View from the sidelines

Did I anything miss? Or versa vice?

It’s been a long time since this column last appeared on these pages (some might say not long enough!) so there is a fair amount of catching up to do, looking at things from front to back and from back to front.

As many of you may or may not know, the writer of this column recently retired from his other job and should now have more time for the crucial stuff – you know, talking about sports until you get tired of hearing about sports or even thinking about sports anymore.

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The 2018 prep football season came to an end last week with the playing of championship games at the 6-Man, 8-Man, Class B, Class A and Class AA levels.

In the Montana Class C 6-Man title game, the Wibaux Longhorns, who just dropped down to 6-Man football this season after years of being a powerhouse team at the 8-Man level, walloped the Jordan Mustangs 70-27.

Sanders County 6-Man teams Hot Springs and Noxon both qualified for the playoffs, with the Savage Heat advancing to the quarterfinals before falling to Jordan and the Red Devils falling to Geraldine-Highwood in the first round.

In the first neutral field championship game ever played for the 8-Man title, Flint Creek (Drummond-Philipsburg) defeated Great Falls Central 50-14 at Naranche Stadium in Butte.

In Class B, the visiting Fairfield Eagles overpowered Missoula Loyola 30-13 in Missoula and in the Class A title game in Hamilton, Billings Central held off the homestanding Broncs 28-21.

Although all the other championships were played Saturday, the Class AA title tilt was played Friday in Billings and the Billings West Golden Bears took down the Kalispell Flathead Braves 20-14, giving the city of Billings two of the five Montana state football crowns for 2018.

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Since we are back in print at least for a little while, the first order of business should be to clean up a few misconceptions. Which leads us to the first installation of…

CORRECTION

CORNER

Sad but true but there was a glaring mistake on these sports pages a few weeks ago and a correction must be made to that error.

During an article about Russell Kujala and his advancing to the national finals of NAIA cross country running, it was stated that Kujala and Thompson Falls’ Rodney Bybee were the only two-time individual state wrestling champions in Sanders County.

It turns out that that statement is patently false as Larry Kelly of Plains also won two state titles in 1978 and 1979. Many thanks to Plains alumnus Sydne Connolly for pointing out this mistake.

We will attempt to be more error-free in the future but please, kind reader, if you see anything else amiss, let us know and we will at least try to make amends.