XC coach given top honors

Whitefish High School girls

cross-country coach Bill Brist was named this week as Coach of the

Year in Class A by the Montana Coaches Association. This is the

fourth time Brist has been selected as coach of the year.

The Lady Bulldog harriers took home an

unprecedented fourth consecutive state title in 2010 and won the

Northwestern A divisional title. The team was led by captains

Bailey Eaton, Stella Holt, Jackie Cassidy, Jessica Sagen and Carly

Schwickert.

“We’re fortunate to have some great

kids on the team,” Brist said. “They did a great job of preparing

and taking care of business when it came time to perform.

“This award is mostly for the assistant

coaches and the kids in the program. I’m fortunate to get to be a

part of that.”

With the core group of this year’s team

graduating in the spring, Brist says next season “will be an

adventure.”

“I never put limits on any of the

kids,” he said. “We graduate a lot of seniors, so we’ll come in,

see what we have and set some new goals. I think we’ll have a good

group coming back.”

Brist says the culture of winning built

in part by the graduating class should motivate the up-and-coming

runners to keep the tradition alive.