Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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How does Thompson Falls wrestling coach Mike Thilmony see the 2020-2021 Montana high school season going down for his Blue Hawk grapplers. "We are excited," Thilmony said. "We have a good core of kids coming back to build around and have some promising freshmen that are going to surprise some people. We are thinking we have quite a few kids that could end up on the medal stand at the divisional and state tournaments and are ready to go." Given the fact that the start of the winter seasons was pu...
The mass mat chaos of 2020, explained. Montana Class B-C wrestling was going to be different to begin with in 2020-2021, COVID-19 has only added to the change. Some of it will be considered a bad change but, on the other hand, some of it will be good, too. Thompson Falls coach Mike Thilmony and all the other B-C coaches around the state face a new wrestling reality this already-altered season, a reality where there will be none of the traditional tournaments, but a lot of dual matches with teams rarely seen in these parts before, will be contes...
Hot Springs girls basketball is in a holding pattern right now, how long that lasts is anyone’s guess this COVID-19-addled season. Savage Heat coach Richard Jackson said Tuesday that his entire team is now under quarantine after one of the players tested positive early this week. He was reached at home in-between doing some paperwork and watching the Outdoor Channel. It’s a good thing there is a long preseason this year, giving teams time to deal with the effects and after-effects of the novel coronavirus. “We have five practices in but will...
Sports during the COVID-19 pandemic have proven challenging at all levels. What happens in Montana this winter, as all major sports turn to the indoors, could be interesting to watch – or it could all come to a screeching halt, like it did last winter, on championship night for all the Montana prep basketball tournaments. In an effort to hopefully avoid any prolonged shutdowns and enable Sanders County schools to move forward with and complete the winter sports seasons, as the fall seasons w...
Six Sanders County football players have earned All-State recognition for their fine play in Montana 8-Man action this past fall as the Western Conference 8-Man All-Conference team was named early this week. From Thompson Falls, which finished the season 10-1 after falling to Scobey/Opheim in the 8-Man quarterfinal round after an unbeaten regular season, five players earned All-State honors and a total of nine were named All-Conference. Falls seniors Kade Pardee, Roman Sparks, Cody Burk and...
The fact that Thompson Falls and Plains will remain rivals in Western Conference 8-Man football for at least two more seasons was the biggest news for Sanders County fans, but there was plenty of other decisions made during the Montana High School Association’s latest regular board meeting. Also hoping to decide how best to move forward during the pandemic of 2020 along with other more usual business, the MHSA executive board met via Zoom conference November 30. One of the biggest topics of conversation during the Zoom meeting was the recent r...
The 2020 Montana fall prep sports seasons came to a close last week with the playing of three state championship football games, played in different parts of our vast Big Sky Country. Missoula Sentinel and Billings West started the last best prep championship weekend of 2020 off in the Class AA title game on Wendy's Field at Daylis Stadium in Billings Friday night. The Sentinel Spartans put an exclamation point on an unbeaten campaign by defeating the Billings West Golden Bears 24-15. It is...
Although the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 changed things up more than a little bit this season, the Thompson Falls Lady Hawks volleyball team made the most of it, ending the campaign at the State B tournament in Shelby last week, falling one match win short of a top-four finish. Along the way this fall, the Lady Hawks went unbeaten in conference play on the way to the District 7B regular season and tournament titles, took third place in the Western B divisional tournament, advanced on to the State...
Respect earned, respect deserved, respect delivered. The Thompson Falls Lady Hawks capped off a perfect conference season which ended with the school’s first State B volleyball tourney appearance since 2016 (see other story), and then came the respect – earned, deserved and delivered. The District 7B champion Lady Hawks, who raced through their conference regular season and tournament schedules without the loss of a match to a 7B foe, placed five players on the league’s all-conference team, which was selected by vote of all league coach...
The high school sports post season has been a little different this year, allowing for COVID-19 of course, but the tournaments and playoffs have moved on. In volleyball, the MHSA managed to get all four State tournaments played last week. Normally played altogether on separate floors in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, as part of an all-class event much like the one held for wrestling each year, the tournaments each had their own tournament venue this time. The State B tourney, which the Thompson Falls Lady Hawks earned their way into, was held...
Led by Hot Springs, which put three players on the all-conference team including two who were named All-State, Sanders County’s three District 14C teams placed six players on the 2020 District 14C All-Conference volleyball team. From Hot Springs, which advanced to the Western C divisional tournament for a second straight season, junior Katelyn Christensen and senior Savannah Roosma were named first team 14C and All-State C, and junior Lily Winn was named second team. Noxon sophomore Avery Burgess and junior Riley Richter were honored as s...
Three Noxon Red Devils and two Hot Springs Savage Heat players have been named to the Western 6-Man All-Conference football team as well as to the State 6-Man team. From Hot Springs juniors Kyle Lawson and Jack McAllister both repeated as All-Conference selections. Lawson was also honored with his second All-State recognition while McAllister was named All-State for the first time. From Noxon, senior Josh Baldwin also repeated as an All-Conference and All-State pick while junior Cade VanVleet and senior Jared Webley both earned both of those...
It was a tough pill the Blue Hawks were forced to swallow, but their wonderful football season ended in painful fashion on the high plains of northern Montana Saturday. The Scobey Spartans built a big lead early and then held off a determined rally by the visiting Hawks 40-24 and will now advance into the semifinals of the Montana 8-Man playoffs. Actually a cooperative formed between Scobey and Opheim in northeast Montana, the Spartans will host the Shelby Coyotes, while Fort Benton will...
