Hawks still hope to fly high

Trenna Ferris shouldn't be sitting at her kitchen table right now, devising training schedules for her track and field athletes.

Take a look out the window at that beautiful Sanders County weather.

It's nice outside, she should be out there in the field, or on the track, coaching her Thompson Falls athletes as the bright, brilliant spring weather of western Montana finally kisses our surrounding mountains with sunshine and warmth. In between the intermittent spring rains typical for this time of year in this neck of the woods, of course.

But this is the spring of 2020, and nothing is as it should be in this, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would love to be giving you the results of our first couple track meets, the Jim Johnson (March 27), and the Frenchtown meet (April 4) and tell you how excited we were to compete in Polson April 10," Ferris said from the friendly confines of her home last week. "But instead I sit here at my kitchen table and prepare workouts for my student athletes that I have not seen since March 13, with the whole season in question."

Sadly, Ferris and her assistant coaches Sarah Naegeli, Amy Gilbert and Jake Susic were only able to take the field with their athletes for a few short weeks of practice before the curtain came down. The curtain could go back up in early May if and only if school is reinstated by then.

"We started our season officially on March 9th and looked forward to having a successful one," she said. "We were impressed by our athletes' work ethic and motivation to learn and improve.

"A lot of them were coming off successful basketball seasons and were already in pretty good shape," she added. "As a coaching staff, we were all really excited for our veterans, and saw a lot of potential in our newcomers."

Returning State B medal winners Trey Fisher, Cody Burk and Jody Detlaff return to lead the Hawks, if and when action resumes.

A senior, Fisher threw the javelin far farther than he had ever flung it before in shocking the State B meet field and winning second place in the event, just missing first place, last spring.

Both juniors, Burk won sixth place in the boys discus in 2019 and Detlaff claimed sixth in the high jump, besides advancing to the State B in the girls discus last spring.

Also returning to Thompson Falls track and field with lots of experience under their belts are Justin Morgan, Josey Neesvig, Riley Wilson, Roman Sparks, Matt Duplechain, Shyalynda Walker-Baird, Renee Pearson, Daniel Ryan, Sidney Akinde, Aiden Rosales, Mckenzie Robins, Julissa Bonney, Lance Palmer and Trae Thilmony

New to Blue Hawk track this season are Scarlette Schwindt, Benjamin Croft, Jack Green, Benjamin Cooper, Breck Ferris, Chesney Lowe, Briar Palmer, Lilly VanHuss, Veronica Bewick, Nolan Ward, Owen Rowley, Marc Boyd, Brooks McAfee, Dante Mitchell, Evan Mueller, JJ Fields and team manager Bethany Burk.

Morgan, who earned All-State B honors in cross country last and also a promising pole vaulter who went to a few vaulting camps last summer, for the boys, and Neesvig, who led the Lady Hawk harriers in cross country for the girls, will likely pace the Falls distance running corps.

Coach Ferris has not had the chance to set her athletes in motion in actual competition, not yet at least.

"With almost half of our team being new to high school track, we were going to be pretty young, but could see great potential for growth," she said. "I was looking forward to watching our veterans set the stage and our younger kids learning from them. I was excited to see the growth, to see them improve each week and push each other to get better."

Although the chances for resumption of the schools and of the spring sports seasons remains a possibility, that possibility does not seem all that promising right now.

"Overall, we are sad. We wanted to continue to build our track and field program," Ferris offered. "Track and field is such a great opportunity for our student athletes, not only for the benefit of our team and sport, but for the benefits it provides for all other sports as well.

"The potential loss of the season is huge," she added. "We miss our student athletes and hope they continue to work out, develop their skills and are holding on to the hope that we will return. Go Blue Hawks!"