Living the dream

This is how a dream comes true.

Alarm goes off at 5:50 a.m., Nate Thompson wakes up and drives to the Columbia Falls High School gym while most kids are still dreaming.

Inside the quiet gymnasium in which he practically grew up, the 17-year-old senior walks up the stairs, turns on the lights in the weight room and, like almost every day for the last six years, he gets to work.

"He's maybe missed 20 days since sixth grade," his father John Thompson, the high school activities director, said of Nate's workout routine.

"I don't know that anybody has put more time in our weight room," agreed Wildcats head football coach Bill Coleman.

"It's just great to see all of the rewards being reaped from that hard work."

Those rewards would be 1,357 rushing yards and seven touchdowns through six games of a dream senior season. Only twice so far has Thompson failed to run for over 200 yards - against Dillon on Sept. 17 and against Browning on Sept. 9. Thompson had 182 and 184, respectively. No official records have been kept to compare Thompson's stats. But on Oct. 1, he made sure Wildcat fans remember his name when talking about the all-time greats from now on.

On the road against then-third-ranked Polson, the 6-foot, 185-pounder piled up 270 yards on 43 carries and scored the game-winning touchdown in the final minute.

And this from a young man who had never played halfback until this season.

"It's just exciting being in the position that I am," Thompson said. "I'm just glad that the coaches trust me to run the ball as much as they do."

With the help of their workman running back and a strong offense that includes all-state receiver Kaleb Johnson, Columbia Falls has reemerged from a 1-3 start to win two straight when it counts, in October conference play. The Wildcats (3-3 overall, 2-0 in Northwestern A) have two games remaining - this Friday at Whitefish then the following Friday at home against Ronan. Victories in both games would mean the Northwestern A conference title would land in Columbia Falls for what it is believed to be the first time since 1972.

"The last two weeks our team has played some of the best football I've seen since I've been here and I've been here for 17 years in a variety of positions," said John Thompson, who was head football coach for six years before stepping down after the 2008 season.

"But I think all of these guys understand that there's unfinished business. They had a goal to beat Polson but they also have a goal to be conference champions and nobody is taking anything for granted."

Especially Nate Thompson.

John and Alison Thompson's youngest son got his first taste of Friday night lights on the sidelines of Wildcat football games as a wide-eyed water boy in third grade.

"I grew up watching Kyle Rosenbaum, watching us win, watching us lose and just how exciting that all was," Nate said. "I just remember hearing about how he's a good player, this person is a good player, and just watching them play and thinking you know when I get into that position that's what I want to be like. I want to be out there. So that just got me thinking that you know, I got to start working hard. And it's paying off."

Thompson started lifting weights in sixth grade, but it was when high school was right around the corner in eighth grade that he began his early-morning regimen that goes with film study of previous games.

"I'm just glad I did because I wouldn't really want to see what it would be like if I didn't," he said of working out. "I know that I wouldn't be in the position that I am right now."

A 4.0 honors student and track standout in the spring, Thompson came into the football season with varsity experience at fullback and tight end, but never carried the weight of a halfback's life.

"They're very workmanlike carries," Coleman said when describing Thompson's style. "He's not one of these kids that runs out of the box for 80 yards. That's not the kind of team we are, we're ground and pound. He's the hammer, he's not the nail."

This season the Wildcats have a new starting quarterback, Austin Barth, a somewhat experienced but hardy offensive line - Bryce Arneson, Garrett Houston, Josh Folsom, Jacob Babcock - and a team of friends that has mostly played together forever.

"Nate is just one of many. They're the type of people that you want to build an organization on," Coleman said. "I've enjoyed being around this group of guys as much as I've enjoyed being around any group in my 25 years of coaching."

When asked about his senior-year success, Thompson is quick to pass the accolades; he will thank his offensive line, his coaches, his teammates. He'll even thank the Columbia Falls fans.

But when it's all said and done, he'll quietly get back to work making sure he keeps up his end.

"He's been around to see the work ethic of a lot of the best players that have come through this program in the last 8-9 years, and I think that has rubbed off on him and helped him develop his work ethic," John Thompson said. "I mean as a little kid I know he idolized a lot of those guys that were out there playing at that time. I'm just really proud of him."

Sitting inside the school the Saturday morning after the win against Polson, Nate Thompson talks about this dream season.

It's going by fast. What will he remember when it's all over?

That bus ride home against Polson comes to mind.

"We started talking about back in fourth grade when we first started tackle football playing together and how we knew that we could have the possibility of being really good when we were in high school," Thompson said. "Now it's coming true."

Then, with the usual bumps and bruises bugging him, Thompson retold the story of how the Polson game ended the night before.

Down 20-19 in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Columbia Falls "took over inside our 30 (yard line) and we just marched it down," he said. "Kaleb and Austin had a huge pass play and that set us up. When we got to the 11-yard-line, we did a power (run play) to the right side and the (Polson) safety was standing there. And it was like, you know, one person's not going to stop me from this."

It'll take more than that to keep Nate Thompson from his dreams.

Reporter Dillon Tabish can be reached at 758-4463 or by e-mail at dtabish@dailyinterlake.com