Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 1162
It's a brave new world for the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk football team. The big question is: How will coach Jared Koskela and his boys adapt to the 8-Man game they will officially be playing for the first time this fall? "I am going to stay on the optimistic side of things," Koskela said. "This season is looking a lot better going in than our last few as an 11-Man team, I know that. "It (moving to 8-Man) has leveled the field for us, and we feel pretty good about our schedule," he added. "Sure,...
Being in the sweet 16 isn’t necessarily a very good deal in Montana cross country running. The top 15 place-winners in Montana State high school cross country meets automatically earn All-State status, but the No. 16 placing runner is left out in the cold. The leader of last season’s Thompson Falls high school harriers as a sophomore, junior Josey Neesvig finished in 16th place in the State B girls meet last fall, one agonizing spot short of earning All-State B honors. “You bet she remembers that,” Blue Hawk coach Sarah Naegeli said, “and ha...
Proving hungry dogs hunt best, the Wild Coyote team of Gary Thompson, Dave Petteys, Scott Pardee and Howard Morkert devoured the competition and moved into first place by shooting the low team gross of 170 last week in Wednesday Night Men’s League action at River’s Bend. While the Coyotes were busy hunting down the low gross, Ron’s Running Dinos’ team of Bruce Sterling, Darrel “Torgy” Torgrimson, Dan Kier and Mike Thilmony posted the low team net of 139. Jesse Mosher shot the low individual gross of 38 while Petteys factored in his handicap to...
Sparky’s Gutter Time held on to the league lead as Shanks a Lot shot the low team gross and Feed-N-Fuel the low team net in Tuesday Night Men’s League play at River’s Bend last week. Dave Garr, Jens Jantzen, Rusty Haggard and Charlie Hooten did the swinging for Shanks a Lot and Steve Clark, Dave Petteys, Doug Gunderson and Kelly Kovarik played through for Feed-N-Fuel. Ron Belger shot the low individual gross of 39 and Hooten the low net on 28. In hole play, Bill Nolen was closest to the pin in 3 on No. 11, Mike Thilmony cashed in with the l...
Just another day of golfing fun in the sun for the friendly players of the Over the Hill gang. Sanders County’s most gregarious golfers gathered once again at River’s Bend Monday and another great day was had by all. Feeling the grooviest of all, Rusty Sharp challenged par the most with the low men’s gross of 42. Don Hansen and Lana Nolen factored in their handicaps for the low men’s and women’s net scores. In other play of the day, Scott Garr was closest to the pin in 2 on No. 1, Wally Gibe put down the long putt on No. 2, Sam Bernhardt...
There is an excitement building with the Thompson Falls Lady Hawk volleyball team. Back to battle their way to another potential State B tournament bid, coach Sandra Kazmierczak's Lady Hawks almost made it there last year, finishing a strong third in the Western B tourney in Florence last fall. Since only the top two teams advanced to State, the Hawks were left on the outside looking in, but just barely. The good news is that three teams will move to State from the Western B division this...
The All-State Tylers are gone but the Hot Springs Savage Heat still have big plans for the upcoming 6-Man football season. One year removed from a 9-2 season that ended only in the second round of the State playoffs with a loss to a team that eventually went on to play in the championship game, coach Jim Law son and his Savage Heat have been busy devising a strategy for the rapidly approaching grid campaign. Without the All-Conference and All-St at e talents of Tyler Knudsen and Tyler Carr, two of last year’s star players who have now moved o...
In his third year at the helm as head coach of the Plains Horsemen football team, Eddie Fultz is slightly unsure about how his squad will perform this fall at this point. “It’s hard to tell a whole lot about football ability when you are just running around in shirts and shorts,” he said of the first few days of practice. “We will be able to tell a whole lot more once we put on the pads and start contact drills.” The Horsemen had their share of struggles with injuries and inconsistency last fall and finished the ’18 campaign with a 2-7 record....
