Halfway there...

The cross country season is in full swing! Our teams are off to a VERY good start! Both the boys and girls teams won the Ronan and Frenchtown meets this year. Our boys narrowly lost to state favorite Corvallis last Saturday. This weekend we head to everyone's favorite meet, the Mountain West Classic in Missoula. There will be over 300 runners in every race and the course is the same one as this year's state course. We like that because it's the place we won our state championship in 2008!

If you're in Missoula this weekend, stop by the UM Golf Course and take in one of the most unique sporting events in Montana. There will be nearly every team from the state as well as teams from Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. The meet starts at 9:30 with the JV girls, JV boys at 10:15, varsity boys at 11:00 and varsity girls at 11:45. It should be a beautiful day...hopefully not too hot.

Next week we are off the the Daly Mansion for our own meet...it's a tough one but one of the most enjoyable. I'm proud of this young team led primarily by two senior boys, Collin Robinson and Denny Hoselton...both showing great leadership!

Good luck this week Broncs. Do us proud!

Coach Albert

Photos by Jaylee Albert

It all starts tomorrow!

Cross country in the Bitterroot. I love it. I just finished a long summer of driver's education and am looking forward to a few days off before teascher days begin...so you'd think I'd want XC season to start a little later in the month. Nope. I hope you, like me, are "jacked" for the 2011 season of the Broncs!

What a special opportunity to challenge yourself both physically and mentally. What an incredible opportunity to be around quality people, encourage teammates and be encouraged by teammmates. There really is no other sport like it.

Practice starts tomorrow at 8:30 am at HHS. Be sure to have a physical and be ready to sweat:) Come with an attitude of gratitude and be your best.

See you then.

Coach Albert

State Champs!!

Congratulations to Kaurie and her Bitterroot River Rat swim teammates on winning the 2011 Montana Federation State Swimming Championship. We spent a hot weekend in Beautiful Chinook Montana cheering on the boys and girls in black. They were all very impressive. Four kids won individual "high point" honors.

The team was led by four seniors pictured above: Kaurie, Jake Wood, Nelly Moran and Graham Silcher. The team will really miss these kids next summer.

Kaurie finished 2nd in the 200 individual medley where she swims all four strokes. She also swam her lifetime personal record in this event. Additionally, she took 3rd overall in the 400 meter free style. This was a great race. She could have easily placed 6th but competed with a very tight field to finish ahead of these challengers.

She took 6th in the 100 meter free style and her IM relay team won the state title in that event. Nelly took second in the 100 meter breast stroke and Zander won the 100 meter butterfly state title. It was a terrific meet and a great season! Congratulations Bitterroot. We are all very proud of you!

Coach Albert

P.S. Great news: Kaurie is the newest member of Whitworth University's swim team!!

What a finish...

This should be the last time I blog on our "freshmen" team as we finished our season 73-17. Last Friday, in our 90th game of the season, we played for the league one championship at NBC Team Camp. Unfortunately we lost by one point to Salmon, Id's varsity team. I was so proud of our girls, especially considering Bre didn't play the last day and we still beat North Thurston's varsity in the semi-final. The previous two times we played them, their athleticism and maturity were just too much for us. This time, the better "basketball players" prevailed:)

What a special group of young ladies. It was truly a blessing for me to coach them this year. Though I won't be their head coach in high school, I am so glad I resigned so I could be their coach this year! I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Now it's time for XC, soccer and volleyball.

Go Broncs!

Coach Albert

It's been awhile...

I'm here at Whitworth University with my 9th graders...likely my last NBC Camp. It's been a terrific week. The girls are in league one playing against 7 other varsity teams. We are currently 4th and will try to win the league tourney tomorrow. I love this place. Whitworth has fond memories for me. It seems like a long time ago now that I was last here with Ashley's team...it was only 3 years ago!

Kaurie will be attending Whitworth in the fall. We are so proud of her and are excited for her to experience the campus as a student and not a camper:)

Easton had a wonderful experience at the US Military academy last week. He is now convinced a West Point future education is for him. I have every confidence that he will make it a reality!

Ashley's team won the Big Sky State Games championship last weekend in Billings. She scored 19 and hit the game winner. She relayed to me how good it is to be back on the court...she didn't realize how much she missed the great game of basketball.

This weekend is Kaurie's last divisiona swim meet. It is in Hamilton and should be a good meet for our senior swimmer...and hopefully for Carla, the meet organizer!

Life is good. God is great. Enjoy the rest of your July!

Coach Albert

SWA Divisional Track...a P.R. Day for Easton!

The picture above was taken by none other than my dad (as usual) in Polson last week. What a beautiful day and a great view of the lake. Easton ran a 4:49 mile on this day to set a new personal record. It wouldn't last long however as this weekend at the SWA divisional, he bettered his mark by 9 seconds! The next day he took second in the 3200, even giving state champion Chris Jessop a bit of a challenge. He ran a personal best 10:08...not bad for a frosh:)

Speaking of frosh, Anthony Schmalz also had a great weekend. Anthony took 5th in the same two races running his best times of the year! Both these boys will be representing their school and the conference at state next weekend in Missoula. I'm very proud of you two! Be aggressive and run with relaxed intensity next weekend.

