George Ferguson Column: It was a privlege to watch them

There’s always something final about the end of a winter sports season.

Maybe that’s because we won’t see basketball and wrestling again until a hopefully beautiful summer and a fall filled with footballs is all over.

However, last month, when the season ended for both the Montana State University-Northern wrestling and men’s basketball teams, there was a finality that was even more prevalent than usual.

For the last five years at Northern, myself, fans and the Havre community have watched two local products excel at the highest level in Lights’ basketball player Corbin Pearson and Northern grappler Ethan Hinebauch.

But for me, personally, I feel like I’ve been watching them do their thing, and become the men they are today for a lot longer than that. And what a privilege it’s been.

I first saw Corbin Pearson play basketball when he was in eighth grade. I just so happened to go to a middle school basketball tournament that year, something I don’t do often. And while Pearson was a big, big kid for his age, I’ll admit, at the time, I didn’t know just how amazing the future would be.

Yet, it didn’t take long for that to change. Fast forward one year, and Pearson, a freshman at Big Sandy High School, was part of a powerful basketball team — a team that would play Hays-Lodge Pole in the District 9C, Northern C and Class C state championship games that season. That was the start of a historic four years for Pearson and his Pioneers and I had a front row seat to all of it.

At nearly the same time, I was watching Ethan Hinebauch start to carry on what had by then become a family tradition. Hinebauch was coming into his own as a Havre Blue Pony on the wrestling mat, and following in the footsteps of older brothers Eric and Ethan, both state champions. It was a fascinating dynamic as Hinebauch’s high school career went on, and I always thought, he was the Hinebauch brother who left no more doubt about who was one of the top wrestling clans in Montana.

And even though I didn’t really realize it then, when I look back now, it’s amazing how these two Hi-Line athletes’ paths intertwined in so many different ways. Both grew up in rural setting, both grew up learning the value of a hard day’s, honest work, and both were excelling in sports — excelling so much so that they were both state champions before their high school careers were over.

But the story didn’t end up there. Both also ended up becoming Lights, and both men ended up achieving greatness while wearing the Northern logo on their chest.

Hinebauch wound up putting together a brilliant career, one that included becoming a four-time NAIA All-American, one that saw him finish as Northern’s career leader in pins, and amongst the career leaders in all-time wins.

On the hardwood, Pearson was equally as good. Essentially a four-year starter for the Lights, he wound up a three-time Frontier All-Conference performer, he played in three NAIA national tournaments and finished his MSU-N career by joining the elite 1,000-point club.

And that’s just a brief look at each of these fan favorite’s accolades in their time inside the grand ole Armory Gymnasium.

Yes, it was an absolute honor to watch these two local boys grow, perform and entertain they way they did for all of us, not just at Northern, but in high school as well. And not just on the court or the mat, but in life. They have both grown into outstanding and classy young men, the type we would all hope our kids grow up to be like someday.

Indeed, it has been a rare and special treat to watch two athletes we have known for so long and so well, succeed like Hinebauch and Pearson have done, and most importantly, succeed at home. No, these two didn’t have to leave home to find collegiate success or fulfillment, or glory. These two homegrown products did it right here in Havre, and for that, we as local sports fans are very lucky and should be eternally grateful.

And that’s exactly why the end to the winter sports season had such a finality to it. Because the moment it was over, I quickly, and sadly realized, we don’t get to watch these two compete in a Northern uniform ever again.

Instead, now all we have are the memories of Hinebauch and Pearson, two local greats in their sports, who, for nearly a decade, gave Hi-Line fans so much joy and so much pleasure, and for that reason, and so many more, we will also miss these two more than we probably will ever realize.