Warriors hope high summer participation translates into wins in 2018
Arlee High School football coach Chuck Forgey is optimistic that last season’s playoff experience will translate his football team into a seasoned team as his Warriors prepare to head into the season home opener against Troy next Friday.
The Warriors, whose roster consists of a total of eight seniors and a grand total of around 20 players, hope their older and younger players both learned from their first-round playoff loss to the 2016 Class C 8-man football champions Ennis.
“Our senior class was on a pretty good team their freshman year and they saw it there,” Forgey said. “They were a pretty good team in 2017 but towards the end of last year, we were really banged up. Because of our injuries, a lot of our players that were freshman and sophomores played in a bunch of playoff games and meaningful games in a win or go home type of scenario. That was a big deal, not only for the seniors but for the underclassmen that stepped up.”
The Warriors began the 2017 campaign with question marks at quarterback before deciding on Lane Johnson. This season, the Warriors’ coaching staff has chosen to commit to Johnson as the definitive preseason favorite to win the position battle.
“We are in good shape at the QB position for sure,” Forgey said. “It is nice knowing (Lane) knows the offense and does a good job. He is going to be our starter. He will still have to earn the position, but he is coming back as our starter going into camp.”
The Arlee Warriors’ defense, which was anchored last year by defensive end George Shick, who graduated in the spring of 2018, will have a different look this year Forgey said.
“We have a big senior class and most of the kids that played on defense (last year) will return,” Forgey said. “We have a couple of juniors and sophomores that will contribute quite a bit. Obviously, we can’t replace George. It was a little bit different because he was a hammer for us. We have a lot of kids that played for us a lot last year and it was a good season. Some of these younger kids are stepping up through camp and I am pretty happy with where we were at there.”
The Warriors will boast of several all-conference returners on offense including WR Chase Gardner. RB Darshan Bolen will be another key contributor to Arlee’s offensive attack and Greg Whitesell will return for his senior season.
Arlee’s offensive line will still be a work in progress Forgey said. There will be several newcomers on the line.
“We’ve had some newcomers on the line and we haven’t had that much time together as a unit,” Forgey said. “We are still working on getting them to gel and getting them ready for the first game.”
Arlee, Mission and Charlo arguably have one of the most difficult conferences in Class C 8-man football. Last year, Flint Creek captured the Montana High School Athletic Association football title. The Charlo Vikings lost to Forsyth in the quarterfinals of the 2017 playoffs and finished second in the Class C, 8-man in 2016. These results leave a narrow margin of error for all teams vying for a playoff spot.
“I think the conference is prime for a week in, week out battle,” Forgey said. “Flint Creek lost an outstanding quarterback and middle linebacker last year. However, this year the coaches son will be the quarterback and he’s been running the offense since he was in diaper. I know they lost some good athletic kids due to graduation but coach Cutler is going to have them ready to go. As always, you have Flint Creek and Charlo (in our conference) and until teams start beating them, they’ll be the teams to beat.”
Forgey said he was “pleased” with his team’s level of participation this summer.
“We had a good level of participation during the summer, we had a lot of stuff going on and we had kids out,” Forgey said. “Right now, we have a total number of about 30 (coming out) but we hope to end up with around 20 because we don’t have a big freshman class. We have a good senior class and some juniors and sophomores that will contribute (to our team) as well.”