GFH, CMR football squads begin practice

Last season marked the first time since 2010 that both the Great Falls High and C.M. Russell High football squads missed the Class AA playoffs. 

The Bison, which haven’t advanced to the eight-team field since 2008, and the Rustlers, which missed the postseason in 2016 after making it in five consecutive seasons, officially opened practice along with the rest of the Treasure State on Friday. 

OPENING FOOTBALL PRACTICE 2017

Not since 2008 have both Class AA programs from Great Falls played football games in November. 

“I think it would be good for this town to see both teams back in the playoffs,” Great Falls High head coach Mark Samson said. “It would be a good little kick in the rear end so that people in this community get excited once again about the whole idea of football in high schools here.”

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Great Falls High and C.M. Russell High went for about two hours on Friday before lunchtime and headed out again around dinner.

Only after three days of practice are they allowed to suit up in full pads, per Montana High School Association rules.

“It was up-tempo,” Samson said. “We have pretty much everyone here that we need now. We have a few kids still missing. It was good practice, and the kids that we expect to do well did well. You can’t say much when you don’t put any pads on, but just the attitudes and enthusiasm and stuff of the kids was great.”

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Russell head coach Gary Lowry said north of 130 players are out for football this season, which includes 22 seniors, 49 juniors, 33 sophomores and 35 freshmen. 

Entering his fourth season leading the varsity squad, which has eight players (three on defense, five on offense) returning who started at one point during a 3-7 season in 2016, Lowry also said his team brought a positive attitude to the field. 

“I thought they were enthusiastic and worked hard,” Lowry said. “Their goal in mind is to stay together as a team and help each other out. I like the camaraderie of these seniors. We have good leadership. We don’t have a lot of seniors but the ones we have I think are good leaders.”

Samson said he expects 50-55 freshmen and 75 sophomores-seniors to play football for the Bison this year. The second-year mentor has nine players (one on defense, eight on offense) back who started at least one game from the outfit that went 2-8 last year. 

With a year under the new staff’s belt, certain things are moving along faster this summer compared to last. The Bison open their schedule with a road game against Helena Capital on Aug. 25. 

“We’re far ahead,” Samson said of where his team was at this time last year. “A lot of the things that we had to spend on last year during two-a-days and stuff, we’ve already got a lot of that stuff done. Now it’s a lot of repetition and just making kids better football players.”

The Russell head coach said he and his staff are still putting the finishing touches on the starters for Russell’s home opener against Helena High, but the most pressing issue is making sure players are ready and capable behind them. 

“We are going to play a few kids both sides of the ball, just to try to develop depth,” Lowry said. “Not that they are going to be starters on both sides. They are just going to be backups so we have some answers for injuries like we had last year, which hopefully never happens again.”