Jackson Presley Finds Home, Brotherhood at Kalispell Glacier

Kalispell Glacier quarterback Jackson Presley was warming up for a crosstown rivalry game against the Flathead Braves Thursday at Legends Stadium.

The rivalry, fighting for the “Black and Blue Trophy,” is played at the stadium shared by both programs. One end zone is orange and black for Flathead, the other blue and green for the Wolfpack.

It’s a distinctly Montanan landscape — a chilled breeze in early October, multi-colored foliage littering the sidewalk, mountains dotting the horizon that lead into Glacier National Park — an environment steeped in the tradition of Kalispell. It’s an environment Presley never would have imagined playing football in when he first suited up at the age of seven.

He was raised in Santa Clarita, California, less than an hour outside of Los Angeles and over 1,300 miles away from where he now throws warm-up passes to his teammates with clinical accuracy.

Presley committed to play collegiate ball for the Boise State Broncos back in August. But right now his focus is solely on the Wolfpack and winning a state championship. He entered the program as an out-of-stater, but he’s found both his wings and a home in Kalispell.

“Just being able to find my home with high school, living and college,” Presley said. “It’s really helped me just be able to play the game and continue growing with this team.”

The 6-foot-2-inch, 195-pound quarterback’s family was looking to move out of California entering his high school career. Primarily moving for improved “quality of life,” Presley almost settled in Oklahoma. Instead his family opted to return back to California before arriving in Kalispell near the end of his freshman year.

That amount of uncertainty and upheaval, especially for a quarterback hoping to play at the next level, could be anxiety inducing. How can a quarterback put together an NCAA Division I-worthy highlight reel bouncing around different schools and states?

Presley cited his faith as his strength through the process.

“I really just worked hard to give everything to God and allow him to guide my path,” he said. “I gave this to Him, and He was able to guide me to a school I love and then guide me to Boise.”

Grady Bennett, the head football coach at Glacier, remembers how quickly Presley exceeded his expectations.

“He came as a freshman for a little bit,” Bennett recalls. “It was like, ‘Oh, here comes this kid from LA.’ I’ve coached for 34 years, there’s been a lot of ‘kids from LA’, you know?”

“I’ll never forget. The first day we meet him, and it’s just so impressive. The way he looks you in the eye, talks to you, he’s got this vibrance about him.”

Presley started at quarterback for Bennett as a sophomore and has etched his name into Wolfpack history ever since.

Glacier’s defense takes the field to open the first quarter. Presley’s helmet is on, calling out signals to his teammates; he’s 100 percent engaged. He gets fired up for every tackle, applauding every deflection his defense musters.

And the high fives. Every player he passes, every single one, receives a high five or a helmet tap.

It’s a reflection of his personality, and it helps explain how a sophomore, in his first year at the program, could have led his team to a state championship game appearance.

“The thing that has stuck out the most, once really settled in here, was he treats a freshman who can barely put his knee pads in his pants the same as the senior all-stater going to play college football,” Bennett said. “When you’re equally as good off the field as you are on the field, it’s pretty easy for kids to want to play for you and follow your lead.”

Presley recalls arriving to Glacier in 2023 as a newcomer. He was entering a talented program built by Bennett across the previous 18 years, a program that won a state title in 2014 and has appeared in three other championship games. His senior running back, Kash Goicoechea, was a future Montana Grizzly. Senior wide receiver, Cohen Kastelitz, was bound for Montana Tech.

“Coming into Glacier, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Presley said. “Being from out of state, being the new guy, it was tough. But I came into such an amazing program that really just preaches brotherhood and character. This team is all about that. They took me under their wing.

From the opposite perspective, players at Glacier seeing a sophomore enter the team and take over the starting quarterback position could be worried, too. Wide receivers hoping to play college ball need a good arm to throw them the ball.

Senior wide receiver Bridger Smith, another Montana commit, transferred to Glacier around the same time Presley did and was never anxious about the fellow newcomer.

