George Ferguson Column: Thanks to guys like Jeff, skating is alive and well in rural Montana

Almost every day on these pages, you read about the sports that most know so well. This time of year, it's baseball. And, common American sports like football and basketball, admittedly steal most of the headlines throughout a given year.

But the word sports encompass a wide range of things these days. I coach a sport that doesn't get a lot of attention on the local scene, tennis, but my passion for it isn't diminished one bit just because it isn't one of the name-brand sports.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love the name-brand sports. I have a deep love for pretty much every sport there is. I watch, and love to write about, golf and swimming and hockey, and I'm a fan of horse racing, soccer, wrestling and Nascar to name a few. But in my daily life as a journalist and in my fandom I am like most American's - I love my football and basketball.

That doesn't change the fact that sports go well beyond the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball. And there are professional athletes out there who are worshiped by kids in the same way many kids go crazy for Steph Curry and Tom Brady.

And last weekend in Big Sandy, thanks to one of my heroes, one of those sports got its day in the sun. Yes, make no mistake, skateboarding is indeed a sport and has been for a long time. And thanks to Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, the rural Montana skateboarding scene is thriving right now.

Ament, a native of Big Sandy, and, as far as I'm concerned, a member of greatest rock band to ever live - Pearl Jam - has done wonders for the local Montana sate scene, helping to build and improve awesome skate parks in places like his hometown of Big Sandy, and so many other smaller communities across his home state. His philanthropic work with the sport of skateboarding is inspiring and I, for one, am so appreciative of all that he does for the sport, and for the kids who love it.

Skateboarding has always been a sport I've been enthralled with. In my youth, I loved to ride my board, even though I really wasn't any good at it. Remember the old ramp across the street from the high school? Yes, I'll never forget the first time I tried to drop in on that half-pipe. Talk about splinters. I had my share. But, growing up, my friends and I were into everything, and skating was a daily ritual. Sure, we still played baseball, tennis, golf, hoops and football on warm sunny days in highland park, too, and we rode our bikes all over town, but we all had skateboards in the 1980s.

And, even though all of us loved Michael Jordan, we all had our favorite pro football and baseball players, we also thought Tony Hawk was one of the coolest and most exciting professional athletes in the world at that time.

I know I did anyway, and actually, I still consider Tony one of the most iconic sport's figures of my generation.

Eventually, I got older, and stopped skateboarding. I wished I hadn't, but like I said, I was never really very good at it and never mastered many of the tricks that you needed to take skating to the next level. Also, in Havre, the ramps eventually came down, and skateboarding, at least in rural Montana, kind of went away by the time I was in high school, and beyond.

However, people like Hawk and Jeff Ament never went away. They never gave up on the sport, and by the time I was in my late 20s, skateboarding, thanks to guys like them, and ESPN creating the X-Games, was reborn.

Thanks to mass marketing and the power of television, I became a huge fan of pro skateboarding, a huge fan of the X-Games, and, a huge fan of next generation sports. I don't really call skating and snowboarding extreme sports like they were originally labeled, though, because I think that's a disservice to them and the athletes who participate.

No, the sports you see on the X-Games, those are simply sports. They are every bit a sport as basketball, football, soccer or golf. And the people who participate in them, who master them, they are every bit the athletes that LeBron James and Russell Wilson are.

If you don't believe, go out and jump on a skateboard for the first time. Go out and hop on a snowboard this winter. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Those sports take incredible athletic ability to master and become good at, let alone great.

So yes, there was a time when I kind of lost touch with skateboarding, and I fully admit, the sport really doesn't have much of a place in the sports pages of the Havre Daily News. Now, if we had a local contest or something like that, I would absolutely love to cover it, and splash it on my sports pages.

But even though skating may not get the attention the Havre Blue Ponies do, or the MSU-Northern Lights do, make no mistake, I still love the sport and have a healthy respect and admiration for all of you who ride, for all of you who spend your days at the Havre skate park, or just rolling around town. You guys and girls, keep doing what you do, because skateboarding is one of the best things you can do with your time.

And I would also say thank you, Jeff Ament. Thanks for making sure these kids have places to do what they love. Thank you for caring about a sport that sometimes people forget is even a sport at all. Thank you for giving these communities and these kids a place to express their passion, a passion I know you share with all of them.

And lastly, thank you for simply continuing to promote the great sport of skateboarding. For those of us who love it, we're very lucky to have someone like you in our corner, or should I say, in our bowls and on our ramps.