HAVRE — As the Mariners beat writer for the Seattle Times, Havre native Ryan Divish has spent nearly every day of every summer for nearly 20 years on the road or at the ballpark.
"I covered my first Mariners game for the Tacoma News Tribune in August of 2006,” Divish said. "And I have spent essentially every summer covering baseball since then.”
And while Divish enjoys his work and considers himself lucky to have a coveted job, covering a professional sports beat can certainly take a toll.
"I think when you're at the park and you're talking to the players, you're covering the games, that part is great,” Divish said. "It's the traveling, the hotels. I was flying 75,000 miles a summer. I don't think I ever spent more than 14 days at home at any point. So that part of the grind, I think, was starting to wear on me.”
He craved an opportunity to reconnect with the game he loved, enjoy a Montana summer, and spend more time with his parents, his girlfriend Cindy Brandon and her children in Havre. So he approached management at the Seattle Times with an idea.
"I looked into the idea of taking a leave of absence at our paper, and it's actually in our collective bargaining agreement. And so I kind of explored it some more,” Divish said. "I talked to my family. I talked to my coworkers. And I just kind of decided, yeah, I think I need this.”
When former coach Patch Wirtzberger stepped away from the Havre Northstars Class A Legion baseball program over the summer, he asked Divish if he was interested in taking over. The Northstars needed a new coach and Divish needed a new perspective.
That’s how Divish took a sabbatical and landed back on the Hi-Line, coaching the same team for which he played growing up. Havre is where his passion for baseball found its first spark.
“I grew up one block from the American Legion park and I played three years for the Northstars. And right when I was done playing, I coached. And then when I was playing college baseball at Dickinson State, I would come back and coach as well,” Divish said.
"It was a big part of my life. Honestly, being able to play baseball in college allowed me to have the structure I needed to get to where I was with the Seattle Times and with journalism.”
But now he's trading notebooks for lineup cards. And Divish inherits a Northstars teams with one of the more experienced rosters in Montana.
"That's probably the selfish part as I get to come back to a pretty loaded team,” he said. "Most of our guys are back.”
The Northstars only graduated one player last year and return a talented core of upperclassmen including Cindy's son, Tyson Brandon.
"I think we're going to be great. I mean, most of these guys I've been playing with since we were 10 years old,” Brandon said. “It's going to be amazing. I've waited my whole life to be in the situation we're in this year. And to have Ryan coaching, it just means everything to me.”
The Northstars have seen a lot of success over the past few seasons. In 2023 they won a district championship and also won a game at the Northwest Regional tournament. Last year, they finished 29-23 and made it to the semifinals of the district tourney.
"I think if we can just keep our heads down and keep working like we are, I think we got a good shot at state this year,” said senior Chason Mader. "We have a lot more experience, and that plays a huge role. Just guys that have been in the situations before and know how it works.”
And having a skipper like Divish, who’s been around baseball at the highest level and has trained many of the current Havre players during offseason, certainly helps.
“Div is awesome, I’ve know him for a while and he’s helped us all develop over the years,” said senior pitcher Tanner De La Rosa. “It’s a great lesson for all of us, we’re going to learn a lot from him. He’s doing a good thing coming down here and helping us out."
The leave of absence from the Times is scheduled to last for four months, spanning the length of the Legion baseball season. Divish will return to the Mariners beat in early August, hopefully with a new outlook and some hardware.
“I always tell the kids to be in the moment and be where their feet are. Like a year ago at this time, I never thought I'd be sitting right here right now. Work was my entire life. And now life in Havre has offered me a different perspective,” Divish said.
“So right now I'm just focused on hopefully getting this team to districts and winning districts and getting to state. That's their goal that we try and push for every day."
But of course, Divish is a scribe at heart. So will he find a way to document the summer of 2025?
“I've had a ton of people ask me if I'm going to write a book about it. Writing a book seems hard, but I am taking notes and trying to jot down thoughts every day," he said. "And most of it right now is me being really overwhelmed with all the organizational stuff, but being excited to come up and see these kids every day."
