COLUMN: Unpopular Hellgate decision the right one

We’re not supposed to embrace quitters.

So the immediate, visceral reaction to the decision, made public on Wednesday, by the Missoula Hellgate administration to suspend their varsity football program was a pretty universally negative one.

It was mine at first, too.

Still, the choice to shut down the floundering program and regroup at least a year from now — with a new coach, new athletic director and new roster — was the only choice the Knights had and was, unequivocally, the right one.

It’s also a courageous move by administrators who no doubt know that shuttering the varsity team creates a terrible optic for a program that’s had it’s fair share of bad looks lately. Hellgate had to forfeit two games late last season because of a lack of participation and lost the eight games they did play by a combined 423-48 score. They lost here at Legends Stadium 77-8 to Glacier. The 77 points the Wolfpack scored are more than Hellgate has scored, combined, in any of the last three seasons.

As we know, though, sports in high school aren’t about wins and losses. There are plenty of teams playing a lot of sports around the state that have struggled mightily in recent years, including here in town, and none of them are about to shut down their varsity program, temporarily or otherwise. I wrote a column, in fact, about the virtue of fighting through losing and the character-building lessons that can be learned through perseverance.

But other sports aren’t football.

Football, as we’re finding out more and more all the time, is a brutally dangerous game. There are real questions in the social consciousness about whether or not we should even be sending young boys and men to play football at all. The impact of repeated sub-concussive hits, not to mention the concussion-causing ones, is life changing.

So when the Missoulian reports, as it did on Wednesday, that a grand total of four juniors and seniors have shown up for summer workouts this month at Hellgate, that means the Knights will field a team of primarily freshman and sophomores, and to take that boyish bunch to do battle with juniors and seniors at the state’s largest schools would have been irresponsible. Just the natural growth of a teenager from his freshman to senior year is staggering, and that physical change in body mass and strength is amplified even more now with intensive weight-training programs in place at most Class AA schools.

Simply put, throwing Hellgate’s freshmen and sophomores on the same field as upperclassmen is not a fair fight, and in football the potential consequences are too high.

Deciding to pack up the jerseys, shoulder pads and helmets and lock up the locker room, of course, is not a proud moment, and sitting out a season of varsity football — Hellgate will play a sub-varsity schedule this fall — will have a ripple effect around the state.

Nine other teams, including Flathead and Glacier, now have an unscheduled bye week and will play just nine games. The oddly matched schedules will affect how statistics are compared, both this season and historically, how the standings will look at the end of the year and will, let’s be honest, deny those nine teams and coaches a win they would have otherwise added to their resume.

Those things will all be frustrating, I’m sure. Frustrating for fans like those at Flathead who will get to see one fewer game at home this season. Or for players, who will be denied one more chance to wear their school’s uniform. Or for schools and administrators, who will have one less chance to sell tickets, concessions and merchandise, and rally their alums and community around their school.

It stinks that Hellgate won’t be playing varsity football this year, but the right decision isn’t always the popular one.

Andy Viano is a sports reporter and columnist at The Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at aviano@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4446.