Grady Bennett has hopes of his hometown one day being dominant in football like Helena. His dream came a little closer to reality this season.
For the first time ever, Kalispell has two high school teams in the Class AA playoffs, and the field at Legends Stadium has not seen its final game of 2011.
After the best regular season in program history, Bennett’s fourth-ranked Glacier Wolfpack earned their first home playoff game. The Wolfpack (8-2) host fifth-ranked Billings Senior (7-3) at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Broncs are a well-balanced team, with the third-ranked offense and defense in AA. Glacier is 1-1 against Senior, winning 41-21 in the regular season opener at home in 2009 but losing 28-13 on the road last year.
Flathead (4-6) snuck into the playoffs for the first time since 2008 by the slimmest of margins. The Braves beat Missoula Hellgate last Friday in their final game and then needed wins from Glacier, Butte and Great Falls C.M. Russell before their berth was secure.
On the same side of the bracket as Glacier, the Braves will travel to Billings on Friday to take on the new No. 1 team, West (9-1), at 7:30 p.m. Ranked third almost all season, Billings West took over the top spot in the standings after second-ranked Helena Capital (9-1) handed No.1-ranked Helena High (9-1) its first loss of the season, 20-13, last Saturday.
Bennett sees an exciting finish like the one in Helena between two powerhouse teams and dreams of one day experiencing that same atmosphere locally.
“Why can’t Kalispell be like Helena? Why not Kalispell?” he said recently. “We want to keep working to get both Flathead and Glacier to the level where this is where it’s at; this is where teams have to come through.”
Small steps lead the way, even though in the case of Glacier it’s been more like small leaps. The Wolfpack have established a winning tradition in only five years.
 |
|
Among the Elite: Head coach Grady Bennett, top center, meets with his team and coaching staff at the end of practice at Glacier High School. |
“They’re one of the top teams in the state right now,” Helena Capital coach Pat Murphy said. “They’ve gone from pushovers two or three years ago to one of the top programs. It’s a credit to the school and the way they’re building that program.”
Glacier has now made the playoffs three years in a row after going 2-18 the first two seasons. Since 2009 the Wolfpack are 21-11. Bennett admits the growth of the program happened faster than he thought it would.
“To build our program, we did it faster than probably anybody anticipated,” he said.
That’s the truth, according to legendary C.M. Russell head coach Jack Johnson. Johnson has coached for 39 years and has a career record of 324-103. He has been surprised by how well Glacier has done in the school’s short history.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Johnson said. “When (Billings) Skyview and (Missoula) Big Sky opened, I can’t remember how long it took them exactly. But I think Glacier has done it in a shorter amount of time than most people have.”
“They’re just a good, solid football team on both sides of the ball and on special teams,” he added. “They’ve done a good job up there.”
Just advancing into the postseason is no longer a lone goal, Bennett said. Glacier lost to Billings Skyview 28-14 in 2009. Last season, the Wolfpack fell to Helena 48-16.
This season, with a strong core of upperclassmen leading the best offense in the league, Glacier has its eyes on a new milestone.
“We’ve been in the playoffs but we want to win. That’s the focus,” Bennett said. “In the past, as a new program it was like, ‘Wow we made the playoffs.’ Now it’s the expectation, and now we need to win a game.”
The offense, led by another standout Glacier quarterback, is averaging more than 36 points per game and is filled with talent. First-year starting quarterback Taylor Hulslander is the top passer in the league and recently broke the school record for passing yards in a single season. The junior amassed 2,463 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and only nine interceptions during the regular season.
The previous school record was held by current Montana Grizzly Shay Smithwick-Hann, who passed for 2,340 yards his sophomore year in 2008. Smithwick-Hann had 22 TDs and seven interceptions that season.
Two of Hulslander’s favorite targets have been Kyle Griffith and Anthony Gugliuzza. Gugliuzza, also a great return man, has 768 yards receiving and nine touchdowns, and Griffith, the team’s capable kicker, has 756 yards receiving and seven touchdowns. Both are near the top of the league in these categories.
Running back Aaron Mitchell has impressed as well and had a monster game against Missoula Big Sky last week. Mitchell rushed for 197 yards and five touchdowns, both school records.
“All year long there has been two things that have stood out: their resiliency and the fact that nothing really rattles them,” Bennett said of his team.
 |
|
Wolfpack quarterback Taylor Hulslander, second from right, pulls back for a throw while warming up with his teammates during a practice at Glacier High School. |
Bennett said he knew this year’s team had the opportunity and the potential to achieve this type of success, but he didn’t know how it would play out.
“You always want to have high expectations. We knew we could be good,” he said. “Our junior class is talented but it all depended on how those seniors did. We knew it all depended on how they all stepped up. It’s amazing, it really is. I’m just really proud of the seniors and those young kids who stepped up.”
The same can be said at Flathead, where a second-half slump seemed to derail a strong start to the season. After starting out 3-2, the Braves dropped four straight games and seemed out of the playoffs for the third year in a row.
But the Braves rallied in what seemed to be their final opportunity. Against Hellgate last week, six different players scored and Flathead won 48-12. George Sherwood, one of the top receivers in the state, had 72 yards receiving and a touchdown. Sherwood now has 715 yards, third most in AA, and eight touchdowns this season.
First-year quarterback Matt Tokarz, a junior, continues to impress and finished the regular season with the most all-purpose yards of any player with 2,576. He amassed 27 touchdowns – 19 passing and eight rushing. Billings West quarterback Brady Gustafson is third behind Tokarz and Hulslander with 2,243 total yards.
In other first-round Class AA action, third-seeded Helena High is hosting sixth-seeded C.M. Russell and second-seed Capital is hosting seventh-seeded Butte.