Community pride seen through sports

With the end of fall sports comes the end of my first season as a sports writer, well, a writer at all. When I moved back to Sanders County last March I never dreamed I would land a job at the newspaper, let alone writing for sports. For people who know me, they know sports are not my thing. Sure, I played volleyball and basketball in middle school and the first few years of high school but what did someone like me know about football and cross country? Little to nothing, honestly.

What I never expected was the warm welcome I got from every school I visited. As a Thompson Falls alumni I grew up with the thought that these towns were rivals, not people I should support. Yet there I was, being thanked for just being at the home games. I got to see how other towns view their sports teams, how they view their part of the Sander County community. As a kid you don’t really understand the sense of community. Sure, you hear grownups talking about supporting each other but you really don’t think much of it. Here as an adult I get the importance of it.

Take Hot Springs, for example, one of the furthest towns out in Sanders County, and how the small community banded together supporting the Savage Heat football team going undefeated, loud cheers and frozen toes alike, or how they hosted the Western 14-C volleyball tournament, or their amazing maple bar donuts sold at home games.

Noxon is another of the “out of the way towns” that shows their students the importance of community. Every football game, camping chairs set up, members cheered for their Red Devils, win or lose. The student section packed almost every volleyball game, asking the crowd quietly “how ‘bout them Lady Red Devils?” when the team made an impressive play.

While I only made it to a few of the Trotters volleyball games, it seemed the whole gym would shake as members cheered Plains on. I personally never saw myself cheering along, yet there I was clapping like my own children were playing.

Walking into the Thompson Falls gym was not on my 2023 bucket list, but I’m delighted it came about. Not only did I get to reconnect with coaches who coached me, but I got to see the students (who are still small children in my head) become the next generation of Blue Hawk athletes.

This sports season showed me that it didn’t matter that I might still view myself as a rival in the county, the other towns didn’t see it that. All they saw was a girl with colored hair taking photos and cheering for their town like she was a member all her life. Thank you to the teams and communities of Sanders County for the open arm welcome. — Skye Hill