View from the Sidelines

Let’s talk about sports in-laws.

From one end of Sanders County to the other, these relatives by marriage, and blood, are huge impact players in the coaching world around these parts.

Let’s start in Plains with head football and girls basketball coach Eddie Fultz, who is married to Rheanna (Rhe) Padden, who is sister to Lisa (Padden) Mickelson, the new junior varsity volleyball coach for the Thompson Falls Lady Hawks.

This makes Jake Mickelson, the athletic director and head boys basketball coach at Thompson Falls and husband to Lisa, sports in-laws with Eddie and Rhe, who also does her bit coaching in junior high and helping out with the logistical side of things with Eddie’s high school hoops team.

Now let us discuss the most aptly named sports in-laws of all around here, the Laws family.

Chadd Laws, now the head girls b-ball coach in T-Falls beginning this winter, who was formerly the head boys basketball coach, then an assistant and for many years also a football assistant, is the proud father of Jaron Laws, who is now a teacher in the Plains school system.

And Chadd and wife Amy, Jaron’s mom, are long-time teachers in the Thompson Falls school system.

Jaron has been an assistant coach with the Horsemen football team and also coaches junior high hoops in the winter and track and field in the spring.

The Lawson family in Hot Springs has made significant coaching contributions in the Spa City over the years, and Jim Lawson is still the head man for the football team. Enjoying an incredibly successful run, Jim guided the Savage Heat to State C 6-Man titles in 2012 and 2016, and seems to have the Heat in the playoff hunt most every season.

Jim’s father Jim, Sr., was on the sidelines helping his son by taking statistics in all the Heat’s games during those championship seasons, and served as assistant coach and acting head coach of the team in the past. And that goes all the way back into the days when Jim played football himself for the Hot Springs Savages back in the 1990s.

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ICYMI – that’s In Case You Missed It for those of you not as hip with internet lingo as I am – here is some more useful information.

The family sports thing around here is not limited to just coaches, it also goes down to the player level, sports blood seems to run deep in all corners of the county.

Speaking of Jim Lawson and his sports-loving clan, who can forget about his boys Kane and Kyle? Kane was an All-State C linebacker and running back for the 2016 State C champion Savage Heat and went on to play football at Montana Western in Dillon.

Still in high school, Kyle is currently a sophomore wide receiver/defensive back for the Heat.

Down in the West End, parents Ryan and Tamra Weltz, both ex-Noxon athletes themselves, have two kids that Ryan has or will end up coaching at the high school level in basketball. Taking the reins of the Lady Devils last winter, Ryan coached his daughter Delaney to an All-State C season on the hardwood.

Taking over the boys program this season, Ryan will now coach his son Rylan through his senior season in Noxon.

Back with Laws sports-in-laws, Chadd’s sons Jaron and Tanner both played basketball for their dad in Thompson Falls several years ago, although daughter Lindsey, another chip off the old Laws hoops block, did not.

In Plains, volleyball coach Jesse Butcher has two daughters – Dakota, a senior, and Izzy, a sophomore – currently playing for her as members of the Trotter net squad.

And although this may be considered a little bit of ancient history by now, Thompson Falls cross country coach Sarah Naegeli has spent a significant portion of her coaching career guiding her kids – Derek, Jacob, Mariah and Logan – in the sport, as well as in life at home.

That’s ICYMI, but you didn’t miss it here!