The Hot Springs Savage Heat completed another very successful volleyball season last week by placing fourth in the Western C divisional tournament. Coach Alisha Pablo and her Savage Heat bowed out of the tourney, dropping a 25-16, 25-19, 25-17 decision to Lone Peak in the first round Thursday night in Hot Springs and completing play with a 25-6, 25-16, 25-14 loss to District 14C rival Charlo in Charlo Saturday. Manhattan Christian won the tournament by defeating Lone Peak in the championship...
Third in Anaconda means a little more in 2020 than in did in 2019, it means a well-deserved trip to the State B tournament this time around. The Lady Hawks won third place in the Western B divisional volleyball tournament in Anaconda a second straight time last week, but that third place trophy means a little more this time as the top three teams from the division qualify for the State B tourney this year. As the No. 3 team from the Western B, the Lady Hawks will open the State B in Shelby Thursday facing Choteau, the No. 1 team from the Northe...
The final results are not in, but some of the semifinals and quarterfinals have now gone down in Montana prep football. Although the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks had their magical, up-to-that point-unbeaten season ended 40-24 in Scobey Saturday as you can learn about elsewhere on these pages, the 8-Man teams have worked their way into the semifinals. Fort Benton will host Flint Creek in one of those semis while Scobey will host Shelby in the other this week. In the other 8-Man quarterfinal games, Fort Benton defeated Joliet 64-14, Flint Creek...
Want some? Come get some then. Answering the physicality of the big, bad Simms Tigers with some bruising play of their own, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks overpowered the Tigers 50-6 in the first round of the Montana 8-Man football playoffs Saturday. Now 9-0 and unbeaten at Previs Field since 2018, coach Jared Koskela and crew will make the incredibly long trek to Scobey for an 8-Man quarterfinal date with the Scobey/Opheim Spartans at 1 p.m. Saturday. The No. 1 seed from the east, Scobey...
It was almost as if it was meant to be. Now we will find out about the rest of the story in Anaconda. The Thompson Falls Lady Hawks fulfilled at least part of their 2020 net destiny by sweeping to the District 7B tournament title last week, dispatching Mission 25-14, 25-10, 25-11 Thursday and then spiking Eureka 25-16, 11-25, 25-21, 25-17 in the chipper Friday. As the Hawks had earned the top seed with a perfect conference record in the regular season, Thompson Falls hosted both matches in the...
The road to Scobey is a long one, a very long one indeed, 629 miles to be exact according the Montana Department of Transportation in-state distance calculator. That 629 miles might not seem like a real long distance to many who have lived in Montana for a long time but consider this – if you went the other way from Thompson Falls and headed west, you would reach Seattle at something past 400 miles, roughly the same distance as it is to relatively nearby Billings, which after all, is only about halfway across our continent-eating state. As l...
Battle scars are meant to be wore proudly, like badges of honor. Now carrying fresh, hard-earned battle scars, the Hot Springs Savage Heat secured second place in the District 14C tournament Saturday in St. Regis and will gladly do battle again this week in the to-be-played remotely 2020 Western C tourney, which was due to begin Tuesday. In yet another twist to this wild and wooly high school sports season marriage of 2020 and COVID-19, the Heat have officially advanced into the second round as Tuesday’s opponents, the Gardiner Lady Bruins, w...
Although some teams would appear to be a little more legitimate than others at this late stage, tournaments at the end of hard-fought regular seasons represent a chance for new beginnings, an opportunity for every team to finally prove their championship mettle. Hoping to avoid any surprises, Thompson Falls Lady Hawk coach Sandra Kazmierczak will guide her team into the District 7B tournament this week as the conference's No. 1 seed. The tournament will open with Troy playing at Mission Tuesday...
The District 14C volleyball tournament will be played mostly remotely but will end up in St. Regis Saturday for the championship, consolation and, if needed, challenge matches. As the No. 1 and 2 seeds, Charlo and Hot Springs will be given byes through Tuesday’s first round. The No. 4 seed, Noxon will host No. 5 Plains at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday while No. 3 Clark Fork will host No. 6 St. Regis at the same time. The winner of the Noxon-Plains match advances to a semifinal date at Charlo while the victor of the Clark Fork-St. Regis match will play a...
Already All-State, Justin Morgan upped his cross country game a few notches this season and almost became Thompson Falls' first individual champion ever. Repeating his All-State B performance from 2019, Morgan won second place individually in the boys State B portion of the Montana All-Class Meet in Kalispell Friday, finishing less than a second behind the winner during a driving snowstorm. Although Morgan's stirring run to second was the highlight for the Blue Hawks at the Rebecca Farms-hosted...
In coach Jared Koskela’s eyes, these Tigers are dark horses. The unbeaten, 8-0, No. 3 ranked Thompson Falls Blue Hawks will host the 4-2 Simms Tigers Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first round of the Montana 8-Man football playoffs. Capping their second straight unbeaten regular season with another playoff appearance, the Hawks will be hoping to improve on last year’s post season performance, where they advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Fairview. To improve on that the Hawks will first have to get by Simms, and the Ti...
What a wild, whacky and yes, wonderful way to end a football season – in a driving snowstorm on a series of mind-numbing plays on a day of body-numbing cold. Coach Eddie Fultz and his hardy band of Horsemen wrapped up the 2020 football season with a wild 6-0 win over the visiting Seeley-Swan Black Hawks in the middle of an October blizzard to finish the season with a 3-4 record. The Horsemen pulled out the dramatic win by driving 95 yards on their last drive and scoring the only points of the g...
