George Ferguson Column: It's time to get in the gym

It didn’t take long, but the winter sports season is already here. Yes, the football state champions were crowned less than two weeks ago, but now it’s time to crank up the heat inside the gyms and get back to work.

Winter sports teams have been practicing since Nov. 20, and while the full start of boys and girls basketball is still a week away, make no mistake, the winter sports season is upon us on the Hi-Line.

This weekend marks the official start of the high school wrestling season, and that means Havre will be the place to be. The annual Havre Invitational wrestling tournament starts things off for the Blue Ponies, the Class B-C Chinook Sugarbeeters, as well as many other wrestling programs from the area, and the state.

Havre is the two-time defending Class A champion and returns four state individual state champions. But the Havre Invite is always a stern test for the Blue Ponies, as they go head-to-head with defending Class AA state champion Great Falls High. The Blue Ponies and Bison have dominated the Havre Invite the last two years.

The swimming season won’t start for another week, but the Blue Ponies will be in the Havre Community Pool Saturday when they hold their Blue/White Meet. Head coach Jill Cammon’s teams have been hard at work for two weeks now, and like the HHS wrestlers, the Pony swimmers get to open the regular season at home, too. Following the Blue/White Meet, Havre will prepare for the 2014 Havre Invitational, which will take place Dec. 13 at the Havre Community Pool.

Meanwhile, that same weekend marks the start of the high school basketball season, and gyms in and around Havre will be packed. The Havre High boys and girls teams open the season with a doubleheader against Malta Dec. 13 at the HHS gymnasium. The Pony boys team will stay at home to play CMR Dec. 14, while the HHS girls, the defending Class A state champions, travel to CMR that same night. Those three home games are the only ones Havre High will play before Christmas Break.

But the basketball action isn’t confined to the HHS gymnasium next weekend. The Armory Gymnasium will play host to the annual Native American Classic Dec. 12-14. Teams playing that weekend in Havre include defending Class C champion, the Box Elder boys, as well as the Box Elder girls, the Rocky Boy girls and boys, the Harlem girls and boys and the Hays-Lodge Pole girls and boys. The season will also kickoff in Chester that weekend. The Hawks host the C/J-I Tipoff Tournament, and local teams like Chinook, North Star and Big Sandy will be involved in that three-day event.

So while the fall was certainly exciting, and seemed like it just ended yesterday, now it’s the winter sports’ turn.