Whitefish High School sports begin winter season

After a couple weeks of practices, Bulldog athletes are eager to start the winter sports season. Wrestling competes in Polson on Friday and Saturday, and both basketball teams play Hamilton on Saturday. Swimming will also have its first meet in Polson on Saturday.

Boys Basketball

Coming off a disappointing defeat in the Northwest A conference play-in game, during which Columbia Falls edged the Bulldogs 58-43, the Whitefish boys basketball team is ready to move forward with a fresh slate.

Head coach Scott Smith hasn’t forgotten that upsetting season-ending loss, but hopes his players can use it as motivation to play hard this year.

“Hopefully it leaves a little bit of a bad taste in our kids’ mouth, it’s tough losing a play-in game and it’s even tougher losing to Columbia Falls 7 miles away,” Smith expressed. “Hopefully that just motivates them and gives them a little more drive in practice to do better than what we did last year.”

The Bulldogs finished 7-9 overall in the 2020-21 season that was delayed and shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This season returns to a more normal schedule with games beginning in early December rather than after the holiday break as it was last season.

Whitefish graduated a few key players from the team, however still totes an impressive lineup. Most notably seniors Talon Holmquist and Bodie Smith are set to lead the squad. Both were scoring leaders last year and will now step into the leadership role as seniors.

“Talon’s huge, he’s 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds and I’m hoping this year, I know he can, that he’s dominating on the inside,” Coach Smith said. “Our key this year is just to pound the ball inside and then go from there.”

“We’re guard heavy… Bodie’s coming back, an All-conference player, and we have other kids around him that can also do some scoring and play good defense,” he added.

Holmquist will be a key post player and go-to inside shooter. His size will give him an advantage on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. Last season Holmquist averaged nearly 10 points and eight rebounds per game and started nearly every game for the Bulldogs.

Bodie Smith’s specialty is driving into the paint for the bucket and his quick moves often draws a foul on his opponent. Smith was the Bulldog’s leading scorer last season averaging around 14 points per game. He also shot free throws at 59%, one of the higher percentages for the Bulldogs from the line.

Senior Logan Conklin is a great outside shooting threat for the team as well as senior Jaxsen Schlauch who both averaged around 5 points per game last season. Other seniors include Cody Berry, Gabe Lund and Highland Lee-French.

“So far we’ve looked pretty well, we have a lot of kids that have had some playing time returning,” Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of seniors coming back… they know the system and what’s expected of them, they’ve been doing a good job of providing some leadership.”

The Dogs begin the season on Saturday in Hamilton.

Girls Basketball

The Lady Bulldogs basketball team is coming off its best finish in several years after placing fourth at the Class A State Tournament last year.

Whitefish had a 15-8 overall record, and head coach Bob Bolam hopes the run deep in the playoffs will inspire the girls to go after it again this season.

“Most of our kids coming back experienced the whole postseason last year even though they didn’t suit up they were still out practicing…” he said. “Anytime you take kids and they’re seeing what it’s like at least, it kind of gives them that idea of what to shoot for, how hard it takes to get there and the work you have to put in.”

This year’s squad however doesn’t return any starters from 2020-21 and Bolam acknowledges that the team has a lot of learning to do as several players get their first experience on the varsity court.

Whitefish graduated a handful of players last year, but still has five seniors, two juniors and four sophomores to round out the varsity team.

“It’s going to be an interesting year for us… We’ll have five new starters, two of which have some varsity experience and three that don’t,” Bolam said. “It’s really going to be a year of a little bit of inexperience on our part, so we’ll have a lot of room for growth this season.”

“That’s the interesting part is to see how much we can grow this year and get better,” he added.

Seniors Erin Wilde and Taylor Means are set to start and are the two players with the most varsity experience, both are also the captains.

Wilde is an athletic player skilled especially on the defensive end of the court. She had 30 steals last season and nine blocks. Means was excellent from the free throw line and a good mid-range shooter.

“We’ll be counting on them to lead things, help the other girls out, but they’ve had some good experience,” Bolam said.

Ashley Gunset, Alivia Ingold and Skye Horowitz round out the seniors on the team.

Bolam says sophomore Bailey Smith, who is a talented multi-sport athlete, will likely start and junior Rya Hirsch will step up into an important post player role. Hirsch is nearly 6 feet tall and will give Whitefish some needed height on the inside.

“It’s not that we don’t have some capable players that can do some stuff, but it’s like a jigsaw puzzle for us right now trying to fit everything together,” Bolam expressed. “It’s going to be interesting, but exciting too to have that challenge.”

Whitefish hosts Hamilton on Saturday at the Dawg Pound, game time is 4 p.m.

Wrestling

Though few in numbers this year, Bulldog wrestlers are talented and ready to get on the mat.

“We’re really looking forward to getting to Polson this Friday and Saturday,” Whitefish head coach Danny Neff said. “We’ve got some pretty slim numbers, but with the squad that we have we’ll compete pretty well.”

Whitefish graduated several athletes and also had a few kids move out of the district making a slimmer squad in total athletes to begin this season, but Neff likes the team he’s got so far.

Whitefish returns seniors Carter Moran, Jack Akey and Brian Sweeney.

Both Akey and Sweeney placed third in their weight classes at the Western A Divisional Tournament last year and were just a couple wins shy of placing at state. Neff believes that experience from those guys lifts the entire team, as well as leadership from Moran.

“So that leadership and commitment that they (Sweeney and Akey) are giving to this program is huge,” Neff said. “Carter Moran has been with the program for four years, he’s always been in the room off season and in season he’s just putting in 110% which is nice to see; the younger kids kind of build off of that.”

Neff also mentioned that freshmen Landree Aurund and Logan Heyne are talented newcomers to the squad.

The wrestling team keeps its main goal of taking as many athletes to the state tournament as possible and sticking together as a team.

Last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only divisionals and state were held as tournaments with the rest of the invites being duals. Neff says this year things are returning to normal with several tournaments scheduled, and the team is glad to see it.

“We are definitely a stronger tournament team than we are a dual team, so getting those tournaments under our belt is exciting,” he added.

The Bulldogs will start the season in Polson at the Owen Invitational which is slated for Friday and Saturday.

Swimming

The combined Whitefish-Columbia Falls swim team jumps back into the pool this weekend in Polson.

Last year Whitefish swimmers competed well in a shortened season, with the boys team coming in second in Class A at the state meet and the girls taking third. The boys team was edged by only three points by Billings Central who took the title.

Whitefish will return several stellar swimmers this season.

On the boys side, senior Logan Botner returns to the team and will look to defend his state titles in the 100 yard butterfly and the 500 yard freestyle events. The year prior as a sophomore, Botner took the state titles in the 100 yard backstroke and 200 yard freestyle races.

Fellow senior Aaron Dicks was also a State A placer, taking second in the 100 yard backstroke.

Both return as seniors this season along with classmates Logan Niles and Liam Mayo.

Whitefish junior Jack McDaniel returns as well. He also had impressive swims last season, including taking the state title in 100 yard freestyle.

On the girls side, Whitefish standout swimmers Ada Qunell and Nia Hanson, both seniors, head up a strong team for the Bulldogs. Qunell took the State A title in the 200 yard IM for the third year in a row last year and also nabbed first place in the State A 500 yard freestyle. Hanson finished second in the 100 yard butterfly and third in the 200 yard freestyle races at the state meet.

The girls team also has four juniors, one sophomore and four freshmen to round out the group.

Whitefish will travel to Polson on Saturday to compete beginning at noon.