Jody Detlaff signs with Tech

For Jody Detlaff, there are just not enough sports in the world.

But, with high school graduation rapidly approaching and her prep sporting career finally nearing its productive, busy ending, Detlaff has decided on a school of higher learning, and on the sports she wants to concentrate on in college.

Soon to be graduating with honors from Thompson Falls (she carries a cumulative 4.0 grade point average), Detlaff recently signed her national letter of intent (or NLI) to attend Montana Tech in Butte, where she will pursue studies in biology while competing in track and field for the Orediggers.

Detlaff is receiving a combined academic/athletic offer from Tech. And she just might not be ready to give up all of her other sports just yet.

Not one to be happy sitting around, Detlaff is kicking around the idea of also playing volleyball for Tech and has talked with the Oredigger net coach about doing just that.

One of TFHS's most established multi-sports stars ever, Detlaff was more than a tri-athlete throughout her high school career. In her freshman through junior seasons, she actually played four sports each school year, doubling up with softball and track and field in the spring after playing volleyball in the fall and of course, basketball in the winter.

Recently, Detlaff even branched out into the world of high school weightlifting ("It was going on during the volleyball and basketball seasons," she said, "I worked around it") and brought home second place in her weight class from the Montana All-Class Weightlifting tournament in yet another sport she tried and succeeded at.

Only this spring did Detlaff finally make the decision to forego Blue Hawk softball and concentrate her athletic efforts on track and field, where she is a recognized force in the throwing events (particularly in the discus) and in the high jump.

Although she really misses playing softball (and coach Jared Koskela and his team really miss her), Detlaff admits that it has been kind of nice having the time to concentrate on just track and field this spring.

"It was a lot less stressful this spring, it didn't seem like I had much free time in the past," she said. "And it definitely did seem to help me focus on my track and field events more this year."

Narrowing down her focus to one or two sports only after a lifetime of playing or competing in any and all sports playing at any particular time could be quite the adjustment for Detlaff to make now.