Kvelve's Comments: Thank you

It is a day you can see coming, especially the closer you get.

But like the setting sun, it is something you might as well accept and make the best of. 

Time, as the well-worn saying goes, marches on. 

Throw in some adversity along the way, and life’s basic blend of wear and tear has a way, likely planned in my opinion, of preparing you for the day. 

Sadly, yet with a sense of hope for the new chapter in what has been an interesting book, is being written in front of me.  

On July 7 of this year, I will be hanging up my sportswriter spikes for the final time. Retirement, which I already experienced when I stepped down from 42 years as a radiology guy (X-ray, CT, MRI, lithotripsy, etc.), is mostly inevitable. 

In this case, I found the ideal retirement job, writing sports and, at first all stories, for the Vally Press and Mineral Independent newspapers. 

That first round of retirement did not sit well with me. Within two weeks I was looking for part-time work throughout the Plains area. The day I walked into the office of the Valley Press in Plains and told them I had experience as a reporter/photographer for the Spokane dailies bumped my life in yet another direction. 

And what a ride it has been. I quickly weaseled my way into the role of writing only sports, one of the best moves I’ve ever made when it comes to employment. 

I have been getting paid to go out to high schools from Noxon to Alberton, watch sports events, take some photos and write about what I saw. 

Along the way I met the kind of folks that I was hoping still live in my native Montana after being away for 40 years. I passed on returning to Billings; it was way too big. I was looking for smalltown Montana and I found it times seven. 

These small communities are home to the best of the best in my opinion. 

I remember being on sports buses in high school as we whizzed past small town Montana earlier in life. I remember wondering what it would have been like to live in and play sports in those towns, having heard “half the town” comes out for games on Friday and Saturday nights. 

How cool that must be.  Everyone knows everyone. The whole town is behind you. Then my dream would end when the bus driver took the first Butte exit. 

I took a ride on one of those team buses a few years ago when I traveled with St. Regis to an Idaho playoff football game. Kids, I can tell you, are pretty much the same everywhere. I could swear I heard my own voice from the back of the bus. 

And, I found out, the statements of half the town turning out for games were not entirely true. Go to a Hot Springs basketball or volleyball homestand and you will come away thinking the whole town was there. 

And what towns they are! I don’t know of any of the towns in Sanders or Mineral counties which have traffic stop lights. Try explaining that to someone from Seattle or Portland. 

But the best of all, I quickly discovered, is the hospitality and down-home vibe from the folks who are lucky enough to live in Superior, St. Regis, Alberton, Noxon, Plains, Thompson Falls and Hot Springs. 

These folks are for real. AND they love their high school sports. 

Over the last five years I have been treated very well by the fans in the towns I’ve been to. They stole my heart from the first Hot Springs home football game that fall night, seemingly so long ago. 

There were deer in the end zone. 

So now, with a thrice surgically repaired heart whispering in one ear and the other ear being reminded that “you are 71”, it is time to find the right fishing spots and spend way more time with my grandkids. The old sportswriter is typing off into the sunset. 

As the George Strait song goes...”my heart is sinking link a setting sun, setting on the things I wish I’d done...the last goodbye is the hardest one to say, and this is where the cowboy rides away”. 

Thank you all for being my friend and helping me cover these games.  Sorry I couldn’t get out as often these days, not being able to do so is one of the main reasons I’m calling it a day. 

I’m thinking you will all see me again, this time in the stands right next to you cheering for the Horsemen/Trotters, Blue Hawks, Red Devils, Tigers, Bobcats, Savage Heat and Panthers. 

You have all made my decision to return to Montana for the last years of my life one of the best of my life 

Thank you!