A look back at a fine fall

It may seem like the fall school session only started a short time ago, but four sports have already finished their seasons and have held or are holding their awards nights this week. We'll continue to pull for Coach Christy Harkins' steadily peaking volleyball team as they head to Billings next week.

The football team may not have won as many games as they would have liked for Coach Grady Bennett, but individually Reece Stahlberg and Foston Reilly made it into the Brave recordbooks. Stahlberg accumulated 846 yards rushing for eighth place on the list, and 1,289 all-purpose yards for 10th place currently. Reilly returned kickoffs and punts for 431 yards which puts him in 10th place for return yardage also.

Bravettes soccer came to an end with a playoff loss to Missoula Sentinel, but Coach Scott Warnell only loses four seniors, so they should be strong next year. Braves soccer finished in third place at the state tournament held here in Kalispell. The cold weather couldn't dampen their spirits, and even a heart-breaking loss to eventual champion Billings Senior in the semis didn't get them down as they bounced back with a 3-2 overtime win over Billings West. Sean Riley, Jeremy DeHerrera, Jordan Lister, Ross Van Brunt, and Brock Jahner were some of the offensive and defensive stars during the tournament for Coach Tom McFarlane.

The double wins by the Braves and Bravettes in cross country at state was really amazing. Zoe Nelson won her fourth individual title, and Carly Brown (fifth) Shannon Ross (seventh) and Chelsea Burfeind (ninth) all finished in the top 10 to smoke the competition, but that wasn't that much of a surprise. Elliot Welder finishing second, combined with John Fairweather in ninth and Seth Grossman in 12th led to the sweep by Flathead, and that was a pretty nice and somewhat surprising outcome. Congratulations again to Coach Paul Jorgenson and a great, great season.

We held our golf awards banquet this week, and Tess Stevenson and Taylor Gardner were the top awardees as they both were named golf Players of the Year for the points they amassed during the season. Tess made the All-State Team for the second year in a row. Stevenson, Emily Tutvedt, Jon Engle, and Joey DuBois all graduate from this year's team. Another award that we give out most years is that for most improvement, taking into consideration where the starting point was and where each player finished. Jerry Nahring, Briana Mitchell, and Shea Clayton were named most improved for their respective teams, and will be back next year along with Gardner and nine other returning lettermen.

All coaches have a pre-season and post-season meeting with Activities Director Mark Dennehy, setting up the program and then assessing how things went. This is my third year coaching golf at FHS and Dennehy indicated that he saw a "more comfortable" coach in me this year.

I think he is right, and for two main reasons. My assistant, Kim Elliott, and un-official coaches Wes Young, Darryl Trueblood, and Dave Schiltz have made it possible for me to do a better job of coaching the kids. Right along with that is the camaraderie of all of the coaches at Flathead. They may make decisions that you don't agree with, they may have had to cut your son or daughter from a team that they had really set their sights on, but they really try hard to do the best they can for all of the kids that come their way, and if you get the opportunity, tell them so and tell them "thanks."

Alice Ritzman is a pro golfer from Kalispell and head coach of the Flathead High School golf program. She can be reached by email at ritzman@dailyinterlake.com