Column: Thomas knows where he's coming from

Back in August, when I began writing preseason stories about the Flathead and Glacier football teams, I asked Flathead coach Matt Upham for a couple impact Braves and he mentioned Alec Thomas.

I came back to the office, dug through last year’s Flathead program and, long story short, it took me a half-hour to figure out Thomas had transferred from Glacier.

My first thought was, This is what happens when you’ve been out of the business a few years. The second one was: This is pretty rare.

Not so much in Billings and Missoula, where I split my previous 26 years writing sports. But such a transfer in Kalispell, well, I was surprised. So was Glacier coach Grady Bennett, who loved — still loves — the guy and wondered what happened.

“It was definitely my decision,” Thomas, a 5-foot-11, 205-pounder, said this week. “My parents had nothing to do with the initial idea of transferring.”

As for why, Thomas said: “It didn’t really come from a sports aspect. During the quarantine (schools went remote learning and spring sports were called off in mid-March) I just felt I wasn’t very happy with where I was at. I just decided I needed a change.”

Full disclosure: I’m stepfather to a former Hellgate athlete that, midway through his junior year, transferred to Sentinel. It was in the midst of a basketball season that ended with the Hellgate Knights taking the AA boys’ championship.

Kagen Khameneh had no regrets then and still doesn’t. In retrospect I should not have fought it — he talked of it the summer before his junior year. But he’s grateful for, among other things, the year he had playing for Sentinel football coach Dane Oliver, which led to a scholarship to MSU-Northern offered by Kyle Samson, which is a guy I think you’ve heard of.

I don’t think that was the goal; and I can’t say Thomas transferred because he wanted more carries and exposure, even though he got 132 of the former — way more than if he’d shared the backfield with AA rushing leader Jake Rendina — for 620 yards and five touchdowns.

“I can see people saying that,” Thomas said. “Not at all. I hate when people say that. I mean obviously, that’s a tough decision for some to swallow now.”

The additional two-way play — Thomas, a standout linebacker, also led Flathead in tackles — was countered by wins. Glacier is 5-2 and lining up for a home playoff game against Big Sky Friday. Flathead went 0-7.

Along the way COVID-19 hit the Braves: Upham couldn’t put a total to the number of player-games lost to quarantine, but he said 15 missed the games against Helena High and Helena Capital. The losses included a 35-14 setback to Glacier in the annual crosstown game. After that contest, in which he ran for 81 yards and a touchdown, Thomas was asked if it was rough emotionally out there on the Legends Stadium turf.

“No, man,” he said. “I love all those guys. No hard feelings. Just another football game.”

It felt like Thomas, having rocked the boat earlier, was aiming to keep everybody calm.

This week he noted he has many friends still at Glacier, that he’s cool with them.

“And I understand when they come from,” he added.

It would follow, then, to understand where he’s coming from.

“Things didn’t happen the way we wanted,” Thomas allowed, but added: “We finished with one of our best games of the year (a 60-41 loss at Big Sky). All the coaches there treated me so well — the coaching staff knows a lot about football.”

It’s been a weird year. Montana’s colleges aren’t playing and, given the fact their players may get a holdover year from the NCAA, aren’t recruiting as much.

Again, Thomas doesn’t fret. He holds a 3.5 grade-point average and plans to go to college with or without a football scholarship.

“It’s not my No. 1 priority, but if the opportunity presented itself I’d like to play college football,” he said.

Upham and Bennett can both tell a recruiter he can play. As for Bennett, Thomas has talked to him once since the transfer — after Glacier’s 35-14 crosstown win.

“We hugged,” he said. “And just kind of talked about the game.”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463, or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.