View from the Sidelines

There will always be a place for Randy Pirker at the Field of Dreams, and now everybody will be able to see where Pirk’s Place is each and every time the Lady Hawks play in Thompson Falls.

The Thompson Falls High School administration has okayed the purchase of a colorful 50-foot banner with “Pirk’s Place” proudly printed on it, which will be unveiled prior to Saturday’s game with the visiting Anaconda Copperheads.

The banner, which is printed in bright TFHS school colors, will be displayed on the outfield fence for every high school softball season from now on, Thompson Falls athletic director Jake Mickelson said.

“This really is the right thing to do, to honor Randy in some fashion for all the good work he did in Thompson Falls sports over the years,” Mickelson said. “He is best-known for everything he did for softball but he also coached and helped out with other sports, and we felt like we needed to honor him somehow.”

The dedication for the banner, to be emceed by Mickelson, is set for 12:45 p.m. Saturday with the game immediately thereafter.

Randy’s daughters, Arikka Pirker and Stephanie Pirker Castillo, who both played softball as Lady Hawks for their dad, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Anyone who knew Randy can attest to his dedication to Thompson Falls softball. Before he was a high school coach, Pirker spent many years as the local youth softball coordinator, lining up games, organizing leagues, making up schedules and, of course, coaching.

And the Field of Dreams, that facility that will now also be known as Pirk’s Place, that thing was his baby as he spent countless hours grooming the infield and spiffing the place up for some of the countless games he was involved in there.

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For the record, Randy Pirker was born in 1960 and attended Thompson Falls schools his entire life. He played football and wrestled for his beloved Blue Hawks all four years and graduated from TFHS in 1978. The 1974 and 1975 Blue Hawk football teams were the first state championship teams of any kind in Thompson Falls and Randy was always proud to say he was a part of that run of Blue Hawk success.

Never wanting to stray too far away from the games and the school he loved so much, Pirk served as a Blue Hawk assistant and volunteer for many years, mostly in football, before finding his true sporting calling in the game of fastpitch softball, which he grew to know like few before him ever had.

Moving up with extensive experience from coaching youth softball, Randy went on to coach softball at TFHS for 21 years, including 14 seasons as head coach. In 2005 and 2008, he guided the Lady Hawks to second place finishes in the State B-C tournament before finally taking them all the way to the title in 2010.

Fighting poor participation numbers after the championship season, Pirker watched as the 2012 and 2017 campaigns were cancelled because of just that, but he stayed on as head coach. After being diagnosed with cancer in August of 2017, Pirk resigned as head coach but volunteered to stay on as an assistant.

He spent most of the spring of 2018 working his schedule around cancer treatments and softball practices, refusing to take himself out of the game he loved so much. Randy finally succumbed to his disease in May of 2018, with only a few weeks left in the high school season.

Randy had a lot of highlights to enjoy, and a lot of people he had come to know because of softball, but the biggest accomplishment of his coaching career may have been in finally bringing home a State B-C softball championship to Thompson Falls.

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Let us revisit that championship season of 2010 in Randy’s memory and honor.

Throwback…

Nine years ago this spring, the Lady Hawks, one week after winning the first Western B-C divisional tournament championship ever (which was fittingly played on the Field of Dreams in Thompson Falls), went into the State B-C tournament at Stewart Park in Billings as the No. 1 seeded team from the west.

Coach Pirker and his Lady Hawks went into Billings looking not only to win Thompson Falls’ first State B-C title ever, but also to even the score with the Columbus-based Stillwater Cougars, who had won the previous three straight State B-C crowns, including in 2008 when they stole a last-bat win away from the Hawks to claim the championship that season.

Complicating matters in 2010 was a large spring storm that threatened to wash away the tournament, with the worst weather of the weekend forecast to arrive Saturday. Given that scenario, MHSA officials decided to compress the tournament into two days only, Thursday and Friday.

Things took a bad turn for the Lady Hawks in their first game Thursday as the upstart Conrad Cowgirls knocked off the cold-hitting Hawks 3-2 to send Thompson Falls into the loser’s bracket and down a long, hard road if they still hoped to win.

Inspired by their optimistic, encouraging coach who encouraged them to take things one game at a time, the Lady Hawks refused to lose after that, reeling off six straight wins in less that 36 hours of total elapsed time.

Facing sudden death with another loss, the Hawks instead won, won and won again.

First Western B-C rival Florence went down 2-1. Then the Eastern B-C champion Shepherd Mustangs fell 8-0, followed by a 12-6 win over Deer Lodge.

Facing Missoula Loyola in the loser-third game, the Hawks really got rolling against the Breakers and eliminated the Missoula girls 11-1, setting up a cathartic game with heated rival Stillwater.

Needing to win two games to come all the way back and claim the title, the Hawk edged the Cougars 2-1 to gain another shot at Stillwater in one final, high-stakes game for the championship.

With two outs in the seventh inning, Kyla Molzhon, the undisputed most valuable player of the season for the Hawks, delivered the game-winning hit to drive in the winning runs, giving Thompson Falls its first and to date only State B-C championship.