COLUMN: Navigated her path like a true Legend

There was a time at Flathead High when Tess Brenneman was so busy, she more or less forgot to think about what’s next.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to play in college, actually,” she said Wednesday, a few days after being inducted into Kalispell’s Legends Wall of Fame. “I was pretty behind. I was a senior when I found out that girls figure out by sophomore year where they are going to go.”

The good news is Brenneman had options. If she’d started earlier, the athlete with the most state track and field points in school history (90.5) might have ended up a thinclad. She probably would have gone to an out-of-state school.

She navigated these what-ifs like the Legend she is.

“I love basketball,” the 27-year-old said. “But I felt I was a little bit better at soccer. I was probably best at track, but I had more passion for soccer.

“I had a desire to go out-of-state, but I knew Mark (Plakorus, UM’s then-coach) had coached me at a soccer camp.”

By the time she visited Montana’s campus, Brenneman had looked at a DII school in Minnesota (she’s not sure which one), Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. She was on the fence about visiting Missoula, in fact. But she’s glad she did.

“I knew when I left: ‘This feels like a good spot for me,’” she said. “And it was. It was great to represent my home state, and my home town, and play at the D-1 level. That was cool.”

Brenneman’s accomplishments look great in black and white, including her sparkling tenure on the Griz soccer team. She earned first-team all-Big Sky honors in 2015-16 and second-team honors in 2014.

She also managed to compete in track and field at Montana in 2013-14, which is amazing for someone who had put in 6,617 minutes on the soccer pitch, second-most in Griz history.

Brenneman wasn’t so busy she didn’t study, and she left the U with two bachelor degrees, in psychology and exercise science. Then came a year in Ukraine as part of the Mennonite Central Committee, working with disadvantaged families with children.

Now living in Seattle, she does something similar, helping families facing homelessness find transitional and then permanent housing.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with kids throughout my life,” Brenneman said, and it’s worth noting that in between Ukraine and Seattle she spent a season assisting brother Zach, who coaches Flathead boys soccer.

Then, she said, “I got out of my bubble a little bit.”

Kalispell has a certain draw, since her parents (Calvin and Twila) remain here, along with an aunt, uncle, grandparents and brother. But Seattle has mountains, and water, the MLS Sounders and NHL Kraken and an NWSL team (the OL Reign) that is relocating from Tacoma.

“I’ve never been to so many live sporting events,” she said.

She was at one last Friday, when Flathead downed Glacier in girls basketball for the first time in 10 matchups. Nice timing for Brenneman, who had put off her 2020 induction because of the pandemic: These wins have been pretty rare, and in fact she herself only remembers beating Glacier once in her prep basketball career.

“My dad told me we won twice, but I only remember one,” she said. “Not great.”

Otherwise and since, things have gone swimmingly. Now she has committed to a Masters in school counseling, and, like her senior year at Flathead, the future is getting a little more in focus. The Flathead Valley is great, but…

“I have three years of school ahead of me,” she said. “Who knows where I’ll go from there.”

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