VIANO COLUMN: Braves, Bravettes breeding success

All good chefs like to eat.

Just like all good mechanics drive fast cars, the best IT workers are all about the Internet and all astronauts are Star Trek junkies. Probably.

For sure, though, all good coaches love to win.

“Losing is really hard for me,” Flathead softball coach Tasia Gates said. “My husband would say I’m competitive to a fault.”

Losing, unfortunately for Gates, is something they she’s had to deal with on a far-too-regular basis in recent years. Her Bravettes came into Thursday’s crosstown doubleheader at 2-26 since the start of the 2015 season and got blasted, in a mercy rule shortened five-inning game, 10-0 in game one.

So Flathead’s 2-0 lead after four innings in game two felt tenuous, at best, and after a two-base error pulled Glacier within a run, it got even shakier. One inning later, Ali Williams hit an opposite field home run to tie the game and the wheels were about to come off.

Except they didn’t. A team that hadn’t won a game all year, staring at the defending state champions and facing the best pitcher in the state, didn’t blink.

The resiliency Gates’ girls showed Thursday night was spectacular and the ending — a home run from an inexperienced sophomore followed by a perfect throw from the outfield to catch a greedy baserunner, and only then after the high school version of an instant replay review — was almost too far-fetched.

That word, resiliency, rings true for a number of programs at Flathead, many of whom have also struggled to earn wins since the opening of a second high school in town in 2007.

It’s no coincidence that the Braves’ flagship program, the football team, is helmed by another man who does not like to lose.

“I don’t think I’m a good loser by any means,” head coach Kyle Samson, said. “If losing doesn’t bother you then something is the matter.”

Samson brought the Braves to the playoffs for the first time since 2011 last year, but that was only after going 3-7 in his first season.

In the last several years, Flathead has undergone a bevy of coaching changes, most of which were precipitated by failures on the field.

Activities Director Bryce Wilson has brought in a handful of young, eager coaches — Samson, Gates, boys basketball coach Ross Gustafson, former girls basketball coach Lisa Hendrickson, boys soccer coach Nate Evans, to name a few — in recent years to turn struggling programs around.

Before turning anything around, though, the first order of business is reversing the self-perpetuating cycle of losses.

“It takes a lot of time to get a program turned around,” Samson said. “I don’t know if there’s a secret to it.

“There’s going to be tough times but my grandpa always told me ‘tough times don’t last, tough people do’. You’re going to have some tough times as a young coach.”

Gates’ rebuilding program is still in its infancy, but she too has been able to take a long view of the project.

“It definitely takes patience,” she said. “I’ve talked to a lot of coaches. I’m talking to people every day about it. It doesn’t happen overnight.

“I don’t think anybody has a magic solution for taking a team that hasn’t had a lot of wins to making a team successful.”

There may not be a “magic pill” as Gates called it, but one thing that seems to be shared inside the Flathead athletic offices is positivity.

And to hear their coaches talk about it, that’s no accident.

“Number one (in football) was getting them to really enjoy playing the game,” Samson said. “It really doesn’t have to do with Xs and Os or football or you as a coach, it just is about the culture that you want to build as a program.”

“Keep adding things, keep plugging away and be patient and focus on all of the positives,” Gates added. “I like to focus on the successes. The girls believe we’re right there. They’re seeing improvements as a team and a program. Their heads are up.”

It’s probably also not surprising that Flathead’s coaches seem to be parroting the same philosophies. There’s an atmosphere of collegiality amongst the coaches, encouraged by Wilson and pointed, usually, in the direction of the magnetic Samson.

In the wake of his wrestling team finishing third in the state, Braves coach Rich Vasquez took time to gush about the football team’s recent success. Gustafson coaches within Samson’s football program in the fall and the two spoke often during the winter. Gates and Samson talk regularly, too.

Good feelings and cohesiveness aside, of course, there still have been plenty of losses at Flathead this year. Both basketball teams missed the state tournament. The soccer teams did, too, and Gates’ softball team has a long climb to even get back to .500.

As Samson knows, at some point optimism and positivity grow hollow without results.

“You can only build your culture so long before success breeds success,” he said. “Then, I think, that’s where trying to build that culture isn’t going to work. You can preach it, you can talk about it, but if you’re not seeing the end result you’re not going to get that full buy-in.”

Success, finally, came to the Bravettes Thursday night. And it doesn’t feel like the last time.