Terry column: Trophy case losing space
Montana high schools have competed in interscholastic sports for 115 years. For most of those years, Flathead High School has been one of the most competitive schools in the state.
Flathead has totaled nearly 100 team state championships, with the Braves track and field team winning the school’s 98th state championship on Saturday at Legends Stadium.
The school has been adding up accolades for more than a century since the Flathead track team won the school’s first title in 1907. In that tradition, it’s been the running teams that have added the most to the stack, amassing 26 cross country and 26 track and field titles.
Flathead didn’t keep the trophy this weekend, choosing instead to let Helena travel home with the plaque and wait for its own in the mail. It was a gesture of sportsmanship, but also one that gave the school time to figure out where to put its latest state title.
As it is, the school houses its state championship trophies in a series of display cases outside of the basketball gym. The second and third place trophies hang outside and the multitude of divisional and third place trophies adorn a tall wall near the gym’s staircase.
The count of trophies has run well into the hundreds — some as obscure as top three in the North division of the Big 32 — and finding space for more success is a welcome side effect. That doesn’t take into account the 23 state titles Flathead has won in speech and debate, for which the state governing body also hands out trophies.
“I hope we have that problem,” Flathead activities director Bryce Wilson said. “That’s a good problem to have.”
As of now, there are no plans to start hanging championship plaques in science classrooms or on the doors of lockers. There’s already a space booked for the 2015 trophies, and hopefully some more in the coming years.
“There’s a couple of trophy cases that I think we can consolidate and get two trophies on one (shelf). I’m hoping we can make another 10 (years).
“Obviously, it would be great to have the problem of running out of space sooner than later. Hopefully we can get a few more years out of it at least.”
Inside the gym, the story is different.
There’s still plenty of room in the rafters above the court, where the black and orange banners hang along the ceiling, two rows deep, winding towards a third.
Even with the prospects of more championships, including a speech and debate and track title in 2014-15, Wilson said the school plans to continue the tradition of honoring each team individually with its own banner. Other schools in the state have chosen to consolidate their banners, saving space and embroidery costs by hanging one per sport while listing individual years of championships.
“You start running out of space,” Wilson said. “At one time or another there was talk about … listing the years.
“We have no interest in doing that. We want to keep the tradition alive of all the banners hanging. Every time we get a state championship we will put another banner in the gymnasium.”
There is a long tradition of winning at Flathead.
Even if cases have to be reshuffled and banners re-ordered in the rafters, the school certainly isn’t afraid of showing just how much winning it has done over the years.