Glacier and Flathead High Schools Eye Playoff Push in Inaugural Seasons

In the year 2026, the feat of being the “first” to do something in the sports world seems few and far between, especially in a game that formally took shape in 1845. 

But for young baseball players across Montana, the last few years have been a continuous cycle of “firsts” as more teams join the high school ranks following the state’s inaugural sanctioned season in 2023.

This year, Kalispell saw its two Class AA high schools join the fray of firsts with the Flathead Braves and Glacier Wolfpack fielding their first-ever baseball squads in March. 

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, had some great jobs, and I don’t care what happens in the season … this is the best coaching job I’ve had,” Wolfpack Head Coach Erik Brink said. “When you look at things, you only get a chance to be first, like very few times in life, you know? I get to be the first to start a program at … the place I love. 

“When I got offered the job, I kind of got a little emotional saying I’m the first. I feel blessed that I am the first to get this thing kickstarted, then get somebody younger down the road and let them take it.”

The historic moment itself has been a main catalyst throughout the inaugural seasons, guiding and motivating both teams’ first swing at the high school landscape.

“With the kids, it was really important to let them know that, hey, you guys are the first block; you guys are the foundation,” Braves Head Coach Rich Burland said. “That’s the most important part of a building, and it’s the most important part of a program. You guys are going to be the foundation of this program.”

“You’re gonna be in that trophy case,” Brink told his Wolfpack team at the start of the season. “Your picture will literally be there 80 years from now and you’ll be that old, faded photo. They smiled. I think they’re embracing it.”

This message of history and legacy has also served as a unifier for both teams, which are made up of players from several different club and travel teams in the area. 

While high school baseball in Montana is only in its fourth season, baseball — and its rise in popularity in the Treasure State — isn’t an entirely new phenomena in the Flathead Valley. Brink, who was part of the Kalispell Lakers Baseball organization, said he’s already coached half of his 18-player roster through the baseball club, while the remaining players come from a mix of other teams. Burland’s Braves squad is composed of three local ball clubs, he said.

“We have kids that play for each program and they’ve come together and gelled really quick,” Burland said. “There hasn’t been any ‘this program’s better than this program’ talk or anything like that. I think they’ve all really bought into the inaugural season and setting that good foundation for the program, and I think that’s what kind of brought them together really quick.”

Eli Coopman, a senior for the Braves, said it’s been a “completely different feeling” playing for his high school instead of playing for a club team.

“Going to school with these guys for four years and then all of a sudden being put on a baseball team, it’s just kind of cool how you can even just deepen your connection with all your friends through this,” Coopman said. “And I made new friends playing this that I’ve gone to school with all four years, and I just now realized I have a connection with them through baseball.”

Establishing a difference between club and high school baseball was a key first step for Brink when building what he hopes to be a long-lasting culture in Wolfpack baseball. 

“For the most part, it takes a little bit to understand practice every day; make sure you’re in class every day; make sure your grades are good; every day we work out,” Brink said. “So that’s probably been tough for a lot of them, if not all of them.

“My goal always is to create good baseball players, good men and create a culture that’s going to last forever.”

Brink’s young Wolfpack team has certainly shown signs of buying into this culture already this season, with the payoff being racking up 11 wins so far and a third-place finish in Class AA’s West division. Glacier will host the West’s 6-seed, Hellgate, in a state tournament play-in game on Friday for a chance to go to the state tournament next weekend, where the first-ever Class AA baseball state title will be up for grabs following classification realignment late last year.

“I think we have a really good team, and we have a team that can make that final push into playoffs and into state,” Wolfpack senior Teagan Dixon said. “I want to play our last game, no matter which game it is, play the last game and not have any regrets or feel like we should have done better in the season.”

At 7-13, the Braves haven’t had the season they thought they would where the win column is concerned, but Burland said the team is filled with talent, from the top to the bottom of the batting order, and has been “dialing in” the last few weeks with the team’s sights set on its Friday state play-in game. Flathead, the West’s 5-seed, will need to beat the 4-seeded Butte High School twice on the road to get to the state tournament.  

With some of the top hitting in the state, all Flathead needs is to string together complete hitting and pitching performances to achieve their full potential in their first playoff push, senior Hunter Fann said. 

“I know we can make a really good run at it,” Fann said. “Our coaches believe in us. We all believe in each other. I think we can all get together at the right time and we can go really far at state.”

No matter where each team’s inaugural seasons come to a close, both head coaches have already felt overwhelming support from the Kalispell community in yet another installment of the crosstown rivalry — which has already yielded two nail-biting one-run affairs that saw both Flathead and Glacier walk away with a win. 

“I didn’t expect the community happiness and the excitement to see high school baseball,” Burland said. “I came from Washington state, where high school baseball was around for 100 years. To come here and just see the excitement and see the community get behind both schools … it’s been just awesome to see the community reach out to both programs and help them get off the ground and everything.”

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