Fall sports are so back!
At 12:01 am Friday, August 15th, the Cross Country Athletes of Great Falls High gathered at Gibson Park for the annual “Midnight Run” to mark the official start to the 2025 Fall Sports Season.
“We get to be the official kickoff for the city, which is pretty awesome”, said Great Falls High Head Cross Country Coach, Dave Kilian. Cross country, football, soccer, and golf all had their first day of practice on Friday, but it’s been a long-standing tradition in the city, that the Bison cross country team is the one to start things off. “There’s some traditions you never wanna see die, and gosh darn-it, this is one of them”.
Later that morning at the much more reasonable hour of 7 am, C.M. Russell’s football and cross country teams were getting their first practices in, and football wrapped up the morning with a rather optimistic feeling. “Our O-line has looked the best it has in the last like 3 years,” said CMR senior linebacker, Hunter Lee. “We looked actually complete on the O-line. I’d say that’s our best takeaway”.
Lee is one of 20 returning seniors headed into the 2025 season. After a 4-6 season that left a lot to be desired in 2024, the experience this team boasts is one that seems to only come around every so often. Good problems to have as a new season approaches, but for those 20, it was the “last, first practice” which left seniors like quarterback, Caleb Taylor, with a different feeling jogging off the field. “It hits pretty hard,” stated Taylor. “Especially with all these boys that I’ve known all my life. It hits pretty hard, yeah”.
Bittersweet or not, one person who is especially relieved to have so much experience in the locker room and on the field is A.J. Wilson, who enters his 2nd season as the Rustlers head coach. “O-line looked good,” praised Wilson. “I think that was our biggest struggle last year as a team. We were young, but we’re a little bit more well-rounded this year with some more depth, and hopefully that helps us moving forward.” The C.M. Russell Rustlers kickoff the season at Memorial Stadium Friday, August 29th, when they host the defending Class AA State Champions, the Capital Bruins.
Speaking of Memorial Stadium, the Great Falls High Bison were back to work as well under 4th year head coach, Coda Tchida. The Bison find themselves in unfamiliar territory, having graduated 28 seniors last year, 8 of whom received scholarships to play football at college. Now they look to see who will step up to fill those spots and help get them back to the postseason. “It was a great first practice,” stated Tchida. “A lot of energy. Great effort all the way around. They got the message this morning at 7 am. Super proud of day 1 and now we just gotta get 1% better every day.”
Last year’s season ended in a heartbreaker when they fell to Butte 21-17 at home in the first round of the playoffs. Despite the large turnover last year, Tchida says he’s not worried about what happened last year, he’s looking ahead to a new season. “It’s a whole new group, whole new journey,” Tchida added. “Just excited to be around these guys. The future’s looking bright for Bison football.”
The Great Falls High Bison start their season on the road when they travel to Flathead to take on the Braves.
Author: Staff
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