Column: Sherwood caught the bug early

Basketball fans in Kalispell should remember that George Sherwood was a centerpiece of the Flathead Braves team that made a surprising run at the 2012 State AA championship.

What they might not know is that the seeds planted on the way to that senior season — 15.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game for a team that finished 13-11, losing to Billings West in the title game — made him a head coach today. 

Coaches like Fred Febach, for one. BJ Robertsen for another. It was Robertson who brought Sherwood to his fourth and final college stop, Montana Western. 

“He kind of called me out of the blue when I was at FVCC,” Sherwood remembered. “I was going to just get my teaching degree, and he offered to pay for all my schooling.” 

So Sherwood, who’d played junior college hoops for a semester (Cochise College), then transferred to Montana State and then to Flathead Valley Community College, pulled up stakes again for Dillon. 

He played football for Robertson and the Bulldogs, and kept his eye on the goal he had since high school: teaching and coaching. 

“I was blessed,” he said. “I always had a lot of good coaches and teachers and was always interested in the profession. I loved the character you can develop and help teach through athletics. I fell in love with the process.” 

While a Flathead student he guided a couple Rotary teams, alongside friends Chris Cronk and Drew Crosby. At Western he helped run summer basketball camps for men’s coach Steve Keller.  

Before coming to Ronan four years ago he spent three years at Plains and was an assistant coach for three sports.  In his second year at Ronan he was named to replace DJ Fish, when Fish — who had Sherwood as an assistant two seasons — left to take over the Browning Indians. 

Sherwood’s first head coaching job included Ronan’s first trip to the Western A Divisional in three years. The Chiefs led the Northwest A for a time, before injuries took hold and they finished 7-5 in league games. 

Winning two play-in games got them to divisionals, where they lost to Hamilton 59-49, putting them into a morning loser out. 

“Those games are always brutal, and we end up playing the Dillon Beavers and it was tied late before ended up losing by six,” Sherwood said.  

This season he’s had to replace Marlo Tonasket, Jr., plus three more top scorers besides due to graduation and transfers. “But because of injuries last year we also brought back five guys that had started a game for us,” he added. 

In all there are eight seniors, two juniors and a sophomore. One junior, Kolby Finley, is highly thought of by Sherwood. He feels fortunate to have had two cut-above players in him and Tonasket. 

Another junior, Jhett McDonald, is shooting threes at a 42 percent clip. Senior Laurance Lozeau averages 12.8 a game and five more Chiefs average between 5.1 and 7.7 ppg. “We go legitimately 11 deep,” Sherwood said.  

One problem: Senior Wade Qualtier, one of those do-everything guys, turned an ankle two weeks ago against Whitefish. Ronan has lost two of three after a 7-2 start, but Sherwood has hopes that last year’s injury bug won’t repeat. 

“It’s only a matter of time before 1, we figure it out and 2, he comes back,” he said. 

Sherwood felt Ronan could have found lightning in a bottle — like Flathead in 2012 — a year ago and could again in 2025, in a balanced and tough Northwest A. 

“It reminds me a little bit of my days playing in AA, where there are no nights off,” he said. “It’s a dogfight from top to bottom.” 

Ronan is the middle of that dog pack, thanks to a last-second loss to Polson Saturday.  Sherwood remains confident. 

“I think the goal every year is to win state,” he said. “I think both years it was possible. We took the conference (Hamilton) and state champions (Dillon) down to the wire last year.  

“We’re figuring out our identity, but I feel like we can compete with anybody in the state. That may not be the case every year I coach, but last year and this year, I think we had or have as good a shot as anybody.” 

They say you pick up a little bit from everybody you work under, and Sherwood sounds no different than Keller, the Western basketball mentor he helped out some summers. 

Or would it be Ryan Nourse, the Dawgs’ football coach?  

“Like I said,” Sherwood said. “I had a bunch of good ones.” 

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