Harkins tapped for Glacier basketball

Another slot has been filled.

Mark Harkins, longtime Flathead High assistant football and basketball coach, was selected this week as head boys basketball coach at Glacier High School.

"Mark Harkins is an incredible coach who builds strong and lasting relationships with his student athletes," Glacier High athletic director Mark Dennehy said in announcing the committee's pick.

"He has a keen understanding of the various nuances within all of our activity program and how they all interrelate," Dennehy said.

"It's an opportunity. Like I told Mr. Dennehy, I've been at Flathead for five years. The athletic program at that school is great … it's amazing. I would like to see that go to Glacier," Harkins said.

"I'm just really excited about this opportunity."

Harkins also plans to be an assistant football coach for the Wolfpack.

"(Head football coach Grady Bennett) and I will sit down and talk, but I plan on trying to do that still," he said.

As for his own assistant coaches, both Andy Fors and Arie Grey were Flathead assistant basketball coaches this winter and both will be teaching at Glacier next year.

"If they want to, they can be on the staff," he said.

The biggest challenge facing the fledgling program is lack of seniors. The district's senior class will attend Flathead High next year.

To keep more kids involved, Flathead created a second JV basketball team this year.

"It kept a lot more kids in the program. But we don't have seniors, so I want to go and instill a great work ethic with kids. I want to get some kids that will go out there and play hard," he said.

Harkins, a history and government teacher, spent his first two years with the Flathead football program as sophomores coach. He's been the varsity offensive line coach for the past three years. He also coached the sophomore boys basketball team for three years and has been the JV coach for the past two years.

Harkins has been in the Flathead Valley for about a dozen years. He was as assistant football and track coach at Whitefish from 1995 to 1998, then spent was head football coach and assistant track coach at Columbia Falls from 1998 until 2002.

Wife Christy is an English teacher.

She's been head volleyball coach at Flathead for the past five years and has already been hired as head volleyball coach at Glacier.

The school board will review the selection committee recommendations during May.