Kvelve's Comments: A comeback
There are many good, some potentially great, stories brewing as the second half of the local high school basketball and wrestling seasons come into focus.
Perhaps no more intriguing among the tales in the making is the comeback underway by Hot Springs wrestler John Waterbury, a member of the combined Plains-Hot Springs co-op squad.
Waterbury, a standout senior with an abundance of athletic strength and ability along with a boatload of determination and dedication, suffered a serious ankle/foot injury in the first game of the football season this past Fall.
The injury sideline Waterbury, who was a state-placer at the 2023-24 State B-C championships last Spring, for almost the entire football season.
He returned just prior to the football playoffs and instantly added defensive punch to the Savage Heat during their state playoff run. The Heat ultimately lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Box Elder, 57-54.
At last year’s state meet, he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing after posting a pair of victories prior to the loss.
Armed with off-the-char determination and drive, Waterbury rehabbed the injured limb and, after missing a few early season wrestling events, returned to the roster this season and began racking up a string of wrestling victories, topped by his first place showing in the 157-pound weight class at this past weekend’s Choteau Invitational.
He now stands at 12-0, which includes a match-of-the-year victory over Superior’s standout sophomore Turner Milender at the popular Cut Bank Boosters Invitational.
Milender, who placed fifth in this past weekend’s Jug Beck Invite in Missoula, which attracted all the Class AA and A schools in the region, ran his season record to 28-6. Stay tuned for a potential local state finals match between the two.
The return of Waterbury was also a boost to the Plains-Hot Springs team, which was already talented and deep. The Savage Horsemen finished fourth at the Choteau event and have been a team factor in several meets already this season.
Another potential sports clash in the competition crockpot is the delicious prospect of unbeaten (10-0) St. Regis’ boys and the once beaten and surging Noxon Red Devils, who stand at 7-1 amid their seven-game winning streak and have a solid, athletic team in the same mold as St. Regis.
That cooks up the prospect of a dandy 13C conference collision between the two if they both continue their winning ways. This will be the first year of the “new” 13C District’s 12-team format that resulted from a merger between the 13C and the now defunct 14C.
A preview of that potential clash will be held January 25 in Noxon when the Tigers travel to the northern most spot on the 13C map and cross the one-lane bridge into Noxon.
Fireworks in January? Perhaps.
Another interesting team to keep an eye on is the Hot Springs girls’ basketball team, which after a slow start to the season are 8-3 after this past weekend and 4-1 in the 14C, putting them in the top four of the conference standings. The Lady Heat are getting outstanding performances from Kara Christensen, Brooke Jackson and French foreign exchange student Lilia Sapanel, along with a deep lineup.
Fans could be in for a smorgasbord of tasty matchups in the second half of the year.