John Cheek Jr. will remember his dad that way too, but also in the more personal ways that a son knows a father.
“I remember him most as a fisherman,” Cheek Jr. says. “We'd float the Big Hole River every year. He liked fly-fishing a lot ... He bought this old aluminum boat back in the '50s and up until a few years ago we were using it for our annual trip. Heck, I still have it.”
His 469 wins are still the most ever at the Class AA level - and fourth all time - after a career that spanned 32 years at Kalispell Flathead and Anaconda.
He won back-to-back state basketball titles with Braves in 1951-52, but left the school the next year, moving his family to the Smelter City. Cheek Jr. says the uncompromising coaching style that ended his tenure in Kalispell also made him a perfect fit for the Copperheads.
“He was a blue-collar guy,” Cheek Jr. says “He was only going to stay (in Anaconda) one year, but he ended up being there forever. That was back when the smelter was running and sports were pretty much a very important thing in most peoples' lives. He taught competitiveness, he was hard-nosed. I think he fit right in with that Anaconda and Butte mentality.”
Cheek coached the Copperheads from '52 until his retirement in 1980, at one time or another coaching basketball, football, track and cross-country. Anaconda was 403-315 in basketball during that time, mostly against Class AA opponents, and the Copperheads made 21 trips to the state tournament.
He continued teaching until 1984 and remained in Anaconda after his retirement.
“He was definitely a Copperhead,” says Cheek Jr., who himself went on to coach at Cascade and now lives in Helena. “Once I asked him if he was ever going to move, but that was just not an option.”
A native of Dillon, Cheek was a four-year letterman in three sports at Beaverhead County High School, graduating in 1940. He married Catherine Jackson, a girl he'd known since elementary school and served in the Navy during World War II. He was involved in 11 major battles in the Pacific, earning the Bronze Star.
After an honorable discharge, he played football and basketball at the University of Montana. He earned a law scholarship to Georgetown and a tryout with the Boston Celtics, but skipped out on both in order to take the coaching job at Flathead High in 1948.
Cheek's collection of personal coaching and athletic accolades are dizzying. He is a member of the Montana Coaching Hall of Fame, the Grizzly Hall of Fame, Western Montana College Hall of Fame, National High School Coaches Hall of Fame and was an honorary letterman at Carroll College.
The city will remember him with a funeral mass at 9 a.m. Friday at Holy Family Catholic Church, with a celebration to follow in Memorial Gymnasium at 10:30 and a luncheon at 1 p.m. at the church.
“As a coach it was discipline by fear, that was kind of his style,” Cheek Jr. says. “You either loved him or hated him. Years later, that fear almost always turned to love. He was very loyal person himself, he taught loyalty and that's why most of his athletes were extremely loyal also.”
Russ-lin' records
Frenchtown junior Shelby Russ belted two home runs in a 15-1 victory over Stevensville two weeks ago, giving her nine for the season and breaking the Broncs' single-season school record.
Russ, who has a three-homer game and another two-homer day, rustled the home run record away from former Frenchtown slugger Traci Gibbs, who hit seven in 2003.
Gibbs was a member of the Broncs' 2002 team that won the school's fourth and final Class B-C state championship.
Gurley goes yard, too
Russ isn't the only Central A slugger that area parks appear unable to contain lately. Corvallis' Markie Gurley experienced a sudden power surge during last weekend's Butte Central tournament.
The sophomore shortstop gave all-state pitcher Kasie Conder some lush run support when she jacked four homers in two games for the Blue Devils.
Two balls left the yard off her bat during Corvallis' 12-8 win over Livingston on Friday and then two more were long gone on Saturday as the Blue Devils defeated Havre 9-2.
Smurfit Stone winners
A pair of Missoula prep stars were honored during Thursday night's Smurfit Stone awards banquet at the Doubletree Hotel.
Luke Mitzel of Loyola Sacred Heart was named outstanding male athlete and Missoula Big Sky's Sarah Lustgraaf won for outstanding female athlete at the ceremony.
Both are seniors.
Mitzel played football and basketball for the Rams, quarterbacking a football team that advanced to the Class B state championship game in 2006. He also played guard on the LSH basketball team that finished third at state this season.
Lustgraaf started for the Eagles this season as they surged to a Class AA state championship in girls' basketball and played first base for the Big Sky softball squad. She was a member of the Eagles teams that won back-to-back state championships in 2005-06.
Lustgraaf and Mitzel will each receive a college scholarship courtesy of Smurfit Stone and Missoula's KPAX television station.
Robinson All-American again
Missoula Sentinel swimmer Major Robinson has added another honor to his already crowded trophy case as he was recently named a high school All-American for the second time.
Robinson, who will swim for the University of Utah next year, was a four-time state champion in the backstroke and was considered one of the top college recruits in the nation before settling on the Utes.
Area preps sign
Big Sky softball standout Briggett Plenger has signed a national letter of intent to play at North Idaho College. Plenger, a senior shortstop, was a two-time all-state selection for the Eagles.
Missoula Hellgate's Craig Maunder and Dustin McCrudden will each play football for Jamestown College (N.D.). McCrudden will also play baseball for the Jimmies. Maunder plans to major in pre-physical therapy.
Each was active in football, baseball and track while in school at Hellgate.
Amanda Hood of Hamilton will play softball at Montana State-Billings. Hood was a four-year letterwinner with the Broncs and an all-conference selection as a junior. As a senior she hit .346 and on defense had one error in 108 chances, according to a press release from the school.
Furthermore ...
A couple of Class C track notes ... Like many top athletes, the Dutton-Brady trackster Carissa Storle ran five events at the District 10-C track and field meet in Great Falls, but the combination was unusual: The 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600.
She finished second, second, first, first and then tied for first in the metric mile. Storle and Chester-JI's Hannah Schweitzer were each given times of 5 minutes, 16.45 seconds in the 1,600. That broke the 13-year-old meet record of 5:36.8 and gave them a share of the fastest time in Class C in the event ...
On May 7, Kourtney Danreuther of Big Sandy ran a blistering 800, clocked in 2:12, at the District 9-C meet. That time is unofficially the 19th-fastest in the nation this spring by a high school girl, and puts her within range of the oldest Montana state record on the books: The 2:11 run by Billings Senior's Julie Brown in 1973. Danreuther's time is already faster than the existing Class C mark of 2:19.1, set by Kathy Estes of Philipsburg in 1975.
The mark has yet to make the list at the Web site Dyestat.com, which lists the top mark of 2:03.98 by Shanelle Price of Easton, Pa.
Danreuther set meet records in both the 800 and 400 (57.6), and both marks are the fastest in the state for all classes.
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