They’ll play: Western schools excited for MHSA baseball

The Montana High School Association’s addition of baseball as a spring sport brought with it a big dose of enthusiasm tempered with a splash of realism.

Example: Class A schools Columbia Falls and Whitefish, communities that have long combined for the Glacier Twins American Legion program, are both expecting to field high school teams next spring.

Meanwhile Kalispell’s two Class AA schools, Flathead and Glacier High, are enthusiastic but also waiting until 2024.

Scott Wilson, assistant director of the MHSA, counts 14 schools that will field teams next spring. That doesn’t count two AA schools, Belgrade and Butte, that plan to bring the matter before their school boards. Or Libby, which Wilson said is also going to put the sport to a school board vote soon.

It does count Columbia Falls and Whitefish.

“There’s a lot of excitement around here,” said Troy Bowman, the Wildcats athletic director. “We formed a steering committee of about eight people. This was brought forward at our April (school board) meeting.”

A student meeting happened Wednesday to gauge student body interest.

“I’ve got 25 returning sophomores, juniors and seniors that showed up,” Bowman said. “And we’ll have a meeting at the junior high for incoming freshmen next week, and I imagine we’ll get six more. Those are good numbers.”

Numbers don’t seem to be the issue for Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Polson, Browning, Eureka, Thompson Falls — or Libby, Glacier and Flathead.

Costs could be: Bowman estimates that while the baseball budget matches that of softball, which is $20,000-25,000, start-up costs like new uniforms, equipment and a coaching hire could run that figure past $50,000.

For the AA schools logistics are another issue.

“We have facilities we have to work out,” Flathead AD Bryce Wilson said. “It’s going to be fine, but we want to make sure we have all the things in place to make sure we do it right.”

While Columbia Falls has Sapa-Johnsrud Field to use — working around the schedules for Babe Ruth and Little League baseball — and Whitefish has Memorial Field, Glacier and Flathead are looking at KidsSport or Griffin Field, home of the Kalispell Lakers’ Legion program.

“Kidsports has two fields, and a third that’s rough-graded that we could finish,” Wilson noted. “There’s also the possibility of going down to the Legion field, making a few upgrades there and being in a partnership with the Lakers.”

The area Legion programs, meanwhile, are cautiously optimistic. This could help numbers, or it may hurt. Bowman said the high school season would start and end a week earlier than the other MHSA-sanctioned spring sports.

That would put a state tournament — all-class to begin with — on the weekend before Memorial Day. Legion programs are playing games well before then.

Ryan Malmin, head coach of the AA Lakers, figures cooperation is key. He’d like to see every AA and A school commit, so every Legion program is dealing with the same logistics.

“High school and Legion baseball would need to seamlessly work together and not against each other,” Malmin said.

It’s a common refrain.

“We really like our Legion program, and like what it provides for our kids and the community,” long-time Libby Legion coach Kelly Morford said. “If we can have a high school program and know that our Legion program can remain strong, we’re all for it.”

Kevin Slaybaugh, head coach of the Glacier Twins, worries that his numbers would get hurt, but leaves open the possibility that the opposite will happen. Sharing upkeep of Memorial Field with the school district could be a bonus.

“We maintain this facility (Memorial Field) year-round, at a pretty high cost,” Slaybaugh said.

“That’s something we’re looking into,” Whitefish AD Aric Harris said. “We had our first baseball board meeting Wednesday afternoon, and of course that was the first question that was asked.

“Those are details that Kevin and I need to sit down and discuss. We’re so early in the process, we have other things we’re looking at, first.”

Harris, in his ninth year as AD, posted the baseball job and instantly had an applicant. He’ll eventually open the job up to applicants outside the school district.

“I think we’ll have a strong pool of candidates, just judging by the reaction when the MHSA approved the sport in January,” Harris said.

There’s enthusiasm up and down the valley.

“We’re excited about baseball,” Glacier AD Mark Dennehy said this week. “It’d be a great thing for a lot of our kids. It’s going to connect more kids to our school, so yes, I’m excited about it.”

“There’s a definite enthusiasm about it,” Wilson added. “Once the kids heard about it, they were all in. We would definitely have the numbers for varsity and JV teams.”

For those wondering, Sidney and Columbus are the eastern Montana teams that have been approved starting next spring. But Harris noted that several more schools have board meetings in the coming two weeks, so the current number of 2022-23 teams could grow.

In any event, the goal is to grow the sport.

“As far as Legion baseball, our goal as ADs is that this ultimately helps their programs,” Harris said.