Montana, said her main goals for the year are to give the girls the knowledge to be the best they can be, and help them reach their full potential. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement already,” she said last week at a practice. Returning starters include seniors Mikaylan Roylance and Ashley Tryon. Last year, the team won the district tournament.

MISSION VOLLEYBALL

The Mission volleyball team lost seven seniors to graduation this past year, and will rely on a few girls that have had varsity experience. Jordan Eichert and Sidney Castor are returning starters for the Bulldogs, and will be leaders for the team, according to head coach Kendal Anderson. The eighth year coach said they are lacking height this year, and hope to make up for it with a scrappy defense. They have been conditioning, and hope to beat teams by tiring them out. “We want to make other teams make mistakes on offense,” Anderson said.

Mission will be hosting an opening tournament this weekend with ten teams, including conference rival Ronan.

 MISSION FOOTBALL

Mission’s football team is back with some important experience after losing five senior starters, including all-around athlete Raymond Matt. New head coach and Athletic Director Jake Bosley said the Bulldogs have a big senior class this year, with some kids who have been starting for four years. He said the team has an outstanding group of lineman and a great quarterback in senior Nick Durglo. Bosley said their goal for the season is to take care of the regular season and make the playoffs. As one of the smaller Class B schools, Mission will have to go up against schools that are twice their size, including Ronan and Anaconda. Bosley said the team has been to two different camps in the offseason. Their first opponent will be Eureka, who they beat last year in their opening game.

 MISSION CROSS COUNTRY

The Mission cross country team only has six kids out this year, but more might be coming in the following years with the start of the a middle school program. New head coach Chris Eichert said that the middle school program will start when school starts, and that there has been some interest in the sport. All of the high school runners are returners this year, and senior Tate Weingart said everyone improved last year and have continued to improve over the summer. Other returners include senior Wyatt Decker and sophomores Shaniya Decker and Tori Peterson.

 POLSON FOOTBALL

The Polson football team is looking to regroup from a rough season last year full of injuries. The Pirates missed the playoffs, an uncommon occurrence for the team. This year the two starters who were injured last year will return. One of those, Tanner Wilson, will quarterback the team. Coach Scott Wilson said the team is pretty young, but gained experience last year when they had to step up.

A few players to watch for the Pirates will be senior leaders Wyatt Ducharme, who will be moving from quarterback to receiver, Hudson Smith, a receiver and defensive back, and Nick Marquardt, who plays offensive and defensive line. Juniors Matthew Rensvold, a tight end and linebacker, and quarterback Tanner Wilson will also play important roles.

 POLSON BOYS' SOCCER

By John Heglie

First year head coach Adam Fanscher is taking over the reins of the boys soccer program, assisted by Jaime Whealon and third year volunteer assistant coach Spencer Kittle. Fansher brings a broad resume to the helm, assistant coaching the girls team last season along with several seasons as Technical Director of the Polson Youth Soccer Association.

One task that lies before the current rendition of the Polson Pirates is to achieve greater consistency of play over the entire duration of games.  Last season the team played spectacularly for segments of games, only to seemingly misplace their moxie for minutes at a time with the distasteful result of finding themselves in a hole the remainder of the game. Another measurable task would be to score more goals while simultaneously surrendering less. The past two seasons the Pirates have only been able to tally a single win.

The Pirates graduated a half dozen players from last year’s squad including Jonah Kasnitz, All-State, and three time All-Conference Carroll College soccer recruit Alex Helgeson, midfielder Morgan Moll, twice All-Conference midfielder and defender Spencer Raymond, defender Rylee Andrews and goalkeeper and defender Trevor Basler.

This year, senior Jaben Wenzel will bolster the Pirate roster as a staunch defender who regularly disrupts the attack, senior striker and midfielder Sutton Kanta will play a prominent role in Polson attack sequences and Mike Mercer will also play an important role.

Despite graduating their main keeper from the past couple of seasons, the Pirates are in good hands with the return of sophomore goalkeeper and defender Russ Smith, who aptly guarded the net in relief last year for much of the second half. Sophomore Andrew Hanson was the second leading scorer for the team last season.

The Polson Pirate boys’ soccer squad opens their season against Eastern A opponents Belgrade and Park (Livingston) this weekend. 

 POLSON GIRLS' SOCCER

By John Heglie

Last season, the 2014 rendition of the Polson Lady Pirates qualified for the playoffs for the second season in a row, posting their best record in over a decade while capturing the Northern A conference second seed.  Along the way, the Lady Pirates executed a historic first for the program when they not only forged a tie on the road, but also beat Whitefish at home for a 1-0-1 series advantage.  As best as could be reconstructed, Whitefish had compiled a 23-0 record over Polson that traced back to 1997. In the playoffs, Polson drew eventual champion Laurel as their quarterfinal opponent, and the Lady Locomotives prevailed 1-0.

The 2014 Lady Pirates graduated a trio of seniors and lost another core contributor to transfer.  All three seniors are extending their athletic careers at the collegiate level. 

Head coach Michael Hewston enters his seventh season at the helm of the Lady Pirates, aided by Jose Vicente Franco. Last season the team qualified for the playoffs for the third time in four years.

