View from the Sidelines

Everyone is hoping for, and helping out Harlee Salmi in any way they can.

Everybody, no matter where they are from, is on Harlee’s side in all this craziness, against this monster which is trying to control her young life.

And it’s not a fight that an innocent five-year-old girl should ever be forced to take on.

You see, Harlee has been diagnosed with DIPG, a short name for an awful malady, an aggressive, incurable brain tumor.

The daughter of Hot Springs High School alumni Matt and Taylor (Wood) Salmi, Harlee has had a busy summer this year with all the attention she has been deservedly getting. In late June, country musician Sam Riddle held a benefit concert for the Hope for Harlee campaign at the Hot Springs rodeo grounds.

It seems as if everyone wants to do something to help out the Spa City’s very own beautiful little Harlee.

The volleyball community of western Montana has certainly noticed.

In a gesture of hope and kindness, all of the teams in District 14C have agreed to wear “Hope for Harlee” shirts (in Harlee’s favorite color of purple, and white/gray) as their warmups for all matches this season.

Fans’ first chance to see those shirts, that display of 14C unity for Harlee, was in Hot Springs Tuesday when the Charlo Vikings visited Hot Springs for the season-opening match for both teams.

Although it may seem like a little thing, this wearing of shirts to honor someone you may not even know, when you total all of those little things up that people are doing, it most certainly adds up to something more important, and that is hope for Harlee.

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Good-bye Luke, we barely knew you.

The Thompson Falls football team, rocked by the loss of player Luke Comerford earlier this summer in a tragic life-and-death accident, has decided to dedicate the season to their fallen teammate.

In a show of respect and love for their friend, who’s life ended way too early, the Hawks plan on leaving the right guard position, the one Luke would have been manning, open for the first play of the game, laying his No. 63 jersey on the ground where he would have been standing for the first home game of the season Friday.

The Falls football team’s captains took Luke’s jersey with them for the coin flip prior to Saturday’s game in Philipsburg with Choteau and plan on doing that for the rest of the season.

Coach Jared Koskela wants his team to keep Luke in their thoughts all season, and hope it eventually helps bring his young men closure with the event.

“That was quite a blow, what happened this summer, but we have had to move on,” he said. “We are going to run a ‘Luke’ play to let him know that he is still part of this team.”

The person this tribute could mean the most to will be right on the sidelines with Koskela and the rest of the team, as Jacob Comerford, Luke’s little brother, is the Blue Hawks’ ball boy.