Coach Albert

Cars...A Love-Hate Thing.

The "Skin-mobile," as Ashley's teammates call it is our new addition to the stable of vehicles we seem to be collecting. For those of you who don't know, Ashley was in a "minor" car crash this winter. No one was hurt except our little red Plymouth Neon. It wasn't Ashley's fault but the insurance company of the other driver has refused to pay for repairs. Unfortunately the repairs will cost more than the car is worth. we'd still like to get it fixed but that is another story.

While we were in Billings for Kaurie's senior Raddison Classic basketball tournament we decided to look for a "junker" car for Ashley that we could pay cash for with our recent tax return. This 1989 Buick was the only one we found. My first reaction was "what an ugly car!" Since purchasing it however, "Ludwig," as Kaurie calls it, has really grown on us. Easton and I have been driving it a lot lately, since Ashley needed to take the red truck back to school to use as a moving vehicle.

As you can tell from the pictures (and if you know me at all) I love nice older cars and trucks. I keep them clean and actually enjoy washing them...if only my kids did!

The problem with liking cars like I do is they cost way too much money...to purchase, to $$fuel-up, to maintain, license and insure. With 5 drivers now in the family, you can imagine what our auto insurance is like! That's right, Easton Albert is now a licensed driver. When you see one of the vehicles above around town with a freshman toe-head behind the wheel, head the other way:)

Coach Albert

Super Fan!

Randy Bocksnick, my Dad...Columbia falls "superfan" of the last 40+ years. I like this picture of him. This was a night he was honored by Coach Findberg. He was allowed to sit on the bench during a game against Whitefish. This is pretty unusual but certainly a special thing for my dad. Thanks Cary for making this dream come true for my dad. This was especially "cool" considering I had just refereed for Cary the night before and had to call a technical foul on him:) By the way, most photos in this blog were taken by my dad...the good ones anyway! Coach Albert

49-9!

Last weekend we wrapped up our basketball season for this school year. We played in a very competitive tournament in Spokane. We went 3-2 which was the same record as the champion...whom we beat by one on Saturday. The week before we went 4-0at Glacier, 3-1 at Missoula and 4-0 at Anaconda the week before. Yes...we're tired! Over all, including the school season which started in September, our girls are 49-9!

What a commitment by a special group of 8th graders. We wowed 'em with our ability to execute our offense and shoot the ball.

A few highlights:

Thirteen (13) three pointers vs Columbia Falls. 30 and 42 second half points vs Montana Hoops and Great Falls Amigos. Over-time victory vs Missoula Wolfpack. Only losing by 14 to the Tri-cities Warriors in the championship game at Moses Lake. Undefeated in three games against the best in Billings. Taylor's superior play including 33 points vs Spokane. Bre's 22 and 10 vs Butte in our last game. Jaylee's 2threes late against Great Falls and several game clinching free throws. Kali's half court three vs Montana Hoops and two threes vs Billings. Ellie's six points and great screens in Spokane. Mckayl's big threes vs Spokane and several key rebounds. Shay's charges. Emarie's lay ups in Memphis. Holli's rebounds and post steals. A ton of highlights! Thank you ladies for a very special basketball season...I was truly blessed by all of you this winter.

Now the tough part...get better! Commit to putting the time in to become great. Get in the gym. Shoot and ball handle. Get in the weight room. Improve as an athlete. Challenge and encourage each other. Have fun reaching for greatness!

I love you girls. Our time together this season will always be very special to me. Now it's time to see what you can do at the high school level.

We are...the Broncs!

Coach Albert

Hamilton Lady 8

The Hamilton 8th girls AAU team is rocking tournaments in both Montana and Washington! Last month we took the girls to Moses Lake WA to see how we compared to some of the best of the west. We found out we have a long way to go to be great, but we found out we already have a head start:)

We took second to a team from the Tri-cities area. A team with a record of 54-2! We competed and definitely got better.

A couple of weeks ago we took our team to Butte and played 4 AA all-star teams and went 3-1. We were definitely the best team in the tournament that had all girls from the same school. We were the talk of the tournament...primarily because of our ability to shoot the three and competitiveness despite our obvious lack of size. As I've said many times before, there is simply no substitute for shooters. In 4 games, we hit 25 three pointers!

We have taken a couple of weeks off and are now getting back at it. We go to a tournament in Anaconda on the 12th...the first of four in a row. We will finish off our season in Spokane the first weekend in April.

I am so glad I resigned from the varsity position this year. It truly worked out for the varsity girls...Kaurie in particular. She had a terrific senior season in spite of contracting mono. Coach Faris was the right guy for the job and I was the right guy to coach these 8th graders. We're having a great time, getting better and are really committed to each other. We have a goal to win multiple state titles and so far the girls are doing the necessary weight training, ball handling, shooting and specific skill development activities to help insure this goal will become a reality. I am very proud of them! (as if you couldn't tell:)

Easton had a solid freshmen season, Jaylee is really playing well, Kaurie made second team all conference and Ashley is 3 months ahead of schedule on her rehab! Basketball is good:) God is great!

"If you don't invest very much then losing doesn't hurt and winning isn't very exciting."

Coach Albert