St. Regis hosts fall sports banquet

       St. Regis athletes, their

parents, coaches and community members gathered in the cafeteria at

the school last Wednesday to honor those who had participated in

fall sports at the annual fall sports award banquet. The cooks

served dinner from 6:30 p.m. until 7 p.m., which is when the awards

ceremony started last Wednesday.

“I want to start out by thanking all

the people who make the season possible,” Cindy Feasel, athletic

director said, addressing the crowd. She continued by pointing out

those who had helped run games whether announcing, keeping times

and serving on the sidelines. “I also want to thank the parents for

their support.”

As the head coach, Feasel jumped right

into talking about how the high school volleyball season had gone

for the team this year. She started out by recalling the game in

which the girls were away and the team’s manager, Jeron Jennings,

forgot towels and the girls had to dry off with paper towels.

“And so he came back and took a shower

and dried off with paper towels,” Feasel recalled.

Feasel said that she admired the girls

who had to play at the varsity level as there was no junior-varsity

squad. She praised them for sticking it out all season.

Feasel said that the team “was

unique.”

“If I had a choice between a team that

won all of the time or not, I’d pick this team. They were very

passionate all season,” Feasel said. “They all really cared about

their team members…they brought problems to me during the season

that I never had to face as a coach.”

Feasel said that each player brought

something to the floor. From there, Feasel shared a bit about each

player and then handed out little trophies to each girl with her

stats for the season. She said that although they may not have won

a lot of games, the girls’ records for the season were

impressive.

Lisa Stevens had five aces, 84 kills,

12 assists, 55 blocks and 15 digs during the season’s course.

Teammate Jocelyn Dockter had 81 aces, 61 kills, seven assists and

nine blocks. But the individual efforts, Feasel added, didn’t

compare to the how the girls worked as a team.

“We had four girls make all conference,

second team, which is hard to do when you are not one of the top

two teams in your conference,” Feasel said.

Dockter, Juliana Spencer, Stevens and

Leandra Baldwin were named to the all conference team.

“These girls were an awesome group to

work with,” Feasel said.

Following Feasel, Janelle Pruitt,

junior high volleyball coach, stepped up to talk about the season

that they had and had great praise for her team and their

efforts.

“They tried every second of every day,”

Pruitt said. “They were coming to me, ‘coach, can I take a ball

home? Can I take a ball home?’”

With that, Pruitt handed out a volley

ball to each girl that played on the team. Pruitt said that the

girls played with tons of intensity throughout the season and were

absolutely incredible to coach.

“They were such a pleasure to coach.

They gave 100 percent. When there was a team issue, we would sit

down and talk about it and they’d have it fixed within ten minutes

and would be back on the court. They had such great attitudes,”

Pruitt complimented. “We made huge leaps and bounds.”

Madison Hill received the diving award.

Eighth grader Gabby Moeler was named the most valuable player.

Pruitt said she was fantastic to coach and did everything that was

asked of her as well as led as a team leader.

Next, it was on to high school

football. The team played their first season of six-man football

this year and with a few more team coming into the conference next

season, Coach Dan Noonan said that they hope to be more

competitive.

“We started this season with high

hopes. We had 18 kids out and with injuries and other things, we

ended up with 11 kids and the coaches were practicing with them,”

Noonan said. “But they played their hearts out. I can’t say enough

about these kids. They finished each game and never stopped.”

Tim Cranley II was named the team’s

defensive most valuable player. Noonan said he was “very deserving”

of the award. Thomas Spencer was named to the six-man all star

game. Steve Mellon received the lineman award and the overall MVP

award went to Spencer.

Raymond White received an award as

all-state manager. The coaches recalled how before every game White

would scope out the other team and report back that “they don’t

have anything on the manager.” Noonan said that when things looked

bad, White always had them laughing.

Finally, Noonan handed out the Tiger

award.

“This award is special to me because I

won one 100 years ago…this player played his heart out the whole

time.”

Cranley ended up receiving the

award.

Noonan concluded by thanking the crowd

for their support throughout the season.

“When we played Augusta, they didn’t

have a third of the people that we did and I just want to thank you

so much for coming out and supporting us,” Noonan said.

Kevin Managhan took the floor next as

the coach of junior high flag football. It was his first year of

coaching and coming into he didn’t know much, but decided to give

it a go. They ended up signing up with the Missoula league and

played huge schools during the season. However, they finished with

a record of 4-4 and one.

“After the first day of practice, I

thought it was going to be a long season, but it turned out to be

great,” Managhan said. “The kids caught on quickly and we learned a

lot.”

Managhan recognized some of the

players’ efforts next. He told the crowd about how Bryce Dillinger

had an intercept in every game and Gibson Lowry caught a one handed

pass.

“Our first game was our toughest game

against Superior and one player came up to me and told me, ‘coach,

I don’t want to block.’ He had this scared look in his eye and

before too long he was asking, ‘coach, can I do in? Can I go

in?’”

Managhan awarded Connor Dunlap with the

most improved player award. He awarded the most valuable player

award to Andrew Managhan, who he said, “would take a broken play

and turn it into something.”

Managhan recalled when they went to

play Hellgate and how there was five buses of kids and the team

wasn’t sure what to think. The Tigers, however, ended up smashing

through Hellgate and won 50-20.

St. Regis is now looking forward to the

winter sports season with boys and girls basketball that got

underway in November, with practice starting on Nov. 22.