After celebrating a great Thanksgiving with my family and taking part in the Christmas parade celebrating with our players on our state championship float, I must once again write a letter of thanks this year to you, the community of Kalispell and sincerely thank you all for your incredible support and the way you helped us on our drive to the 2014 state football championship.
We talk often in our program about having an attitude of gratitude and recognizing how many people work so hard to make it possible for us to be able to do and achieve the things we are blessed to do in our lives. I cannot say thank you enough for the support, the encouragement and the pride you took in our program and the success we had on the football field this season. There are so many people to thank and there is no way I can mention them all individually here in this letter, but Kalispell, you have once again proven me right when I claim that no community in the state supports their schools and their students and athletes like this city.
Thank you to the local newspapers and radio and TV stations for their great, in-depth coverage of our season and especially our playoff run. Thank you to all the business owners who took out ads and showed their support publicly both in wishing us well before the games and congratulations after. Thank you to the Kalispell Police and Fire Departments escorting the team to its championship game and those who lined the streets to cheer us on. Thank you to the fans who came to all three of our playoff games and especially to the more than 3,500 fans who came to the championship game and cheered us on to victory. We had great crowds and support all season long, but your energy and enthusiasm during the championship contest helped our players rise to an even higher level than they’d played with all season long. The energy in Legends Stadium that night was truly incredible and I thank you for getting excited for the boys and letting them know you were behind them 100 percent. Thank you to all who came to an incredible Christmas parade and cheered us on our coronation float as we are now crowned officially as state champions. We had thousands of awesome fans in the stadium that night, but I know there were thousands more listening on the radio or streaming it and watching it live on the web and I thank you folks as well for supporting us in that way.
Thank you so much Kalispell. It is just unreal and indescribable when a community comes together for something like this. You are the best city not only in Montana but in the entire United States and I continue to recognize how blessed I am to be a part of this great community, living in God’s country with the best people in the world.
Grady Bennett is the head football coach at Glacier High School.