Flathead's offensive line powers Braves to the playoffs

Flathead offensive line coach Alex Cummings recognized the potential of his 2017 unit well before the team ever stepped onto the field. All it took was a skim of the roster way back in January for the coach, a former offensive lineman himself, to see the talent the Braves would have across the front.

It took the players a bit longer to trust in their abilities.

But the realization of their potential finally hit them during a summer team camp, the Vandal Camp in Moscow, Idaho.

There, pitted against some of the best competition the Northwest had to offer, the group was not only named the best offensive line at the camp, but also defeated the best defensive line in the final pass-rush challenge.

“That gave us a lot of confidence,” Hunter Wellcome said. “Over the last few years of the Braves, it’s been, ‘Man, we have no O-line.’ It really motivated us to step up our game individually and as a team.”

The line’s confidence and success have spilled over into the fall, as the group — consisting of left tackle Hunter Waters, left guard Alex Paull, center Daniel Long, right guard Wellcome, right tackle Max Anderson and sixth man Michael Buls — has served as the anchor of a Flathead team that will host the school’s first home playoff game since 2005 on Friday night against Helena Capital.

“They’re just kind of the spark plugs. They get us going,” Flathead head coach Kyle Samson said. “It’s a pride thing for them. They take a ton of pride in what they do.”

To understand the story behind the success of the Flathead offensive line, you must look away from the football field.

Each member of the experienced, senior-laden front five says the triumphs they’ve experienced on the field this season are a direct result of the bond they’ve forged away from it over the past four years.

“Knowing them at more of a personal level than just through sports, it just kind of creates a special bond that you can’t really explain,” Long said. “I spent more time with these guys than at my own house.”

Five of the six contributors on the offensive front are seniors who have come up through Flathead’s program together, and they describe themselves as best friends away from football. They also say Anderson, a sophomore who is the lone underclassmen in the group, has fit in seamlessly since moving up to the varsity team this season.

During the summer, especially, the linemen are inseparable.

Whether enjoying the lake, fishing or simply hanging out at each other’s houses, it’s hard to find one without the others.

“Over the summer, it was crazy,” Waters said. “It seemed like I never even left these guys.”

“We’d get there at 8 in the morning, stay till 2, maybe get a two-hour break and then come back,” Anderson said of two-a-days this past summer. “The entire time, we’re with our guys.”

Spending so much time together also allowed the linemen to learn the others’ personalities, something they say is paramount in the heat of battle on Friday nights.

“Alex Paull and Hunter Waters lead more by example,” Wellcome, a self-proclaimed talker, said. “They do their jobs. They don’t talk or anything.”

“They’re always the ones that coach is like, ‘Look at them, they’re doing it right,’” said Long, who, like Wellcome, admits to speaking his mind.

“We’re not too much into talking,” Waters replied with a smile.

The unit’s closeness carried over into offseason workouts, which the linemen point to as the foundation of their success this season.

“I can probably count on one hand the number of weight room sessions or the number of running sessions in the last year — maybe two years, actually — that one of those guys has been missing,” Cummings said. “They really, really bought into our program.

“They really committed to each other to be there every day.”

Their commitment has paid dividends this year, as they’ve paved the way for a potent Braves offense that’s racked up more than 458 yards per game.

The line also went five consecutive games this season without allowing a sack, a streak that started with a win over Glacier in Week 5 and didn’t end until last week’s victory over Helena High in the regular-season finale.

“It’s almost unheard of,” Cummings said. “I’ve never seen that, when I was playing or when I was coaching, to go five games in a row, especially late in the season, where you’re not giving up sacks.”

Samson said he’d never experienced such a streak in 12 years of coaching.

“They’ve been a huge part of why we’re having a very, very good year on offense,” the fourth-year head coach said.

But the line prides itself on being much more than just great pass blockers.

All but one of Flathead’s six wins have been by fewer than 12 points, meaning it’s often been up to the line to create holes for 1,000-yard rusher Blake Counts, Jon Baker and the other running backs as Flathead attempts to drain the clock in the fourth quarter of close games.

Those are the moments the line relishes, and they’ve been up to the task thus far.

“I believe that our O-linemen (are) the most physical O-linemen in the state,” Buls said.

“It kind of rubs off on everybody,” Waters said of the unit’s physicality. “This past game, when we let up a sack, it flipped a switch for us. We were definitely like, ‘We’re going to punch it down their throats and this is not going to happen again.’”

Hardly anyone views offensive line as a glamorous position.

Linemen rarely score. They don’t record stats and often do their job without much credit.

“It has to be the closest group on the field, in my opinion,” Cummings said. “To me, it’s kind of a lifestyle.”

It’s one each of Flathead’s linemen fully embrace.

As Wellcome put it: “We’re just having fun and getting business done.”