Football has an interesting role in the conversations surrounding sports at Hellgate High school. On one hand, football games are a staple of any typical American high school experience: they dictate the Friday night plans for many students across the country, and Hellgate football consistently has more attendance than any other Fall sport. On the other hand, the football program at Hellgate is a punching bag, its losing record in recent seasons a perch to cast shade from.
One could make a plethora of false assumptions about the program from a quick glance at the scores of games, or decades of unfortunate season records. One of these false assumptions would be that the team lacks talent or work ethic. Two seniors, Parker Link and Evan Pyron, have proved this wrong after committing to the Griz this summer.
“My recruiting process really didn’t pick up until right after my junior year,” said Pyron, a tight end and defensive end on Hellgate’s football team. “That’s when I started getting interest from college coaches.”
Pyron received offers from a handful of universities, such as UC Davis and the University of North Dakota, but eventually decided on playing for the Griz.
Link, a wide receiver and safety, had a similar experience. “Last year, during the football season, was when I first got interest from a few colleges around the state,” he said. The recruiting process didn’t ramp up until this summer, though, when Link visited individual camps and junior days for colleges like Montana State and Idaho State. It was at one of these camps that Link seriously captured the attention of the Griz.
“I went to an individual camp, and was very successful there, and a few days later they offered me,” Link said. “I ended up taking that offer two days later.”
These Knights are not just individual stars, but also pillars of the Hellgate football program, a community they deeply care about.
“I’ve been playing with a lot of my teammates since the third grade,” Pyron said. “We’ve been with each other for all of the highs and lows that have been brought along this journey… I think that Hellgate football has obviously been a little down. We came in trying to change that, and I think that’s what we’re doing my senior year.”
Link has a similar stance on the strength of the program.
“Being a teammate with everybody else is a big thing,” Link said. “I think it’s also just growing up as a person, and knowing how to fight through adversity. Hellgate hasn’t been the greatest of football teams as of late, but I think just knowing that there’s a bright side in our future, and just always having a positive mentality towards everything has helped me a lot.”
Pyron said he would like to thank his parents and his brother for their constant support and encouragement, as well as athletic trainers such as Steven Pitts and Steve Pfahler, and members of the Hellgate staff such as Joe Slemburger and Paul Capp. Pyron said he would also like to thank his football coaches, Coach Chamberlain and Coach Nelson especially, for their influence and help.
Link said he would like to thank his parents for their commitment to helping him along his journey. He said his father had a persistent involvement in the process, and was with him at many different events, communicating with members of the Griz football community. His mother also provided constant emotional support, being a never ending voice of encouragement as the Hellgate football team weathered its dramatic ups and downs.
Link would also like to thank the coaches at the University of Montana for the standards they have held him to, and their commitment to making him the best player he can be.
Through players like Pyron and Link, and the many other committed members of their team, the spirit of the Hellgate football program shines through. As trying as the process can be at times, football players at Hellgate are relentless in their pursuit of improvement. Their effort will be on display as the team faces Sentinel High School on September 19th, the first crosstown game of the season for the Knights.
