Highlander fuels up teamwork

At the first Highlander track practice I attended, I watched an exchange zone in a 4x100 meter relay involving some of the youngest participants.  

The kids milled around. One jumped around in a pink tiered skirt. A few wore T-shirts longer than their shorts. Another did cartwheels. A couple runners took off before their batons arrived. 

One kid raced up to the zone, came to a halt, then pointedly offered the baton to anyone within arm’s length. 

All backed away as if it were dynamite. Some whipped up their hands in innocence. 

The baton probably didn't make it to the finish, but learning had begun. I love relays because they combine individual and team effort. Plus, there’s the suspense of the handoffs.  

No one is born a track star, so the free Highlander program aims to teach Kalispell’s youngest athletes the skills that could get them there, or have fun trying. 

This year the club drew 450 kids, the most since its founding by Jack King in 1975. 

At one of the first practices this year, Flathead High coach and Highlander alum Jesse Rumsey, shepherding equipment in the infield at Legends Stadium, said the program had 65 student coaches from Flathead and Glacier schools teaching the 6- to 12-year-olds: “For the coaches this is already a full day for them: a full school day, full practice, then they come here.”  

I watched those coaches walk about with kids trailing behind. Amid serious work, they also stoop to tie shoes and give the occasional piggyback ride. 

At the final meet of the Highlander season, Dan Hodge squeezed the trigger on the starting gun for dozens of events. Wrangling kids as the Flathead High coach for 50 years doesn't faze him; he said, “Before that, I was flying helicopters in Vietnam.” Still, he shook his head over a kid he’d just told to settle down around one of the starting lines. 

“He said, ‘You can’t make me,’” Hodge said, incredulous. “I’ve never heard that before.” 

The good feels won out. I talked with one of the student coaches, Joangerli Katherine Gonzalez, as she unlocked her bike to head home. Her smile radiated; “I love working with the little kids.” 

I felt drawn back for more: this time the state Class AA/A meet late last month, also at Legends. Many Highlander coaches would test themselves against Montana’s best. 

As each heat played out and the packed stands convulsed with excitement, it hit me: Rarely am I in a place where everyone is ambitious for others’ success. It’s not like a political rally or the pay-to-perform of a concert, where it’s we’re-right-they're-wrong or work for hire. Everyone was there to celebrate potential and payoff of hard work, from the athletes to the adults who, for example, set up hurdles, bought groceries and chauffeured, along with coaches who critique and encourage. 

At one of the Highlander practices I had overheard one of the athletes in training, who tugged on the team sweatshirt worn by a student coach and asked if she could get one. “When you come to high school you can,” the coach said. “And it’ll have your name on it.” 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at mdavis@dailyinterlake.com.