BALL MACHINE

The history of great head coaches at Havre High School is long and storied. But when you are talking about the greatest and most influential coaches in the long tradition of Blue Pony athletics, you simply have to include the name of George Ferguson.

Of course, Ferguson has made his greatest impact as the head coach of the Blue Pony tennis teams, but after a great legacy as a player, a sportswriter and soon-to-be Havre High head golf coach, the lasting impact of everything Ferguson has done for Havre High sports will be hard to measure up to.

At the end of the day, you will be hard pressed to find anyone that has cared about a sport more than Ferguson has about Blue Pony tennis and when he took on the job, it truly was a perfect match, in large part because of his family's background.

"My brother ended up winning Havre's first individual state championship in tennis, and I got hooked (on the game) because of him and my mom (Linda) and it became my favorite sport when I was very young," Ferguson said. "I worked hard at it, I played for Havre High and made a brief attempt to play in college. That didn't work out and that was it for my playing days, but I never lost the love of the game or the passion for it. I thought, even way back then, when I was done playing I would make a really good tennis coach. I just never thought the opportunity would present itself. But I always wanted to do it."

The origin of Ferguson's tennis career can be traced back to his mom, Linda Ferguson. She passed that talent along to her sons, Dan and George. Dan Ferguson was a state champion at Havre High and one of the greatest individual players in the school's history, but George wasn't far behind, earning All-State honors twice and being named All-Conference four times in the Central A. While Ferguson also played other sports, he always dedicated himself to tennis and spent his summers playing tournaments. At HHS, he played first under longtime tennis guru Kirk Miller, then under Sam Dierman, who was the Blue Pony head coach from 1991 to 2003. He also noted that, some of his biggest influences on his coaching career include Cut Bank's Jim Gregg, an MCA Hall of Famer; Miller, who Ferguson said, allowed him to work with the Blue Pony tennis team even when he was in junior high; and Dennis Murphy, who was Havre High's highly successful girls basketball coach, but has also been the activities director at HHS since Ferguson's coaching career began.

"Mr. Dierman was my coach for three of my four years in high school and he deserves a lot of credit for bringing this program to great heights," Ferguson said. "He decided to retire from teaching late in 2004. Dennis Murphy called me and asked me if I would be interested, even though I hadn't coached before, and I said yes. Fortunately, the Havre Daily allowed me to do it and I never looked back.

"I've had a lot of great people help me become the coach I am today, too," he continued. "So many people, from the other coaches I have learned so much from, to every single one of my assistant coaches over the years, to my wife Amy, and of course Murph (Murphy). None of this would have happened to me without him. So I owe a lot of credit to a lot of great people who have been with me every step of the way."

So in addition to his role as a sportswriter and later sports editor for the Havre Daily News, Ferguson accepted the head coaching job for Havre High tennis. And even though the program was in a solid position when Ferguson took over back in the spring of 2004, under his direction, the Ponies reached new heights and the list of accomplishments is staggering.

In 17 years coaching Blue Pony tennis, Ferguson has led Havre to five Class A state championships, with the Havre boys winning three during that time and the girls winning two, including the first-ever Class A state title in tennis back in 2006. The girls have also finished in the top-three at state six times. The boys team has had a total of 12 top-three finishes at state under Ferguson and the Ponies have won 16 of the last 17 Central A Divisional tennis titles, including a streak of 10 in a row.

"Havre has a long history of success in tennis," Ferguson said. "This program was already so strong and so good when I came along. But I am proud that I was not only able to maintain that, but I was maybe even able to advance it a little bit, using things I learned from the people who came before me, but also putting my own stamp on things. We are a very consistent program to this day and that's something I am very proud of."

But the kind of success Ferguson has had isn't exactly what he envisioned when he took over.

"When I first got the job, I even thought I might have just been a stop-gap kind of guy," Ferguson said. "And in just the coaching profession, I had a lot to learn. My tennis knowledge was there, and I knew I could teach it, but coaching is something that you always evolve, always grow, always keep learning, and I have always made sure I did that. And, over time, I did grow, did learn and grew into the coach I am today. I was able to have some success early on and then I kept learning and growing as a coach until I reached a point when I kind of got over a hump and thought, 'I would like to do this for a really long time,' because I just loved it so much."

