Someone had to be the first

2020 has been arguably, one of the most hectic years in sports history. COVID-19 has ravaged the world of sports. It canceled the spring sports seasons for high schools and colleges across the country, it temporarily postponed many major sports for months and it threatened the lives of athletes, coaches and fans.

The pandemic has put many things at risk already and still is threatening to do so. But there has been some light in the darkness this summer.

That shining light just so happened to be baseball. After what seemed to be a lost cause after the spring sports season was canceled, teams like the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club were stricken with that same worry, but at the end of the day, Patch Wirtzberger was able to coach his team for a full season. As of now, Wirtzberger has been the only coach for a major sport to complete a full season in Havre during the COVID-19 era. And his feat could stay that way if things go south for the fall sports season and so on.

The experience alone carries a mixture of feelings and moments, but Wirtzberger had some great help during it all.

"I wouldn't say it was hard," Wirtzberger said. "The kids made it easy. It was just a lot of unknowns getting into it. We didn't know if we were going to be able to have practices or play games. The fact that we got from the beginning all the way to the end of the season, there's something wonderful about it. When the kids rallied together and decided it was important enough for them to try and stay healthy and do the right things off the field, things became more possible. Kudos to the kids."

The season would be an odd one for sure. Wirtzberger was a part of making sure guidelines set by the Hill County Health Department, as well as what the Montana League set forth, were followed to a T, keeping his players' morale up and overall, just making sure things went smoothly. It is not an easy task to bear when a virus threatens your passions.

There was even a momentary scare for Wirtzberger and the Northstars. When the Tri-County Cardinals had a delay in its season due to COVID-19, there was a worry that the same would befall Havre. But in that time, Wirtzberger just kept his head up and made sure his team put more effort into having a strong mentality about the season.

It was surely a process for Wirtzberger, but his mentality kept himself and the team moving forward at a cautionary pace.

"It was just about trying to take it one day at a time," Wirtzberger said. "We knew that anything could happen. We saw what happened to Tri-County, despite their best efforts. It was bound to happen to one of us. We had to take it day by day, take advantage of every practice we had and every day we had. We knew that that day could have been the last. That's what was going through my mind."

Even the postseason had its differences, even if they were slim from what Wirtzberger and Havre were used to. Districts may not have been too off-course from the norm, but once the Northstars went to the Class A State Tournament, there was a constant awareness of the many teams from across the state, some from counties that had many cases, which led Wirtzberger to really keep things on the straight and narrow.

Even so, Wirtzberger made sure to do his part in the statewide effort to finish off the postseason.

"The postseason was different in that you had to adhere to social distancing guidelines and work alongside the other restrictions that would keep the other teams and the fans safe," Wirtzberger said. "You just had to be aware of your surroundings and what you were doing. That was the biggest thing. But when it got down to playing the game, it was a lot of the same things we had put in place from the beginning."

There cannot be enough emphasis put on the work done before the season even started, too. If it had not been for the American Legion and the local health department, who worked to finalize the plan that Wirtzberger and the Northstars put forward to allow a season, nothing would have moved forward. The pre-planning and adjusting that took place really shined through when things were all said and done.

Working with all the other baseball teams that made up the state of Montana was a grueling task, but Wirtzberger was glad to see that the state league and other teams were able to come together for the greater good of a season.

"That all started kind of early," Wirtzberger said. "When we were planning, all the programs were just so forthcoming with their plans so we could get something that was pretty uniform and everybody could be comfortable with. The league commissioner gave us backups if we couldn't have a season and stuff we could work around. That planning we had was put to good use and helped out a lot."

And, Havre was able to have a full season. There is a chance that if things would have gone differently, the Northstars and Wirtzberger would not have even gotten to go to state after a 15-year drought, let alone play a full season. There was so much at stake and that always played a part in the procedures throughout the season. Wirtzberger did all he could to make sure his team, the fans and the community as a whole were safe, relaxed and able to enjoy a good game of baseball.

When looking back, Wirtzberger was proud of what was able to be done, despite COVID-19 looming.

"It felt great," Wirtzberger said. "When you go from not knowing if you're going to be able to practice to not knowing if you're going to play a game, to not knowing if you're even going to have a postseason, to being able to finish that through was great. We talked about how many states have shut down their baseball programs and how many kids won't be able to finish their seasons. Being able to do that felt like a big accomplishment."

And such an accomplishment may go down in history, too.