Fielding a 6-Man football team is challenging enough without having unexpected departures. Put together with the fact that all-everything players Levi Brubaker and Edison VanVleet have graduated and moved on, Noxon coach Bart Haflich also lost his top two candidates for quarterback before the season began. Sophomore-to-be Jeriko Smith was the Devils’ signal-caller last fall and junior Braedon Marshall was expected to see time at QB as well. It turns out that both ended up transferring out. “I had heard that Jeriko was leaving but the loss of...
A rare August cold front with quenching rains poured into Montana last week, at least temporarily slowing down the 2019 wildland fire season. Just as Smokey Bear was celebrating his 75th birthday last Friday, a large weather system also arrived in western Montana. Lightning sparked a few new fires but plentiful rain also eventually washed over the area, keeping the new starts reasonably small. The Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger District picked up one of those new starts last Thursday evening on the slopes of Pat’s Knob across the Clark Fork R...
The time to practice has arrived; the time to play is not very far away. High school teams from around Sanders County will hit the football fields, the volleyball courts and the running trails en masse beginning this Friday. An interesting season of football is in the offing this fall as Thompson Falls drops down to the 8-Man game for the first time in decades. The 8-Man football leagues will no longer be associated with Class B or C designations, it will be simply 8-Man football, regardless of what classification schools are in for other...
Local fire control organizations are winning the war with wildfires – for now at least. Several new fires were discovered and dealt with in Sanders County last week. The lastest was discovered Tuesday in the Mandy Gulch area about 25 miles up Thompson River outside Thompson Falls. A Department of Natural Resource and Conservation (DNRC) air patrol flight discovered the fire, which was estimated to be about 10 acres. Helicopters and a firefighters were dispatched to address the fire. Smoke from a few large fires in Idaho which drifted into o...
First Security Bank is now in first place. First Security golfers Dan Whittenburg, Michael Scharfe, Bill Nolen and Ben Mummert joined forces to shoot the low team gross of 174, allowing their team to leap-frog Whitefish Credit Union and move into first place in Wednesday Night Men’s League play at River’s Bend last week. Also moving up in the standings, Wild Coyote linksters Gary Thompson, Dave Petteys, Scott Pardee and Howard Morkert shot the low team net of 143 helping that team move up from fourth place and into third. Dan Kier fired a 39...
For one day at least, River’s Bend became part of Wally’s World. Wally Gibe enjoyed a banner day at the Bend, shooting the low gross and capturing four flags otherwise in leading the Over the Hill golfing gang through yet another round of friendly, sunny, Monday morning golf earlier this week. In addition to shooting the low gross round of 40, Wally made the Bend his world for the day by also hitting his ball closest to the pin in two shots on No. 2, putting down the long putt on No. 2, hitting his tee shot closest to the pin on No. 5, and fin...
Led by Dan Kier’s low individual gross round of 41, Big Sky Pantry golfers (also including Howard Morkert, Bill Nolen and Gary Denio) shot the low team gross of 180 in Tuesday Night Men’s League action at River’s Bend last week. Feed-N-Fuel duffers Steve Clark, Dave Petteys, Charlie Hooten and Doug Gunderson captured low team net honors with a collective 143, paced by Gunderson’s low individual net of 28. Sparky’s Gutter Time continues to lead the Tuesday men in second half play with 106 points and Double H Dirt Works is second with 102. In h...
Fire season continues to creep up on Sanders County. Although the Moss Ranch fire burning southwest of Ronan is the biggest fire going in the county right now, the other firefighting organizations have dealt with several other fire starts over the past few weeks as well. The Plains DNRC responded to two fires last week, limiting a lightning-caused blaze in Sears Gulch north of Plains to 2.3 acres and catching a small grass fire west of Plains at one-tenth of an acre. The fires were within the DNRC’s area of jurisdiction and the U.S. Forest S...
Whitefish Credit Union golfers Ron Beaty, Randy Hojem, Wally Gibe and Rick Kendall shot the low gross of 172 and Wild Coyote linksters Gary Thompson, Dave Petteys, Scott Pardee and Howard Morkert posted the low net of 143 to highlight the action in Wednesday Night Men’s League play at River’s Bend last week. Kendall shot the low individual gross of 40 and Gibe the low net of 32 to help Whitefish win the weekly Wednesday sweepstakes. Whitefish CU leads second-half league play with 71.5 points and First Security Bank is second with 69.5. In hol...
