Coaching from the mayor's seat
Eric Huffine probably has more on his plate than most high school wrestling coaches.
The long-time Polson resident, along with being the head wrestling coach for the Pirates and the owner of a local concrete company, is also the mayor of Polson.
“It is so much easier to fill your schedule when you find your passions,” Huffine said. “You know the saying, if it's important you’ll find a way and if it’s not, you’ll find excuses.”
Huffine wrestled when he attended Polson High School and was an assistant coach for many years under Bob and Bill Owen. After a hiatus from the program, he took the reins two years ago.
Last year, the Polson Pirates had 11 kids turn out for wrestling after COVID-19 had shut things down in 2020. This year, that number has grown to 34 kids – 14 girls and 20 boys.
“It’s amazing what we have going on now,” Huffine said. “We have the kids convinced all these matches are live competition practices with singlets. We use them to gather data and measure effort. The wins and losses don’t matter – the experience wrestling competitive matches is what does.”
Longtime wrestling coach Bob Owen has come onto the staff as well as Keio Salmonson, Bucky Cheff, Shayne Ludwick, Kaden Thomas, Randy Kelley and Jason Burrough. They create a dynamic team that is thrilled to teach these young Polson wrestlers the ins and outs of the sport.
“By all accounts, the positive attitude is pretty contagious, and the kids are all understanding what they are doing,” Huffine said. “Courage is when you try to find your inner strength and encouragement is helping everybody find theirs. We’re definitely achieving that in the wrestling room.”
Huffine has been impressed with the growth of girls wrestling with 14 girls in the room this year. While sometimes they will split off from the boys for some tournaments, Huffine said that the growth of the girls’ side of the sport has really brought more fans into the gym during duels for both the boys and girls.
While Polson Wrestling is trying to reload, it looks promising as they’ve been able to hold some introductory wrestling clinics and get younger elementary kids involved in the sport. Little Guy Wrestling is bringing in between 140-150 wrestlers, so the pipeline looks bright for Huffine’s program.
Wrestling is one thing, and the world of politics is completely different. Huffine said that during his 20s and 30s he didn’t pay much attention to politics and that he” just ended up complaining and venting to people who couldn’t fix the problem.”
“Then you kind of have the realization that you are somebody and you can do something,” Huffine said.
Huffine has been mayor for a year, and said he is learning what being in government is like compared to the private sector.
“I’m an action guy so one thing I run into is seeing people aren’t really involved,” Huffine said. “We have our parks and tree boards, community development council and other boards looking for volunteers because they have so many openings. This is a way for people to get involved instead of just being critical about things that have already happened.”
Huffine has also tried sit-down sessions as the mayor to reach out to more to people in the community. He said he really does want to represent the community. This involves going to chamber luncheons, county commissioner meetings and other events to stay up to date.
So how does Huffine do all of this? He credits the people around him.
As mayor, he has an executive assistant who runs his calendar and helps do research on a variety of topics concerning the city. At the school, Keio Salmonson is the go-to for administrative matters and tracking all the important attendance numbers. Huffine also credits an “awesome” administrator that runs one of his businesses and three “incredible” foremen for his concrete business.
“What I really like doing is putting together a team and being able to do more as a group than what we could do as individuals,” Huffine said.
And that’s exactly what he has done, in more ways than just one.
