George Ferguson Column: With that smile, Jesse touched so many people

For many years now, Havre, Chinook and the entire Hi-Line community has made the week of the All-Class state wrestling tournament pretty much a local holiday. After all, the area always represents some of the best wrestling in the Treasure State, and a large contingent of the state’s most passionate wrestling fans.

However, this weekend, as the 2016 All-Class state tournament dawns, it won’t be the same, it won’t be a holiday, nor should it be. And that’s because someone very special won’t be in the Billings Metra this weekend.

That special someone is Chinook senior Jesse Dannels, who was lost to us on Sunday afternoon. Dannels’ passing was sudden, shocking and overwhelmingly sad.

Therefore, this weekend in Billings is going to be very different for all of us who are a part of the tight-knit Hi-Line wrestling community.

Yes, our area wrestlers will still succeed this weekend, there will be state championships, and plenty of spectacular moments. There will still be plenty of cheering and cars with painted windows on the way down to Billings, and all that accompanies this very special week.

However, all of that will come with a heavy heart and plenty of emotion for those who knew, loved, cared about and had the privilege of knowing Jesse Dannels.

And those people are many.

In my short time of knowing Jesse, I know how many people loved him. That includes of course, his family, as well as his extended family: the Chinook wrestling and football teams, players and coaches. Those guys were his teammates, his best friends, his brothers, and I can’t even presume to imagine how his family and his athletic family, must be feeling right now. I won’t even presume to try.

But Jesse’s reach went well beyond the halls of Chinook High School, and the city limits of Chinook. I know how close he was to the Havre High wrestling team, and I know just how torn up the Blue Ponies are about his passing, too. The same can be said in Harlem, and pretty much all over the Hi-Line. And the same can be said in Choteau, Conrad, Glasgow, Malta, Cut Bank, Shelby and just about anywhere else Jesse competed.

As I said, the wrestling community in our area is close, and Jesse was a big, big part of that tight-knit group, and because of that, there are many, many people, from his fellow competitors, to fans who got to watch him wrestle, who are deeply saddened by his passing and who will miss him very much. Their minds will be with him, even when they take to the mat this weekend in Billings, and when they are in the stands watching the tournament.

Jesse touched a lot of people, family, friends, teammates, coaches, fans, you name it. He also touched me, and many others in my profession. Over the last few years, I have had the honor of talking to Jesse many times, and I can say with an absolute certainty, I enjoyed watching him compete, but I enjoyed talking to him afterward even more.

Both on the football field, and on the wrestling mat, Jesse was a leader, and while he was also very, very tough, I don’t think I ever saw him play a game, or wrestle a match without, at some point, cracking that huge smile of his. Those of you who knew him know exactly what I’m talking about. And no matter the circumstance, when you would talk to him after that competition was over, the smile was even bigger.

I know many of my colleagues in this business, Chris Peterson, Derek Opina, Brenna Greene and many others, they know exactly what I’m speaking of, and all of us feel so honored and so lucky to have not only gotten to watch Jesse play, not only to have gotten to write about him, talk about him or film him, but more importantly, just to have gotten the chance to be able to know him. We were all so very lucky in that regard.

And because of that smile, because of who Jesse was, because of what he stood for, we all are hurting bad right now. And we are all hurting bad together. It’s times like this when being together and staying together is so important, and that’s what Jesse has done for all of us that knew him — he brought us together.

As a person, as a son, as student, as a football player, a wrestler, a friend and a brother, Jesse impacted so many different people in so many different ways. He impacted the school he attended, the teams he played on, the coaches he played for, the town he lived in, the fans who watched him, the athletes he competed against, the opposing coaches and even journalists like myself. Jesse Dannels touched so many people in so many ways, and for that, all of us he touched should be eternally grateful.

And with that, those of us who he touched will go forward, we will go to state wrestling this weekend, with Jesse in our hearts and in our minds. He will be honored in many, many ways in Billings this weekend, some publicly, some privately. It will be emotional and it will be hard. But, because of the kind of person Jesse was, all of us, the community that came to be because of Jesse, we will do it together. And, I imagine, from this point forward, there won’t be a time when we step foot inside the Metra in Billings, that we won’t think of Jesse. No matter how much time passes.

We are all going to miss Jesse very much and those of us who got to know him, in whichever way we knew him, it is an honor and privilege.

And with that, I would like to take this time to offer my deepest condolences to Jesse’s family, his football and wrestling brothers and coaches, to Chinook High School and to the entire community of Chinook. Sugarbeeter Nation … you are in our hearts and our prayers.