Friday Night Lights: Plenty of Pony Pride

Before the fall sports season, 2020 was looking to have its way with sports due to COVID-19, putting fall sports in jeopardy. But, after some careful and in-depth planning by the Montana High School Association, the fall sports season was given the green light, which was a shining light for the Havre High football team.

Statistically, the 2020 season was not the best for the Blue Ponies, who finished the year with a 1-5 overall record with losses to Sidney, Glendive, Lewistown, Miles City, Laurel, a cancellation against Billings Central and the only win of the season over the Hardin Bulldogs 26-12 at Blue Pony Stadium. The win was a positive moment for HHS. Overall, the season could have gone better, but being on the field was a win in the Ponies' book for sure.

Looking back, Gatch shared his thoughts on the 2020 season.

"We had a great group of people that were involved in our football program," Gatch said. "From our seniors to our freshmen, our coaching staff and our admin team that worked diligently to make this football season happen. What a fantastic group of people to work with. It was an all-around team effort to get this season off and running. I'm proud of our community, parents and players."

A lot of effort that came from the seniors this season. Kellen Detrick, Eli Cloninger, Brock Nystrom, Joey Byrd, Bradyn Winchell, Ethan Carlson, Carson Lunak, Evan Butcher and Colby Lammers all put in a lot of work to keep the season going. Whether it was on or off the field, these seniors made sure that every game they played was at a high level. After all, there was no certainty when it came to COVID-19 and the season.

A lot of players made the most of this season, too. Juniors Trenton Maloughney and Orion Thivierge helped the offense push forward, including when Thivierge scored all of the Ponies' touchdown against Hardin. The two gave it their all every chance they got. Defensively, Detrick was just as lethal on the line, while Nystrom became quite the shutdown corner in 2020. Overall, there was plenty of effort that went around this season.

The seniors were full of fire this season and Gatch was happy to get to see how they had progressed over the years.

"Our senior group was particularly strong this year in terms of participation," Gatch said. "It was a real positive thing for our community to be proud of, so I'm real happy about that. I thought our players did a good job competing and preparing for each and every opportunity we had. I'm glad I got to snapshot these guys' careers for four years. We had a really fantastic group of people."

COVID-19 was a tough thing to deal with for the Ponies, but Gatch knew that his team worked hard to stay on the field as much as possible.

"Usually, you got to deal with different issues with the team, but this year all the stress-related issues came from COVID-19," Gatch said. "Obviously, it plagued us here at the end of the year for the final game of the year that we should be playing. When you have something stressful coming from something out of your control, it makes it frustrating. We were able to play our games till our final one. I'm proud of our players' response to the restrictions this year and how serious they took it, while still being able to feel the competitiveness week in and week out."

COVID ended up finding its way to the Ponies, though, which led to the cancellation of the game against the Billings Central Rams at the end of the season, which Gatch knew was going to be a tough blow when it came about.

"Anytime you have a break out on your team, it's tough," Gatch said. "Our guys were excited to play their last home game, so it was a real tough decision when our player committee saw how many coaches and players were quarantining in Hill County. We didn't have enough players that were eligible to compete. If they would've competed, we would've went against the Hill County Health Board. Everybody thinks that you can do whatever, but that's not true. If we had showed up and played, we would have had 25 guys playing that were supposed to be quarantining and that doesn't go over good. We were looking forward to playing a championship-level game against Billings Central."

At the end of the day, the 2020 season was full of ups and downs. COVID-19 came around at the end of the season, but not before Havre was able to enjoy a win over Hardin, play to their hearts content and give it their all on the field. It may not have been a winning season statistically for the Blue Ponies, but anytime they went on the field to play, there was a win in that.

Now, Havre will wait and see what the 2021 season will bring about.