The Polson offense intends to expand upon its multi-pronged attack while maintaining its solid defensive backline that can stymie opponent countermeasures.

Among the returners to the team are senior defender and midfielder Brenna Clarke, junior defender Amber Clarke, junior All-Conference striker Tiara Duford, All-State, twice All-Conference junior defender Olivia Hewston, and junior goalkeeper Jenna Evertz, who had 82 saves on 111 shots last year and could sell insurance for Allstate someday on account of her good hands for denying goals. 

The team is further infused with an ensemble of other junior contributors that include Sophia Sisler, Kiana Snyder, and Whitney Barr.

Sophomores include striker Marina Mayorga, JaNessa Taylor, Michelle Terry and defender Amelia Pittsley. These sophomores placed second at the 2014 MYSA 14U State Cup.

New to the lineup are Virginia transfer junior Maddie Huff, California transfer sophomore Sarah Newell and junior Ashley Benson, catcher for the Lady Pirates during the spring softball season.

The Polson Lady Pirate girls soccer squad open their season with a home stand against Eastern A opponents Belgrade and Park (Livingston) this weekend.

 POLSON CROSS COUNTRY

The Polson cross country team is back and looking good this year, with some strong talent returning. Head coach Matt Seeley said they lost three strong girls who moved away, so their girls team is smaller this year. There are three returning girls, including Ryan Harrop, Malia Seeley, and Quinn Motichka, and a freshman, Molly Sitter, who Seeley said is looking strong. That leaves one open spot to make a team of runners. “You’re only as strong as your fifth runner,” Seeley said. On the boys side there are also some strong runners, including Zach Evertz and Warren Wood. Seeley said there are some older kids who are just coming out for the first time, and some younger ones who he is excited to watch improve. Last year, the girls placed fifth overall as a team at the state meet, and Harrop placed seventh as an individual.

 POLSON VOLLEYBALL

Polson’s volleyball team has an excellent group of varsity returners, plus a few new ones to try to bounce back from a rough season last year. New head coach Patty Luetzen said the chemistry between the older girls is great, even though they didn’t have a winning season last year. Among those returners to watch are libero Lydia Dupuis, Nichole Lake, Lauren Lefthand, Haley Fyant, Erin Sampson and others. This year the team will be working of efficiency in serving and hitting, Luetzen said. They hope to minimize their own errors to keep from giving opponents points. The assistant coaches are Breanne Kelley and Kevin Owen, both of whom are Polson alumni. Luetzen said the kids respond to them very well.

The Pirate’s first games will be at the Dillon tournament this weekend.

 RONAN VOLLEYBALL

The Ronan Maidens’ volleyball team is under new leadership this year. Kaylee Larson, a Ronan graduate, is taking over the reins after coaching in Charlo last year. The team has 29 kids out this year, with a lot of talent, including names like Jordyn Clairmont. Larson said that so far her seniors and juniors have been great leaders, stepping up in practices. However, the real test will be this weekend, when they attend the Mission tip-off tournament. “The goal will be to see who is working well together and where,” Larson said.

Larson played softball in college and then walked on to the Montana State University Northern team to play volleyball, where she also helped to coach the Chinook volleyball team.

RONAN CROSS COUNTRY

Ronan’s cross country team started their season last week with a 100-mile run to get them warmed up. Seventeen kids came out for the team, and last week they took turns running small stretches of road all the way to Hot Springs and back. Coach Noelle Decker said the run is a tradition. The team started last Tuesday afternoon and ran all the way to Hot Springs through the night and were back by Wednesday.

Decker said her goals for the team this year include keeping everyone healthy. The boys finished 10th at state last year, and hope to be in the top two of their conference this year. The girls were 12th at state last year. The team only lost one senior to graduation and the young kids from last year are back with a little more experience. Coach Decker said they have potential to do some big things. Among the runners are three Koehler boys; a senior, junior and a freshman. Decker said they are all hard workers.

 RONAN FOOTBALL

The Ronan football team lost 17 kids from last year, but is looking to their young talent to step up. Coach Jim Benn, in his eighth year as head coach at Ronan, said this is the youngest team he has had in his time in there. A bright spot for the Chiefs is the return of three out of four linebackers who will only be juniors. Benn’s goal for the team is to work on the daily process of getting better. With nine new starters on offense, the process of improvement is an everyday thing. “There is a lot of talent here,” he said, “the pieces of the puzzle are here, we just need to fit them together.”

A few of the players to watch will be juniors Kasey Mock, Tyler Houle, Aaron Misa, Gray Cook and seniors Trevor Anderson and Ethan Blevins. Mock was a second team linebacker all-conference pick and will be quarterbacking the team this year.

The teams first game will be in Ronan against Boulder on Friday night. Look in next week’s paper for a story on the team’s new electronic arm bands.

TWO EAGLE RIVER

The Two Eagle volleyball team will be looking to rebound from a 1-14 season last year against some tough competition in local schools Arlee and Charlo, plus the addition of a Plains team full of athletic talent. Plains dropped down from Class B this year. For Two Eagle River, senior Casadi Wunderlich will be a leader on the court as an excellent athlete in both volleyball and basketball. Coaches at Two Eagle River did not immediately return phone calls for an interview.