Top of the chops: Flathead Valley Community College logger sports team

It’s one of the last days of the season, a cloudy spring weekday, and Ryan Pearson swings his ax into a beaten-up log.

It cracks like thunder. A splintered wood chip falls to the ground. Pearson pulls back and swings again. And on and on, rapidly, until he’s out of breath.

Thousands of woodchips — remnants of great trees, hard work, tradition — cover the logger sports arena behind Flathead Valley Community College on the north side of Kalispell.

Behind Pearson, two young women are racing up a 50-foot bald tree like squirrels. Friends cheer them from the ground. Another young man, who has his shirt off though temperatures are only in the 40s, slices a bright silver saw through a massive canoe-sized log. Others are sharpening their axes for throwing. 

Coaches Bob and Annie Beall move from one person to the next, offering advice and encouragement.

It’s just another day of practice for the best timber sports program in the West.

Over the last 25 years, Flathead Valley Community College has been home to 13 national championship teams in the Association of Western Forestry Clubs, making it the most successful program in recent history.

This past March, the team of 19 young men and women traveled to San Luis Obispo, Calif., for the 72nd Western Conclave, essentially the national championship, and competed against 13 colleges and universities with a total of 170 competitors.

The two-year college from Kalispell, an underdog only by first impression, made Montana proud, using a well-rounded performance to regain the reputation as one of the premier logger sports programs in the country.

“When they come to Conclave, they’re showing the four-year programs how to do it. That’s generally not the case for a two-year school. Usually it’s the other way around,” said Dr. Doug Piitro, one of the organizers of this year’s AWFC Conclave and a longtime professor of forestry and natural resources at California Polytechnic State University, which hosted the event.

“That FVCC is an awesome team. They’ve set the bar for the rest of the universities.”

So how does a small college program become one of the country’s best?

Pearson, an engineering student at FVCC and the team’s captain the last two years, said the Bealls’ dedication and attention to the little things is a big reason for the program’s success.

“They keep the knowledge going year to year and they’re able to keep the organization, the bookkeeping and all that kind of stuff together, so that all we have to do is the events,” Pearson, 21, said. “As a group, everybody wanted to succeed and we all worked hard to figure out how to do that.”

The logger sports team picked up its first victory at Conclave since 2003, thanks to Pearson and company excelling at a list of exciting events modeled after historic lumberjack lifestyles.

The Bealls have been involved with the program since the 1980s and have cornerstones in place that have shaped the program into what it is.

“By expecting great things from them they do great things. We don’t order them around,” Bob, 66, said of the team. “We ask them to do things and we expect that they’ll do well. We don’t emphasize winning, we emphasize sportsmanship and safety. And when those come together then they also tend to win events.

“I personally pay a lot less attention to whether they win or not. To me what’s good is what they exhibit and how they behave and how they get along with each other. And this is an outstanding group in all those respects. When they go to another show, they’re helping set up the other team’s shows. They’re helping like it’s their own show, and that’s what I like. Whether they win or lose, on my side of it, doesn’t matter too much. When they display that kind of citizenship, that matters a lot.”

As every team member works at a recent practice, another team member is there for support. The word “team” doesn’t seem to fully describe this group. “Family” might be a better term.

“On this team, everybody is really good friends and that makes a huge difference,” said Ben Miller, who has been undefeated in the pole climb this season.

“We’re surrounded by really cool, good people,” Pearson’s sister Casey said. “You just do it for everyone else. When you win something it’s not for you, it’s for the team points. That’s a really cool thing to be a part of.”

It’s the type of program and attitude that Flathead Valley Community College is proud to be associated with.

“They are definitely one of the prides of the college,” FVCC President Jane Karas said. “We have a lot of wonderful students and groups here and logger sports is certainly one that we’re most proud of.”

This year’s team has also shined because of an impressive group of young women. As the rules state at events, each team combines points from each competition but must have at least two women compete out of the eight members on a team. FVCC used four women.

“The women compete right alongside the men. There’s no cheerleaders in this sport,” Bob said. “We didn’t have high hopes of being able to win competitions because all the ladies were brand new and it’s unusual for brand-new people to score. These ladies are scoring very well.”

“I’m surprised personally about me being able to win an event,” said Jamee Perkins, 19, who just joined the team this year. “I didn’t think I’d be able to do that. But I do think that the team is doing really well and they deserve it. We definitely have, I would say, the best coaches around. Annie and Bob are phenomenal. And it is definitely a team sport.”

Another exceptional season came to an end this weekend in Missoula. Days before the final show, team members practiced for a couple hours, joked around, made the season last as long as they could.

There didn’t seem to be anyone who was ready for it to end.

“I’ve been around varsity sports all my life and I was always good enough to make the team, but there’s the people that aren’t. And I always say that we have people that can’t walk and chew gum at the same time that are on this team,” Annie said. “We have people that will never, ever, ever place. Doesn’t matter. They work as hard as anybody else and they’re just as much part of the team as anybody else.

“To me, that’s pretty neat. Because sports is a pretty great thing for people. It builds a lot of character, I think. And the camaraderie and the socialization and the sportsmanship, all the stuff that goes on with part of being a team and we’re taking people that never had that opportunity before and giving that to them.”

Team members include: Captain Ryan Pearson, Seth Bergman, Lauren Callan, Shawn Callan, James Fredenberg, Kirk Gordon, Hannah Hoch, James Hollopeter, Dave Loman, Gavin Lommatsch, Junior Long, Stephan McCrumb, Ben Miller, Casey Pearson, Jamee Perkins, Nathan Quade, Luke Stahlberg and Austin Styler.

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