George Ferguson Column: HHS'spring athletes meet tough challenges

Tonight, inside the hallowed halls of Havre High School, the sports season will officially come to an end, as the Spring Sports Awards Banquet is held.

And while another incredible year of Blue Pony athletics has come and gone, to be more specific, it was also another terrific spring for HHS.

Of course, I am biased when it comes to spring sports, and the reason is obvious. But, it isn’t just tennis that makes me have an affinity for spring sports. No, the reasons our spring sports should be lauded go much further.

First and foremost, our student athletes always work hard. That’s a tradition at Havre High, and no matter the season, I know all of our Blue Ponies give us all of their heart and soul. But, as February turns to March, working hard gets to be a grind for many of our athletes, and that should be appreciated.

In tennis, track and field, and fastpitch softball, Havre High’s teams are composed largely of multi-sport athletes, many of whom play three sports a year. Take this school year for example and the likes of Jerod Boles, Nate Rismon and Dani Wagner among others. By the time the spring season rolls around, kids like those have already been going to practices after school since mid-August. The two-sport athletes do the same, and even the kids who may only play one sport, well, they are working hard in many other activities and most importantly, academics all year long.

So, there’s no question that, by the time the snow melts and the temps finally warm up, many of our student-athletes really have to grind out a spring sport. It can be tough and it can be challenging. Yet, as someone who has coached a spring sport for the past 14 years, I can tell you, those kids give every bit of themselves to tennis, track and softball, in the same hard-working manner they do everything else.

And that’s one reason why our spring sport athletes need to be commended.

Another reason spring sport athletes should be applauded is they play those three sports outdoors. And let’s face it, March, April and May in Havre are not always the prettiest of months. Though spring technically arrives on March 21, Havre’s spring sport athletes typically practice and compete in temperatures below 50 degrees, in winds that commonly blow over 20 miles per hour every day, and, in many cases, in very little sun shine.

Spring sports are also held outdoors in places like Cut Bank, Conrad, Lewistown and Great Falls, places that are very much like Havre, where spring doesn’t really arrive until the spring sports season has really come and gone.

No, being outdoors at places like the tennis courts and the Havre Middle School Track for three straight months is anything but an easy task. And yet again, I know how much our athletes overcome that challenge, how much they push through it, and how much they continue to care, because they care about being Blue Ponies, about competing for Havre High. And as a coach of a spring sport, I can’t tell you how much that means.

And that hard work and caring certainly pays off.

It was an incredible end to the spring sports season, as Blue Pony tennis players and track and field athletes earned medals at state, while the boys tennis team earned two more trophies in the final two weeks of the season. And, not only did the HHS softball team make it to the state tournament, but they won an exciting game over Glendive while they were there.

In the end, we, as Blue Ponies, are all lucky. We have great sports in the fall, winter and spring, we get to share in many successes, we get to watch so many special student athletes do some incredible things over the course of an entire school year. It seems to be that way every year, because, athletics have a standard that is set very high at HHS.

But, as the spring sports season comes to a true end tonight and, yes, I admit my bias, let’s make sure to really applaud all of our student athletes who persevered over the last three months. I see it every day, and I can say, they truly deserve the accolades and the respect for what they’ve just done.