Timberwolves senior looks toward graduation

ALBERTON/ST. REGIS – A native of Western Montana, Andrew Lomman recently ended his final high school football season with the Clark Fork Timberwolves.

While he spent his first few years in Missoula, Lomman moved to Alberton when he was about six years old and began school at Alberton Public School in the first grade. Lomman spent all 12 years of school in Alberton.

Playing for the Timberwolves was a good experience for Lomman. He said the way the team formed out of the Alberton and St. Regis schools was cool to see. The community response was also impressive. He liked the way the two communities came together around the football team to show support to both schools despite the distance between them. Lomman played football for all four years of high school.

According to Lomman, the Timberwolves had a fairly good season this year. However, he said they could always do better and had a few issues to work out over the course of the games. The team suffered late in the season when injuries benched members of the team, including Lomman.

Lomman’s football season ended a little earlier than the rest of the Timberwolves’ after suffering a knee injury in the first playoff game. He said he is expected to be fine and should be good to play in the upcoming basketball season. He will also participate in track during spring 2014.

“It’s not too bad,” he said of the injury.

Lomman’s future plans involve attending college, though he is not sure where yet. However, he does plan to stay in Montana, with plans to attend either Montana Tech, in Butte, or Montana State University in Bozeman. Lomman has already been accepted to MSU, but is still waiting for word from Montana Tech. His plan is to study engineering, but he had not decided on a specific field.

It is expected going off to college will be weird at first, even though he will be staying in the same state. After growing up knowing everyone in town, the adjustment to a new community will be a challenge.

Lomman wants to continue playing football in college. He said it would depend on whether any coaches were interested in him once he got there. While MSU has expressed some interest, Lomman is not surprised at the lack of recruiters interested in him.

“A lot of [college] coaches don’t really look at six-man too much,” he said. “So, as a six-man player, you kind of have to put yourself out there. I still have to talk to some coaches, probably.”

Lomman felt moving out of the area would be a different experience and he said he would have to get used to a bigger community. Not knowing anyone, especially coming from a town where he knew most of the community, is another thing Lomman expects to be hard to deal with. Regardless, he does look forward to the experience.