Minus Kenny, P-HS wrestling coaches named

With heavy hearts, the Plains-Hot Springs wrestling team will soldier on without their regular commander in chief this season.

As everyone in the city of Plains and the community of Montana prep wrestling already knows, Kenny Marjerrison will not be coaching this season due to a tragic accident that no one could have predicted only weeks before the season officially started.

And, as everyone in Plains continues to attempt to deal with the loss of a great man who meant so much to so many, Plains school officials reluctantly have made arrangements for carrying on with the wrestling program this upcoming season. After an emergency meeting with school officials, Jeff Kujala graciously agreed to coach the Savage Horsemen, and Kenneth Beech, Jake Lile and Rocky Wagoner agreed to be his assistants.

“The administration asked me to do it,” Kujala said, “and we really need the assistants because there was just so much that Kenny took care of, I didn’t think I could do it all. Kenny was a pretty amazing person.”

No stranger to Plains-Hot Springs wrestling, Kujala is the father of former Savage Horsemen greats Dennis, Tim and Russell Kujala, and Russell remains the only two-time P-HS state champion in program history. Jeff also says that he has become a Montana wrestling junkie of sorts based on the way he tracks the sport during any given season.

When Russell was in sixth grade, Jeff began a weight program at Plains High School some ten years ago, and has been running that early morning, before-school program ever since, giving him some insight into what he is stepping into as the new head coach.

The Savage Horsemen made a strong team showing in the post season last winter. After winning fourth in team scoring at the Western B-C Divisional meet, the Savage Horsemen went on to the State B-C meet and grabbed an impressive fifth place finish there.

And that is not even counting the shocking team win by the Savage Horsemen at the Choteau Invitational earlier on in the season.

State champion James DeTienne (at 152 pounds) and Kane Lawson (second at 160) led P-HS to the stellar team result at the state meet, but both of those Hot Springs standouts have graduated. Coach Kujala is still optimistic about this year’s squad in spite of the departures.

“We have a really good group of seniors to build around,” Kujala said.

Leading that list of returning lettermen are seniors Daniel Uli (third at 120 pounds in the State B-C), Luke Lile (sixth at 145) and Austin Stafford (who wrestled at 138 in the State B-C), and junior Josiah Vanderwall (who also advanced at 126).

Lile won second at his weight in the Western B-C meet leading up to the State B-C, and Uli, Stafford and Vanderwall all placed third in the Western B-C last winter.

Kujala says Uli is weighing in at about 126-132 pounds this season, Stafford is still at 138, Vanderwall will probably go at 132 and Lile will grapple at 160.

The Savage Horsemen will begin the season Dec. 7 hosting a quadrangular meet also featuring Thompson Falls, Mission and Arlee. P-HS grapplers will then compete in the Bob Kinney Invitational in Superior Dec. 9.