Around the valley athletes and coaches are shoveling the track, tennis courts and dugouts in preparation for the spring sports seasons kicking off.
Last year, local athletes in all sports succeeded in making headlines for their performances, and this year looks to be no different. Here are a few storylines to follow as the 2023 spring seasons get underway.
Baseball
The inaugural season for boys’ baseball as a sanctioned Montana High School Association (MHSA) sport is finally here, with two local schools taking part. In the first year, 25 schools comprising 21 teams will play in a short spring season, including St. Ignatius and Polson as part of the West Conference, and Browning, Columbia Falls, Eureka, Troy and Whitefish making up the Northwest Conference. Only two Class AA high schools — Belgrade and Butte — are fielding teams this year, with local schools Flathead and Glacier tentatively planning to join in 2024.
The state tournament will be an eight-team, three-day tournament in Butte, with two schools from each conference qualifying.
Whitefish coach Kyler Blades is taking advantage of a cast of experienced athletes who have played on the American Legion Glacier Twins and travel ball teams over the years. Washington State commit Ty Schwaiger will be leading the Bulldogs from the mound, with Bulldogs quarterback Fynn Ridgeway as catcher.
Golf
For one final season, Bigfork will play golf in the spring, before joining Class A this coming fall. That means junior Colin Wade will play back-to-back seasons, with a summer of training in between, to prepare for the substantial shift in competition. As a sophomore, Wade finished as the state runner-up last year, and has put in work this winter on his putting game.
Track and Field
Last year, 78 points were scored by the second place women’s Class A team. Whitefish, on paper, is returning all 78 points worth of talent.
Juniors Brooke Zetooney and Hailey Ells combined for 58 individual points in last year’s championships, (Zetooney won the 100m, 200m and took second in the 400m; Ells was 4th in the 100m, 2nd in the 200m, and 3rd in the 400m, 300m hurdles and high jump), in addition to taking part in both winning relays.
The two girls, along with junior Isabelle Cooke and sophomore Rachael Wilmot will aim to defend a 4×400 title they won by a full four seconds, and with a substitution for one graduate, could do the same in the 4×100. Not many teams can look at a track season with a possibly 78 points already on the table.
On the boys side, the Bulldogs had a third-place finish last year but graduated several state champion seniors. This year they will be bolstered by distance runners Mason Genovese and Deneb Linton, both of whom had all-state finishes in cross country last fall.
Across the valley the Wildcats will be looking to improve on sixth and ninth place finishes for the girls and boys teams respectively.
Junior Ally Sempf had top-8 finishes in the 100m, 200m and 400m last year, and senior Siri Erickson will be a top threat in the distance events. For the boys, a returning 4×400 team made up of Adler Waters, Malaki Simpson, Adam Schrader and Jace Duval will look to reach the podium after finishing 1/100th of a second from third place in last year’s race.
In Class AA, a handful of athletes from Flathead and Glacier will make some noise this year, with the Wolfpack having high hopes for the boys team after last year’s runner-up finish and a new head coach.
In the 400m, sophomore Ethan Anderson is the third fastest returner from last year’s state final, and will be joined by senior Jeff Lillard, who missed the end of last year’s season but has run under 51 seconds indoors this year.
Junior Henry Sellards will be the top returner in the shot put, while junior Aiden Krause was runner-up in the discus last year.
On the women’s side, Glacier has a top prospect in the 800 meter run in sophomore Alyssa Vollertsen, who’s 2:21 personal best last year earned her eighth place in one of the fastest races Montana’s seen in years.
Meanwhile, for Flathead High School, perennial distance threat Lilli Rumsey Eash will be making a push for her first individual title after top-five finishes across the three distance events the last two years. Eash is the top returner in the 3200 meter and will be battling for domination in the 1600m as well.
Flathead also has strength in the field events with returning top-10 state performers Kennedy Moore in the high jump, Taliana Miller in the javelin and Rylee Thompson in the triple jump.
For Bigfork’s last romp through Class B, several athletes should reach the podium, including junior Jack Jensen, who had top-three finishes in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m races last year. Senior Izak Epperly enters the season as a returning scorer in the 110-hurdles along with junior Wyatt Johnson. For the Valkyries, Zoey Albert was runner-up in the javelin last year while Emma Pauwers, Inga Turner and Scout Nadau also return as point scorers.
Softball
Both Glacier and Columbia Falls are coming off four straight appearances at state softball tournaments, and their ranks are full of players who should keep the trend alive.
The Wolfpack was a strong seed coming out of the Western Conference last year, but for the third time in a row lost in the first round of the state tournament, and then saw Belgrade end their tournament run in the consolation bracket. This year, the Wolfpack return several former all-state and all-conference players: juniors Ella Farrell, Kenedie Goudette and Emma Cooke. On the mound, Farrell has emerged as one of the state’s top pitchers — look for her to continue holding the state’s best hitters powerless.
Last season, the Wildkats had an undefeated regular season before losing a semifinal game to eventual state champion Billings Central. Columbia Falls returns three all-state players — Maddie Moultray, Syd Mann and Haden Peters — along with three additional all-conference honorees, making them a top prospect to make it far into the state tournament once more.
For the Wildkats, the top competition this year will likely come from their own conference, as south-valley rival Polson forced Columbia Falls’ exit from the consolation bracket last year.
Tennis
The Whitefish boys split last year’s team title with Billings Central with five state-qualified players taking the courts. Senior Joe Brandt returns after a fourth-place singles finish last year, while junior Mason Kelch will be seeking a new partner to improve on his third place doubles finish.
Down in Kalispell, Glacier returns three state veterans — Sarah Downs and Haven Speer and Harrison Sanders.