THOMPSON FALLS — Thompson Falls and Plains have never hosted high school soccer matches.
That's about to change. The two Sanders County schools are set to play their first boys and girls soccer seasons as Montana High School Association programs this fall.
“Beginning in 2019, we started asking the school systems to consider adding soccer as a school sport,” said Nick Lawyer, who will coach the Thompson Falls-Plains girls. “That took a few years to get through all the rounds of, what are the challenges? What are the issues? Are there enough kids? Will we be competitive?”
Lawyer said Thompson Falls superintendent Bud Scully was instrumental in advancing the conversation and Plains schoolboard member Ellen Childress also deserves credit for doing “a lot of the heavy lifting to make soccer possible between the two communities.”
The co-op was formally finalized in the spring.
“We had 38 different donors step forward in varying amounts to fund this program,” Lawyer said. “Within six weeks, we had a little over $60,000 pledged and $25,000 in hand ready to go.”
Both soccer teams are 100% community funded. The in-hand and pledged donations will fund the programs for this year, as well as the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
For Lawyer, a Plains native who has been involved in Sanders County youth soccer for 16 years, this was a long time coming.
Kids from Thompson Falls and Plains — and surrounding communities in Trout Creek, Noxon and Hot Springs — have enjoyed a thriving youth soccer scene for 25 years. Annually, more than 200 kids are involved with those club programs.
Now, those youngsters who have been playing the beautiful game since they learned to walk will have varsity players to emulate.
“All these youth kids have something to look forward to because they now have high school (soccer) they can go to instead of going to a club,” said Zacarias Palacios, a Thompson Falls senior who started playing youth soccer when he was 5 years old. With the absence of a high school program, Palacios quit playing soccer for a few years before recently getting back into it.
“I have a lot of pride that I get to play for my school,” added Solveig Nygaard, a junior at Thompson Falls. “I've been playing club soccer ... since I was little, but just to be able to represent the Blue Hawks, that's what's cool to me. And I can play with these girls that I’ve been playing with for years, so that’s just pretty awesome to me.”
An added benefit, according to boys coach Michael Scharfe, is soccer players will now get to feel some of the school spirit other sports receive.
“They also get the pride of playing their school sport for their school, get the recognition like other sports do in the schools already. Now they're getting to have that at the soccer level – to get to have their lockers decorated when it's game day, get to ride the bus to and from the game and have those decorated, get a chance to go to playoffs and state, stuff like that,” Scharfe said. “It's a good opportunity for them to represent their schools at this level.”
Will Grenda is new to the Thompson Falls school. Originally from Atlanta, Ga., he too has been playing soccer since he was young.
Though he’s unfamiliar with Montana’s high school soccer landscape, Grenda, a senior, can already feel the excitement around the Blue Hawks.
“It's just something else to get the school tighter,” he said. “People get to know each other better. It's just a better sense of community amongst the students.”
That sense of community extends far beyond the soccer pitch. With the programs donor-funded, the athletes can see and feel the support from their communities.
“It’s really great to have that community supporting you becoming a school sport,” said Katherine Wrobleski, an eighth grader on the girls team. “We’ve always been a club sport and we’ve had success with the club, and now we want to take it to the next step to the high school (level). And it’s great to have the community to back you up with that.”
“This community provides so many opportunities for its youth,” Nygaard said. “Soccer is just a big part of the community, and now we're playing it for the school, which is even better.”
Both the boys and girls have enjoyed plenty of success at the club level, so these won’t be typical first-year programs when they start playing in the always-competitive Northern A, which includes Whitefish, the reigning Class A champion for both the boys and girls.
“When I used to play JV, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, we’re just out here having fun.’ We still are now, but I just didn’t take it as seriously. But now that we’re a varsity team, I feel we can compete,” said Ava Lawyer, a sophomore at Plains. “It's no fun just winning games and beating people by 10-plus every game, so some actual competition is going to be fun.”
The Blue Hawks kick off their inaugural season on Aug. 31 with home matches against Lone Peak.
“I can barely wait now,” said Ava Lawyer. “I'm super excited to just be out here and be playing in front of my community and stuff and at a higher level than the JV. It's something I've been looking forward to.”
“It's a celebration of a lot of hard work from a lot of people,” Scharfe said. “It's a celebration of how big soccer has become in this county, and I'm so excited. I am so excited for this.”
