Kvelve's Comments: The future is bright

I wish everyone in this great land could spend some time watching small town high school sports or other events involving students from rural communities, especially in Montana.

It has been a trying few years for me in my endeavor to supplement my post-retirement life with something good to do after 42 years in radiology. 

But the small schools of Sanders and Mineral counties have made my retirement years, despite heart surgery and occasional feelings of isolation, a bright light amid the challenges. 

These are high school and junior high school students who say, "yes sir" and "no sir" and "thank you sir," basic decencies I’ve tried to instill in my own kids, who are, I’m proud to say, adherents to these principles. 

Whenever folks feel down about today’s youth, they should go to a football game in St. Regis, Hot Springs or Thompson Falls.  They should attend volleyball matches or basketball games in Plains, Noxon, Alberton and Superior. 

What you will find is a solid group of young people who are being raised correctly and educated properly, many of them honor roll students. 

Oh, there may be, and no doubt are, exceptions everywhere, but in small town Montana, they are the exception, not the norm. 

These past two weeks, I have been working on getting out as much as I can despite the huge number of miles piling up on Big Red, my 2006 Dodge Ram with 256,000-plus miles on the odometer. 

This past week, I was at practices in Hot Springs and St. Regis, the week before it was Plains. With the change of high school sports seasons, I try to make the rounds and do pre-season stories on as many schools in my seven-school territory as I can.  My hope is to provide fans with a generalized look at their teams for the upcoming season, focusing on what is good and what fans can expect. 

Along the way, I encounter amazing coaches, staff and student-athletes. 

One of the best things about these trips is seeing student-athletes who have graduated and moved on to pursue their sports at colleges throughout the area. 

In Hot Springs this past week, I encountered one of my favorite local athletes, Katelyn Christensen, a multiple sport standout who was a mainstay of the schools’ volleyball, basketball and track teams during her years at Hot Springs High. 

She was polite as always, coming over and shaking my hand and saying hello.  Now a student-athlete on an athletic scholarship to Carroll College, she was in town for the Thanksgiving break and came to basketball practice to help the girls on this year’s team, including her sister, Kara, another awesome young scholar-athlete. 

Katelyn is a promising athlete and a recruiting gem for the Saints, who have a few other local players in their sports fold. 

A few days later, with Big Red smoking with a temporary oil leak patch, I pulled into St. Regis in the pre-dawn hours to watch the Tigers and Lady Tigers go through pre-season drills. 

A familiar face was on the court, John Pruitt, a 2024 graduate who is now a student-athlete at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.  He too was there to help out during the Thanksgiving break. 

Pruitt, who is a freshman on the Bears’ basketball team was, like Christensen, taking part in on-court activities.  Both players looked as sharp as ever as they cut through defenders and drained long threes with ease. 

And, like Christensen, Pruitt extended a hand for shaking and engaged me in a very polite conversation about life in the big city of Billings and his freshman experience at Rocky. 

There are others who have done the same for their alma maters, including Megan and Ellie Baxter, former stars for Thompson Falls who moved on to play sports in college.  Thompon Falls star Eli Ratliff, who excelled in several sports for the Blue Hawks, is a frequent visitor to the sports program. 

And Andrew Sanford, the 6-5 basketball star who delighted fans with in-game dunks and was one of the first to come over and ask me how I was doing when I returned to the sports coverage sidelines following my heart surgery three years ago. 

These are just a few of the quality kids found in this great part of the state. 

Not sure how many more years I will be blessed with the sports writing duties I do for the Valley Press and the Mineral Independent, but I’ sure of one thing. 

There on some outstanding young folks on the way up the human ladder.