In the end, Kohlwes had no choice in the matter after the Blackhawks failed to draw enough players to two-a-day workouts in August to field a full 11-man varsity squad. So it was JV football or no football at all.
Kohlwes, who plays quarterback and linebacker, even contemplated quitting the team. But after the Seeley JVs completed their season last weekend with a 6-2 record, the two-sport star who moved from Alberton the summer before his junior year, has no regrets about playing JV ball.
Kohlwes was one of three seniors on the JV team, but the only one with any experience. He learned to love the camaraderie that comes from a smaller squad.
“There were so few of us, it just seemed like we had each other's backs all the time,” he said.
Another benefit that came from playing with fewer players was eighth-year Seeley-Swan coach Shawn Holmes letting Kohlwes become something of a player/assistant coach. That was something Kohlwes never imagined, but it has greatly added to his enjoyment this season.
“Obviously (Holmes) is the head coach,” Kohlwes said. “But I've always been kind of a leader in the past and coach just let me control the team along with him, like I was his assistant.”
Though Kohlwes has been contacted by Montana State about playing football, he's received even more attention from schools interested in his basketball prowess. Kohlwes listed Rocky Mountain College and Montana State-Billings as two of the most interested.
For now, Kohlwes turns his focus to the hardwood, hoping to lead the Blackhawks - who will have a varsity team - to a State B championship.
“I'm pretty sure we're going to make it back to state,” he said. “And I think we've got a real good chance to win it all.”
Olympic feast
The Missoula Eagle Wrestling Club will host a banquet and clinic with former Olympic wrestlers and Treasure State natives Gene Davis and Bill Zadick.
The banquet is Nov. 7 at the Hilton Garden Inn beginning at 6:30 p.m. and features a silent auction. The clinic will be held Nov. 8 at the Big Sky High School wrestling room from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. All proceeds from both events will support youth wrestling in Missoula.
Davis is a Missoula Sentinel alum and a member of the USA Wrestling Hall of Fame. He competed in the 1972 Olympics before earning a bronze in the 1976 Games. He was the head coach of the Athletes in Action wrestling team from 1966-85. Davis has been the director for AIA wrestling ever since.
Zadick, a Great Falls native, is a two-time U.S. national freestyle champion and won gold at the 2006 World Championships. He was a two-time All-American at Iowa, where Zadick earned an NCAA and Big Ten title in 1996.
For more information on the upcoming events, e-mail eaglewrestlingclub2008@hotmail.com or call John Cusker at 240-3212 or Lori Kemmer at 370-1372.
Former Spartan dies
Howard Johnson, a former high school football coach at Sentinel and Hamilton, died in a car accident on Oct. 3 at the age of 72. He was remembered in a funeral service eight days later that drew an estimated 1,000 people to the North Bend, (Ore.) High School gymnasium.
Johnson was a three-sport star at Hamilton before earning a football scholarship to the University of Montana, where he was a running back and punter.
Following stints as a head coach at Salmon, Idaho, and as an assistant in Butte, Johnson took over at Hamilton. From 1963-65 the Broncs lost only two games under Johnson's leadership. He then took the head job at Sentinel, where Johnson's Spartans were crowned co-state champions in his first season after tying Great Falls High 7-7 in a frigid 1966 state title game.
After moving to North Bend, Johnson coached there from 1971-92, leading the Bulldogs to the playoffs seven times and a Midwestern League title in 1974 while accumulating a 151-141-3 record. Johnson was also an assistant basketball coach for several years and the school's athletic director for three more after retiring from coaching. Johnson was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2002.
“He was truly an inspirational guy to anybody who even knew him a little bit,” current North Bend football coach Rick Taylor told The World newspaper in Coos Bay, Ore. “My coaching staff is made up of all North Bend guys. They all knew Howard and loved him.”
Johnson and the school's athletic director were traveling east to watch the football team's league opener when a westbound Jeep Wrangler lost control and slid into the eastbound lane. Johnson was the lone fatality in the accident.
Belated props
Perhaps it's past due, but congratulations are in order for Valley Christian School in Missoula for being the Class B recipient of the NorthWestern Energy Academic Excellence Award for the 2007-2008 school year.
The honor is given to one Montana high school in each classification with the highest grade point average for its varsity letterwinners, music students who received a superior rating at the district music festival, speech/drama students who participated in the state meet and varsity cheerleaders. Billings Skyview was the Class AA honoree, Billings Central earned the Class A award and Chester-Joplin-Inverness was the Class C winner.
The award, which has been handed out annually since the 1988-89 school year, hasn't been given to an area school since Bigfork won its second consecutive Class A honor in 2003-2004. No Missoula school had received it since Sentinel in 1999-2000.
Watch this weeks Prep Notes.
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