Double H Dirt Works shot the low team gross, Lakeside Motel & Resort the low team net and Sparky’s Gutter Time held onto the league lead in Tuesday Night Men’s League action at River’s Bend last week. Double H Dirt golfers Scott Pardee, Ty Pardee, Tom Kirkland and Gary Thompson teamed up to post the low gross of 182, while Lakeside luminaries Shaun Wilkinson, Scott Garr, Sam Burt and Tom Doucette joined forces to arrive at the low net of 138. Sparky’s Gutter Time leads league standings with 83.5 points and Bear Muscle Fitness is second with 82....
Chasing that elusive yellow ball for fame and fortune. Okay, maybe not for fame and fortune but at least for a fun time on the links. The Over the Hill gang broke into teams and played a yellow ball scramble this past sunny Monday morning at River’s Bend. With one member of each team playing a yellow ball for score, the other members played in a best-ball format. When the yellow haze had cleared from the greens and fairways, Buck Adams, Steve Wolf, Charlie Hooten and Rusty Haggard registered the winning yellow ball round of 29, Dave Petteys, S...
The sports will remain the same, only some of the faces in charge of local high school programs will change. Several coaching changes have been made at Sanders County schools ahead of the 2019-2020 school year. In Thompson Falls, former boys Blue Hawk coach Chadd Laws has been hired to take over the Lady Hawk hoop program as head coach. In his first year coaching girls basketball in Thompson Falls, Laws will be assisted by Michael Benson, who has served as boys assistant coach for the past two...
There were 35 golfers playing with the Over the Hill gang at River’s Bend Monday morning, but no one had a bigger day of play than Buck Adams. Adams was the star of the day in hole play for the Hill players, winning honors for the longest putts on Nos. 3, 6 and 7. Ron Beaty needed the fewest number of strokes to capture low gross honors with a 41, while Scott Garr and Sharon Pound shot the low men’s and women’s nets with rounds of 31 each, respectively. In other Hill highlights, Rick Kendall also enjoyed a great day, sending home the long putts...
Bear Muscle Fitness bore down and shot the low team gross of 184, but Sparky’s Gutter Time shot the low team net of 140 and took over the lead in Tuesday Night men’s League action at River’s Bend last week. Steve Fairbank, Steve Anderson, Cody Mosher and Rick Hagedorn played the Bend for Bear Muscle and Mike Thilmony, Sean Kelly, Doug Czerwinski and Hammerin’ Tom Holleran did the swinging for Sparky’s Gutter kings last Tuesday. Ron Belger shot a straight-up 42 to nab low individual gross honors and Tom Kirkland posted the low individua...
With Randy Hagedorn leading the way with the low individual gross of 39, the Hagedorn Land Surveying team of Hagedorn, Paul Flemmer, Ryan Ostwald and Rick Hagedorn shot the low team gross of 173 to highlight play in the Wednesday Night Men’s League at River’s Bend last week. Paced by Chuck Manry who shot the low individual net of 29, the Whitefish Credit Union team of Manry, Rusty Sharp, Rick Kendall and Wally Gibe captured low team net honors with a 137. In spite of those teams’ efforts, First Security Bank still leads the second half stand...
If you live in Sanders County and want to watch 11-man football this fall you had better put up the footrest on your recliner and watch it on television because no local high school will be playing it. For the first time anyone around here can remember, there will be no games played on 100-yard fields with 11 players on each side in our fine county, only on 80-yard gridirons with either eight or six players to a side. Since Thompson Falls was granted the right to drop down to the 8-Man game by the MHSA late last fall, the 11-man game of...
They say the best things in life are free and here is some proof. A free basketball camp for local youngsters in grades 2 through 8 will be held at the Thompson Falls junior high gym next week. Sponsored by the Thompson Falls Community Congregational Church, the hoop camp will kick off Sunday at 3 p.m., will run until about 5 that day, and then will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. An organizer for the event, local pastor Matt Schraeder said that Montana Grizzly player Bobby Moorehead, who helped lead the Griz to a second...
