Page 68 - Flathead Beacon // 12.24.14

68 | DECEMBER 24, 2014
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Montana Sidelines
Roundup of recent sports and outdoors news
By DILLON TABISH
STITT TAKES OVER AS GRIZ HEAD COACH
Bob Stitt was formally introduced as the new football coach at the University of Montana on Dec. 19.
The university held a press confer- ence, announcing that Stitt has signed a three-year contract to helm the Griz- zlies’ football program. The contract, which will take him through the 2017 season, is pending approval by Mon- tana’s Board of Regents.
Stitt comes to Montana after a 15-season stint as the head football coach at the Division II Colorado School of Mines, where he had an overall record of108-62anda83-44markintheRocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Stitt makes the jump to the Division I FCS and replaces Mick Delaney, who retired after three seasons last month with a career record of 24-14. Montana was 9-5 overall in 2014, received an at- large berth into the NCAA FCS playoffs and advanced to the second round.
“It’s the best job in America. I think it’s better than 50 percent of the FBS schools,” Stitt said of the head football coach position at UM.
Stitt’s teams have had 13 winning seasons in his 15-year tenure, and reg- istered eight winning seasons in a row. His teams won conference titles in 2004, 2010 and 2014. He is widely known in na- tional coaching circles as a having a very creative offensive mind and is the inno- vator of the fly-sweep play, according to the university.
His 2014 Orediggers were 10-2 over- all and 8-1 in the RMAC, and advanced to the Division II national playoffs. In 2013, the Orediggers posted an 8-3 re- cord.
He was named the league’s coach of the year in 2004 and 2010. Stitt was selected the Division II Football.com Southwest Region Coach of the Year in 2004, and was also tabbed the AFCA Re- gion 5 Coach of the Year following that season.
“We’ve got to wins games, but we’ve got to have fun doing it,” he said. “I’ve got to be able to put a great staff together to be able to create that environment, where every day our players love to come to work; our coaches love to come to work; and that locker-room experience after a win is nothing like any other.”
Stitt said he plans to retain Legi Suiaunoa, UM’s current associate head coach and defensive line coach, Ty Gregorak, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and Justin Green, running backs coach and recruiting co- ordinator.
UPSTART INDEPENDENT BASEBALL LEAGUE ADDING TEAM IN WHITEFISH
A new independent baseball league in the Pacific Northwest is adding a team in Whitefish.
The Glacier Grizzlies will play home games at Memorial Field in Whitefish starting in May and will be the sixth team in the upstart Mount Rainier Pro- fessional Baseball League. The team joins the Grays Harbor Gulls, Ellensburg Bulls, Skagit Valley Lumberjacks, Moses Lake Rattlesnakes and Oregon City Mud Turtles in the MRPBL.
Whitefish will compete in the East Division with Ellensburg and Moses Lake.
Similar to other independent leagues, such as the Pecos League and Frontier League, the MRPBL is not af- filiated with Major League Baseball or its minor league teams. Players are gen- erally college-aged or older and receive weekly salaries throughout the season. Teams play 68-game schedules between late May and early August.
The Grizzlies will open the season May 21 with four games against Skagit Valley. The club will have a roster of 24 players. The Grizzlies will play 36 home games and the regular season ends Aug. 2. The top two teams from each division will then play in a series determining who advances to the league champion- ship, Aug. 7-11.
The new league, founded by Mike Greene of Shoreline, Washington, was established in the summer with six teams in Washington and Oregon. A franchise was originally planned for Vancouver but ultimately a deal for a sta- dium lease fell through, leading Greene to seek out a replacement.
Earlier this month, he negotiated with the Glacier Twins organization for leasing rights for Memorial Field, where the legion baseball clubs play.
“We had a good meeting and we came away from that meeting all for it. The Twins are 100 percent behind it,” said Bob Lockman, a member of the Twins board.
Lockman was named the general manager of the Grizzlies and Mike Goss, a former minor league player for the Bos- ton Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks, has been named manager.
“I think we got a good manager in place. It should be exciting,” said Lock- man. “Our Twins players are excited to share a field with a pro team.”
For more information about the MRPBL and Glacier Grizzlies, visit http://mrpbl.pointstreaksites.com/ view/mrpbl/home-page-1072
From all oF us at:
510 Wisconsin Ave. Whitefish MT 406.862.6223
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