The Montana Coaches Association announced its coaches of the year for the high school spring sports seasons on Wednesday.
The spring sports coaches of the year are represented by a number of state champions, including Columbus' Jeromey Burke and Manhattan Christian's Tom Hubers, who both led their programs to sweeps of the boys and girls spring golf state titles. Columbus won the State B titles, while Manhattan Christian claimed the State C crowns.
The softball awards also went to the three state champions: Joey Roberts at Class AA Belgrade, Jami Hanson at Class A Polson and Maurice Craun at Class B Florence.
In track and field, Helena High girls coach Jesse Zentz and Butte High boys coach Arie Grey were named the Class AA coaches of the year. Their teams both placed second at the state meet.
The rest of the track and field coaches of the year led their squads to state team titles. Brandi Fox (Laurel girls) and John Stromberg (Hamilton boys) earned the Class A recognition, Jennifer Wood (Big Timber girls) and Sarah Layng (Jefferson boys) were honored in Class B, and Mike Haines (Seeley-Swan girls) and Kevin Shaw (Fort Benton boys) were the Class C recipients.
Also recognized by the MCA are tennis coaches Brian Hanford of Missoula Hellgate, Josh Munro of Kalispell Glacier, Bob Hislop of Polson, Chris Schwaderer of Whitefish and Patti Danforth of Missoula Loyola. Danforth led both Loyola's boys and girls to State B/C tennis titles, while Hislop led Polson to the State A girls championship and Munro led Glacier to the Class AA boys title. Schwaderer's Whitefish boys team placed second at the State A meet, and Hanford's Hellgate girls were second at the State AA meet.
The coaches will be honored at the 2021 MCA Awards Ceremony, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on July 29 at C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls.