“I was super confident in him,” Smith said. “I saw his talent from day one.” 

Bennett mentored former NFL quarterback Brock Osweiler in high school as head coach at Flathead, recalling the former Arizona State/Denver Broncos/Houston Texans signal caller was one of the only sophomores who started at the class AA level and was wildly successful immediately.

Osweiler reached the state semifinals as a sophomore. In the same grade, Presley took his team to the title game.

“It was a talented team, but sometimes that’s even more difficult when you’re the quarterback of a talented team and you’re a sophomore,” Bennett remembered of last year’s squad. “He did a magnificent job last year, and now it’s just fun to watch him grow little by little his junior year.”

The season, capped with a 35-27 loss to Bozeman, would’ve been a historic achievement for any quarterback. Presley threw for over 3,000 yards, 28 touchdowns and scored four more with his legs. For a sophomore at the highest level of high school football in the state, it was practically unheard of. 

For Presley, it was a step along the path that added motivational fuel.

“We still remember the day, November 17th,” Presley said of the title-game loss. “We’re hungry. We’re hungry to go back to a state championship.”

After an opening drive punt Thursday, featuring a third-down incompletion from Presley, the quarterback speeds to the bench where he picks up his iPad, studying the previous play. His next drive takes just three plays. Three passes, three completions, one touchdown. It looks effortless, the quarterback not just putting the ball on the receivers, but in the exact spot the wide out needed it.

After high-fiving each and every member of the extra-point unit, he’s back to his iPad, again analyzing his play. By the end of the first quarter, his unit has stretched Glacier’s lead to 21-0. Even with the lead, he’s still racing down the sideline when his defense secures an interception, yelling at the Flathead sideline when one of his teammates delivers a big hit, talking with coaches about his play.

“I think he realized coming into this year, we still had a really talented team but he was now that true leader, that alpha,” Bennett said. “He wasn’t just playing with a bunch of talented seniors that were going to play college ball, now he was a guy that’s going to lead us on our quest.”

Bennett has seen Presley develop throughout the year, learning the, “lessons of a quarterback,” along the way. While the junior’s arm talent and mobility are as evident as ever, Bennett has seen improvement in reading coverages, managing games and staying collected under pressure or in the face of adversity.

Glacier lost its first game of the season Oct. 4, a 35-14 road defeat to Helena Capital. Even though his team, ‘got knocked around,’ by the Bruins, Bennett said his quarterback was unfazed by the moment.

“There’s going to be some days where it’s not your night, you have some dropped balls, or it just doesn’t go your way,” Bennet recalled of a discussion with Presley earlier in the season. “How do you play through that? How do you keep being a leader?”

With the game against Flathead out of reach in the fourth quarter, leading 56-0, backup quarterback Latham Leeper enters the game. Presley is as close to the field as he can be from the sidelines, signaling play-calls and giving his replacement thumbs-ups after each play.

After the game, the sixth-straight Glacier win in the crosstown rivalry, Presley sings the school fight song with the student section before making his way to the locker room. First, though, he is asked by children to autograph footballs. He signs them, each and every one.

The Kalispell resident of two years has become a local celebrity.

“You only get this once,” Presley said. “High school football is a very short window, and to be able to come out here and play for this community, win or lose, you’re playing for a community that genuinely loves you and really has your back. It’s a great feeling.”

Glacier plays two more regular season games before the playoffs. It’s the time of year Presley has waited on since last November, and it’s the time of year he can ascend into the rarified air of Montana football history in just his junior campaign. 

It’s a long way from home for the Southern California native. But along the way, he’s found a new home entirely.

“(California) was a great chapter in my life, and I’m so thankful for it. But I’m glad I’m up here,” Presley said. “I love Montana.” 

Carson Cashion is a sports writer for 406 MT Sports, primarily covering the Bitterroot Valley. Follow him on X @CarsonCashion or contact him at [email protected].