The team success enjoyed by Ferguson and the Ponies has been impressive, but the achievements of the players, both individually and as doubles teams, over the years has been right on par with that.

During his tenure with Havre High tennis, Ferguson has coached 18 different individual state championships, including at least one in all four competitions: boys singles, girls singles, boys doubles and girls doubles. He has also coached some of the best players in the history of the program, such as Kyle Baltrusch, who is the only four-time state champion in Class A singles, Jeff Miller, the all-time Central A points record holder in singles, his older brother Kyle Miller, as well as the famous duo of Marc Mariani and Gary Wagner, who were two-time state champions in doubles.

On top of that, 52 players have earned All-State honors under Ferguson's leadership, while 44 have won individual divisional titles. Havre also has had a total of 119 players make Central A All-Conference since 2004.

Asked to pick some of the best, or list some of his favorites however, Ferguson said, no chance.

"I have loved all the kids from 2004 to 2019," Ferguson said. "They are all my favorite. Kids have reached different levels of success. But in mind, they all have accomplished great things just by being a part of this program.

"Of course, I have been blessed to coach some of the greatest players who have ever held a racket in their hands at HHS," he said, "and while I love the phenomenal players we have had like Kyle Baltrusch, a four-time state champ, Jeff Miller, Marc (Mariani), Gary (Wagner), Katie (Mariani), Amy McLain, Kyle Miller, I could go on and on, the thing that sticks out to me the most is a kid that you can look back when their four years are over and say, 'I never needed to kick them in the butt. They came every single day and tried as hard as they could, whether they had individual success or not.' We work really hard in this program, often times under adverse conditions, and a lot of pressure, so, the kids that you coach, the one's that push themselves and give you every single thing they have every single day for 90 straight days, you remember those ones.

The other ones are kids that the first day of their freshman season had never touched a tennis racket before and get hooked on it and fall in love with it, and Blue Pony tennis in general," her added. "Whether they go on to win a state championship or not, that's special because it's a really hard sport and not everyone is willing to try it.

"So, there's no way I could single out any favorites," he continued. "I've coached family members, coached with family members, coached my friends' kids, I've coached some of the greatest athletes Havre High has ever had, and some of the greatest students Havre High has ever had. And each one of them is unique and different, and each one had a different level of success in tennis, but the commonality is, to me, every single player I've ever coached has a place in my heart, and I truly mean that."

While he may not have known it at the time, Ferguson was setting out on a journey that would not only change his life, but also impact the lives of hundreds, possibly even thousands of student-athletes who learned to love the game under his watch. Some of them won state championships, others won just by playing and learning a lifelong passion for a sport that can stick with them forever.

For both of those kinds of players, Ferguson is the perfect coach. He's a champion, a proven winner, an ambassador and frankly one of the best tennis coaches the state of Montana has ever seen. And as long as kids still want to play tennis in Havre, Ferguson plans on coaching them, for however long that might be.

"I am not doing it for the medals or the trophies," Ferguson said. "It feels good to accomplish things, and I'm super-competitive, and like every coach, I love to win. But I want the kids to experience those things. That is all for them. To me, the best feeling on earth is seeing a kid do something special, achieve something special, on the tennis court or off of it, and If I had a hand in it, that means the world to me. And as long as kids want to be Blue Pony tennis players, I love coaching them, and as long as there are kids that sign up each March to play, I am going to be in love with doing it.

"For me, it's all about the kids." "I know it's a cliche' and every coach probably says that. But it's really true for me. They keep me going, they inspire me, they make me strive to continue to better myself as a coach. They get me through this horrible winters in Havre" he said laughing. "Because of them, this isn't about just the spring me for. Blue Pony tennis is 365 days a year, 7 days a week. The kids are everything to me. It's about them. I love this sport so much, but it's more than tennis, it's more than sports for me, it's about the kids at Havre High, it's about helping them achieve things, helping them grow as people, as students, and yes, as tennis players. Coaching tennis at the school I went to, that I played for, that my brother and sister played for, that my cousins played for, it's a dream come true, and coaching these kids for almost 20 years now, it's changed my life in so many ways. It's changed my life in ways I never imagined when I started all this."

Ferguson's love for the game is a big reason for his success and it's also going to be a key part of his legacy. He loves Havre High tennis, just as all those players have loved playing for him. That, more than all of the accomplishments, will be his ultimate legacy.