Strong on the outside: Brody Thornsberry has been a consistent threat for the Flathead Braves

Second-year coach Caleb Aland is striving to steady the Flathead High football program, one that — including Aland — hired three head coaches in four seasons.

Consistency begets wins, and while the wins have been hard to get at times there has been at least one constant for the Braves: Senior receiver Brody Thornsberry.

“It’s kind of cool, seeing the amount of growth from a sophomore to a senior,” said Aland, who joined Alex Cummings’ staff in 2021, then took over the program last year. “He always has ideas and thoughts he doesn’t mind sharing. He’s a coach’s player that I trust to lead the guys in the right direction.”

Thornsberry is the main target for quarterbacks Brett Pesola and Kaleb Sims, a lanky 6-foot-3 outside threat that should draw extra attention from the visiting Helena Capital Bruins Friday.

He has 19 catches for 339 yards and three of his team’s four receiving touchdowns this season; he’s averaged 20 yards over 44 career receptions at Flathead.

To hear him tell it, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He started playing flag football on the Glacier side of town — he remembers Flathead tight end Gabe Sims was a teammate when they were 7 — but always figured to wear orange and black.

“I’ve always been a huge Flathead fan,” said Thornsberry, whose mom is an alumnus. “I just so happened to live in the Glacier district, but I knew I was going to go to Flathead. And then we moved to Flathead’s district in sixth grade.”

Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and Thornsberry’s phone is blowing up.

“It started during Covid; a lot of seniors like Tommy Wells and Nic Gustafson started texting me to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come to workouts,’” he said. “Because teachers and coaches weren’t really able to do anything. That’s where it all started.”

Thornsberry was still relegated to the freshman team in 2020, but then a funny thing happened: He hauled in 200 receiving yards in his third game.

“We knew he was a freak,” Cummings says three years later, and at the time it figured Thornsberry might be of use to the varsity Braves.

While he didn’t catch a pass for them he joined a short list of Flathead freshmen to get varsity reps: it basically begins and ends with Brock Osweiler.

“Which was pretty big to me,” Thornsberry said.

His sophomore season started promisingly, before a neck issue and concussion ended it after four games. He caught six passes. By then Cummings had taken over for Matt Upham, but then he left after one season for a vice principal’s job at Kalispell Middle School.

Enter Aland, whose days on the staff at Troy University left him equal parts data-driven and intense.

“Coach Aland comes in and changes the culture of the team,” Thornsberry remembered. “Not a lot of guys bought in, and you could tell. He’s a tough-love type of coach. He loves us, but he coaches hard.

“Which is something we needed.”

Aland recalled that once he was announced as coach he started film sessions and walk-throughs for prospective players. It was the ground floor of his effort to get Flathead back to its 2018, championship game-appearance level. And he wanted Thornsberry there.

“I said, ‘Hey, you not showing up sends a signal to other people that it’s OK for them not to show up,’” he said. “And that’s the last time I had to ask him to show up to anything.”

Thornsberry knows the Braves are 1-6 but also sees marked improvement from each of the previous years. A new strength program has made them faster and stronger; they’re hanging in with some of the Western AA’s best. He says Aland deserves credit.

“What he’s done for our program – our seniors bought in, and having them buy in translated to the rest of the team buying in,” he said. “You can tell. There’s no quit in these guys.

“We haven’t played a whole (complete) game this season. When we do, we’ll win. Know this: We can play with any team.”

For his part, Aland says he occasionally has to tell Thornsberry to get out and go.

“You have to remind him sometimes: ‘Hey, Brody — you’re fast. Just run. You can run and you can jump,’” Aland said. “He’s a special kind of athlete and it’s been a true blessing to coach him and be around him and just watch him grow as a young man and an athlete.”

Thornsberry has shown out at some summer camps, including at Carroll College and Montana Western. Western is where his parents met, while his dad played football for the Bulldogs. On top of that his grandmother Patty (Franklin) Carlson is in Western’s athletic hall of fame.

But before bleeding red and black or purple and gold, there’s a lot of orange and black left.

“The culture and traditions are my absolute favorite thing. Old gym, old school, everything,” Thornsberry says. “The pride we have at Flathead is like no other.”