Get ready to yeti in Whitefish

With Super Bowl 50 and the finale of the Whitefish Winter Carnival colliding in the same weekend, it’s quite fitting that the time-honored carnival, now in its 57th year, is celebrating a “Super Bowl Whitefish” theme.

There’s no excuse not to have a blast this weekend as a full day of carnival activities unfold on Saturday, including the Penguin Plunge at City Beach, a pie social, kiddie carnival and plenty of vendors on the sidewalks downtown. Don’t forget to keep an eye open for those hairy yeti, which seem to be attracted to the party-like atmosphere. Carnival merriment culminates with the grand parade at 3 p.m. Saturday, then wraps up with the annual Rotary pancake breakfast at the Moose Lodge Sunday morning.

There will be just enough time to digest those pancakes and take a nap before tuning into the Super Bowl for another of our favorite time-honored winter traditions. It’s going to be a great weekend!

Look for details in today’s This Week in the Flathead.

Speech dynasty!

Another time-honored tradition was upheld last weekend when Columbia Falls High School claimed the Montana Class A speech and drama championship.

That marked the 11th straight state title for the Wildcats’ dynasty. Individual championships in three events and plenty of other place-winners allowed Columbia Falls to outpoint runner-up Whitefish (which also won three events) for the team sweepstakes.

It was an all-Northwest sweep in Class A, with Polson finishing third in the state meet.

Class A wasn’t the only division the Flathead Valley was heard from in state speech circles.

In the Class AA finale, Flathead finished second and Glacier third, with competitors from the two Kalispell schools winning individual championships in six of 12 events at state.

In Class B, Bigfork finished third at state.

These successes to cap the high school season underscore the perennial power of our local students (and their coaches) when it comes to matching wits, words and wisdom through round after round of tense speech and debate competition.

We salute all those who achieved such tremendous results.