Camp helps new HHS coach go full speed ahead

Havre High head football coach Ryan Gatch may have been hired somewhat late in the school year, but that hasn't prevented him from putting on a full-court press this summer to help the Blue Ponies prepare for the upcoming season.

Gatch, who is entering his first season at the helm of Havre High's football program, has put in plenty of work since he was introduced back in May. This week though, the Ponies are taking part in their most organized activities of the summer as they take part in the Blue Pony football camp.

"We got a pretty good turnout," Gatch said. "We had 31 or 32 kids show up for the camp in the morning with the youngest kids (4-8 grade). Then we had 41 kids here to start and another that came, so we have over 70 kids coming out to play some football."

Of course, Blue Pony football camp is nothing new. That's something pretty much every past HHS head coach has done. However, Gatch did change things up a bit, by inviting the coaching staff from Montana State University-Northern to instruct part of the camp, with a particular emphasis put on fundamentals.

"I like it," Gatch said. "I did that when I was at another school. It's always nice to see coaching from other people, because there are a lot of different ways to play football. We got a brand new staff, too, so it gives our staff time to evaluate our players a little bit, too."

Yet, this isn't the first time Gatch and his football players have gotten together this summer. In fact, he took a number of players to a team camp earlier this summer and has also been holding weekly workouts and weight-lifting sessions.

"The attendance has been pretty good for the summer workouts," Gatch said. "We have been getting around 20 guys and that's a decent number. You always wish that you had more. I wish I had 80 kids out here tonight, but that's the reality. It's a work in progress. We have a lot of guys that are excited about it. It's nice when you get that senior leadership, but it's nice when you have ninth-graders coming in and getting their bodies ready, too, so I think our numbers are solid."

Gatch said that the camp focused on a few different things. The players went through offensive and defensive fundamental drills with the Northern coaching staff. Then, following that, Gatch said he and his coaching staff worked on installing the offense and the defense.

"(Tuesday) we were going to do defensive drills, but we got rained out," Gatch said. "So we missed some of that install. But the Northern coaches came back and ran through both offensive and defensive drills. So we missed a little of our defensive install because of that, but we are also going to be running a full two-a-day training camp as well. So we will be doing a lot of that then, too."

Anytime a team has a new coaching staff or change in general, it can be difficult. But Gatch said he believes the players have bought into the things that he wants to do. He also said his players, particularly his upperclassmen, can't wait to get back on the field.

"I know with our older guys, they feel like they have some unfinished business, so I think they are pretty excited," Gatch said. "And young kids are young kids. They are just excited to be playing football, so it's a little different. But, some of our seniors are looking forward to the season and some of them are hoping to play beyond high school, so their focus has been really strong."

While Gatch is happy with the buy-in of his players thus far, he still wants to focus on team building and with the introduction of new assistants, which the players met for the first time this week, he said that is still a focus.

Among Gatch's assistants are former Havre head coach Jason Christenson, as well as newcomers Will Devries and Beau Briese. In truth, Briese isn't that new, he coached for Havre two years ago and is a former player, as is Devries. Kendall Griggs and Jake Criner are the other assistants and both are holdovers from the previous coaching staff.

"I am really happy with the staff we put together," Gatch said. "We haven't named any coordinators or anything yet. We just have position coaches right now. But I think we have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge."

The three-day Havre football camp ran from Tuesday through Thursday. Yet, the Ponies will be back on the field soon as their first practice will be on Aug. 12. The annual Blue-White game will be Aug. 20 and the season-opener against Whitefish will be Aug. 27.