Vals, fans, put on a show at divisionals

Growing up in the south, there were only two high school sports: Football and all that other stuff.

Friday nights were, in fact, full of lights and the whole town turned out to pack the bleachers and worship the gridiron heroes. Other sports were likely a challenge for most fans to even name. Cross country… that's some kind of horse racing, right?

But here in Montana the lights shine on Saturday nights and smaller schools lead to — and I mean no offense here — lower levels of ferocity and competition. It's not that there's no fun in watching a 165-pound running back get hit by a-175 pound defensive lineman. It's just that it's proportionally more fun to see an NFL-bound back get dropped by a 250-pound defender.

But what the southern high schools may have in superior football squads, they lose in all other arenas. I remember sitting through more than a few high school basketball and volleyball games to watch friends play and being able to count the number of fans not related to a player on two hands.

And as for even lesser sports like track and cross country, let's just say there weren't a lot of noise-related distractions.

But here the community comes out for basketball and volleyball and soccer and, yes, football, in pretty even support.

And it is well deserved.

This weekend it seemed like everyone in Bigfork was at Glacier High School to cheer on the Valkyries in their quest for a second straight divisional championship. The crowd of both adults and students was raucous and enthusiastic — an easy task when the team is lighting up their opponents en route to the championship.

And it wasn't just the Vals, the crowd at Friday night's overtime win by the Ronan Chiefs over the Columbia Falls Wildcats was one of the loudest I've heard at any high school event.

Not to be forgotten are the Vikings, who played far better than their last-place seed suggested they would, hanging on against eventual champions Ronan and top-seed Polson.

Now the Vals are headed to Hamilton for the state tournament and I have little doubt that Bigfork will be well, and heavily, represented in the crowds there.

And for the three or four people from Bigfork who didn't make it up to Kalispell for the games: You missed quite a show.

—Alex Strickland